The Proposal — Answering The Call - A Redeeming The Time Blog

The Proposal

By Grant Gaines

Is it just me or does it seem like proposals are getting a little out of hand these days? Hats off for the creativity, but do you really need to buy an ad on the jumbo-tron at a sports game, jump out of an airplane, or purchase a truck load of fireworks just to get the girl to say “yes?”

There is so much pressure today to come up with a creative and fun proposals like the ones described above that the soon-to-be-groom is often more nervous about the buildup of the proposal rather than the actual answer to the question itself.

But proposals have not always been as elaborate, sophisticated, and extravagant as they are today. Proposals used to be more traditional, common, and “cookie-cutter” if you will. Take the traditional Jewish proposal method for example.

When a young Jewish man was ready to ask his sweetheart to marry him he would first take a glass and fill it with wine. After drinking from the glass himself, he would extend the glass to his beloved. If she drank from the cup, that meant that she said “yes” to marrying and following him the rest of her life.

At that point, the giddy groom would scurry off to prepare his house to host he and his bride after marriage. The engagement between the couple would last only as long as it took for the groom to get his house ready-talk about motivation to get things done quickly! When everything was in line, the man would come back to officially marry his bride and the two would live happily ever after.

With this custom as our backdrop, I want to revisit a story that you have heard a countless number of times-the Last Supper.

“Then [Jesus] took a cup, and when He had given thanks, He gave it to [the disciples], saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you. This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins'” (Matthew 26:27-28, NIV).

In extending this glass of wine to His disciples, Jesus was not simply inviting them to be well hydrated but rather to enter into a marriage-like covenant where they would be united with God and follow Him wherever He went.

Before we continue, I want you to take a moment to think about the audacity of what Christ did in that moment. A perfect, sinless, holy God invited a group of sinful, unholy, idolatrous harlots to be His wife. Jesus, knowing full well that Peter would soon deny Him, Thomas would soon doubt Him, and all would soon desert Him, offered this unimaginable opportunity of a lifetime to the very ones who would soon denounce Him with both their words and their actions.

Jesus looked at some of the most unworthy people in the world and set His affections on them to the point of marriage. And that’s so encouraging for us because if Christ loved the disciples who ditched Him enough to invite them into an eternal covenant, will He not also do the same for us? Will He not also invite us as sinful, unholy, and idolatrous harlots to enter into an everlasting covenant of eternal life?

All this is possible through Christ’s death and resurrection. You see, just as when you get married you become “one flesh” with your spouse (Genesis 2:24), when you get “married” to Christ, you become one with Him. This means that the eternal debt we all carry because of our sins is now paid for by Jesus’ death on the cross. And instead of sin we bear His perfect, unblemished righteousness through His resurrection (2 Corinthians 5:21).

To make the correlation between the Last Supper and a marriage proposal even more clear to His disciples, just as a Jewish groom would go prepare his house for his bride after proposing to her, check out what Jesus says He is doing right now in John 14:2-3 (NLT), “There is more than enough room in My Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.”

Jesus is preparing a mansion in heaven for you to forever dwell with Him in and all you have to do is say “Yes!” Jesus has “popped the question” to you, how will you respond?