Wedding Invitations and Divine Declarations

The summer months are usually full of beautiful weddings and anniversary celebrations of weddings long past. A quick walk through social media on any given day from May through August brings congratulatory overload! When I reflect on the significance of weddings, I am reminded that weddings have a unique combination of invitation and declaration. 

A wedding is always preceded by an invitation. I met my wife, Jenni, when we were teenagers in a Nazarene youth group. We were great friends for three years and would jokingly introduce one another to new people by me saying, "This is my sister," or Jenni saying, "This is my brother." I was 18 years old, however, when our friendship took a turn toward dating. I wanted to spend more time with Jenni, so I invited her to dinner one evening. 

That invitation led to a growing relationship of love with one another. One day in February 1992, I made another invitation. I told Jenni of my love for her and my desire to have her be my wife. I told her what our lives together would be like and my desire to make her happy and blessed. She said, "Yes!" 

When our wedding day came 15 months later, my invitation was followed by a pastor's declaration. We said our vows and the pastor said, "By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife." From the moment of the declaration, we were officially wed!

Jesus’s Words

God’s Word has many examples of invitation/declaration statements. Jesus' words in Matthew 7:7 contain three consecutive examples, "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." Ask, seek, and knock are all invitations. Each of these three verbs is followed by a declaration, "you will…."

Jesus later said to the crowd around him, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). A simple invitation to come followed by a declaration, "I will give you rest." 

Take a moment to consider what these invitations would be if they were not followed by a declaration. An invitation to be married but never a wedding. An invitation to seek but never find. An invitation to come but never rest. The invitation is tied to the declaration.

Our Response

One of the most well-known invitation/declaration statements is from Jesus when He called Simon and Andrew to be His disciples. In Matthew 4:19, Jesus said to the brothers, "Come, follow me, and I will send you out to fish for people." Consider the invitation to follow Jesus. Go where He goes. Learn of Him. Be His disciple. Do the things He does. That invitation, however, is not the end of the story. The invitation to follow Jesus is followed by a declaration, "I will send you out to fish for people." The Greek literally says, "I will make you fishers of men."

Many Christians today try to accept the invitation to follow Jesus without acknowledging the declaration. "Come, follow me" is not the end of the story. Those who follow Jesus always go fishing. Jesus makes you and me "fishers of men." Fishing is a part of the new life of the one who follows Jesus. If you follow, you fish! Jesus invites, and Jesus declares.

Have you gone fishing recently? The season for fishing is upon us. Christ has invited. Christ has declared! May Nazarenes everywhere join Jesus in His seeking the lost!