We women just love a wedding. We get to ooooh and ahhh over the beautiful bride who never looked prettier than on her wedding day. We dream of our own romantic engagement and fondly reminisce about our wedding day. We laugh with the other guests over the antics of the ring-bearer and flower girl.
And we get misty-eyed at the taking of the vows, wishing they would have used the old church vows, “For better, for worse, in sickness and in health.”
When the couple exchange rings and vows, sometime they take communion together, then the minister pronounces them man and wife.
Many couples these days, after the seriousness of the wedding ceremony, give in to the juvenile temptation to cram the wedding cake into their new spouse’s mouth and smear it all over their face. How humiliating to show so little respect to your new husband immediately after making a life-long commitment to him. Or how unloving to smear cake on the beautifully made-up face of your dearest darling new wife, on the one day of her life that she wants to look her best. All in the name of fun.
The wedding cake represents the communion bread and the wedding drink represents the communion drink. Along with the wedding vows, this represents the making of a covenant between two parties, to enter into a legal marriage before God.
As Jesus and His disciples sat at the Passover table, the night before His crucifixion, “And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them saying, ‘This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of me.’ Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.’” Luke 22:19-20
Jesus made a covenant with God for us. He gave His body to be broken and His blood to be spilled out of love for us all.
And every time I take communion, reverently eating my little cake and drinking from my little cup, I remember and renew my commitment to Jesus, the lover of my soul, my coming Bridegroom.