Several weeks ago, as St. Peter’s and
a number of other congregations in greater Grand Rapids joined forces to raise
funds to support a seminary in Siberia, we had a number of Russian Matryoshka
dolls that we would sometimes give to donors or volunteers. Having a genuine Matryoshka doll in hand for
the first time caused me to recall an illustration I had frequently used them
to make while teaching in the past.
That is that the various roles we
serve in human life, also known as vocation, serve to reveal insights into the
relationship between our Creator and humanity.
The clearest instance of this is in marriage as Paul describes in
Ephesians 5, saying, “…it refers to Christ and the Church,” and another
frequent and familiar example is the reference to God as Father. The roles we hold in family, church, and
society are all variations which reveal to us facets of the truth about how our
Lord relates to us.
So we see in the relationship between
husband and wife an icon of Christ and His Church. Just like Christ does not die for Himself and
the Church does not worship herself, a husband is united to a wife in marriage. In the life of the church, pastors represent
the Lord Himself as they baptize, absolve, and commune the gathered Church,
which is collectively Christ’s bride.
Pastors serve as spiritual fathers in their roles, and the Church
herself is routinely referenced in the history of Christian thought as the
mother of Christians. For example, 3rd
Century bishop Cyprian of Carthage wrote that one cannot have God as His Father
without the Church as his mother.
Likewise, the relationship between
father and child, brother and sister, ruler and subject, master and servant (or
employer and employee), or manager and property serve to reveal other facets of
how God and man relate. We see these and
many other examples sprinkled throughout the writings of the prophets, and we
see them vividly portrayed in the parables of Jesus. Viewed together, they
nest into one another like the Matryoshka, to jointly
reveal to us the greater reality of our Creator and Redeemer who desires to
forgive sin, preserve the world in order, and ultimately restore His creation
to its uncorrupted state on the Last Day, which Scripture commonly portrays as
the wedding feast between Christ and His bride the Church.
