Redemptive Love: What the Royal Wedding of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry Teaches us about Christ’s Love for Us
Mood Music: Royal Wedding Playlist – Check below this article
Beautiful Suits actress, Meghan Markle, joined Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex in Holy Matrimony on May 19, 2018 and the entire world watched in awe.
I was especially captivated by the experience. Not only am I a professed hopeless romantic, since I was a child, I have had an odd obsession with all things English/London/British/UK(ish)- the Spice Girls, Liberty X, Elton John, Hobnobs, the Union Jack, the royal family, English Breakfast Tea- you name it, I love it!
The Royal Wedding made me googly eyed and weak in the knees like everyone else, but It also made me think of the redemptive love of Jesus Christ. Odd, I know, but bear with me.
Meghan’s Story
Rachel Meghan Markle was born to an African American mother and white father. The couple divorced when Markle was just six years old.
She struggled as a child with her mixed heritage and her mother was rumored to have endured verbal abuse from her older step children for being Black. Markle made her way into charity work and acting. She was married for a few years then divorced.
Harry’s Story
Then there is Prince Harry. Prince Harry Charles Albert David, was born to Prince Charles and Princess Dianna of Wales.
His whole family is either a prince, princess, duke, or earl. His grandmother is Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms. Harry was a naughty child for sure, but the most scandalous thing surrounding his life is his mother’s death and father’s remarriage.
His life was planned for him before birth, he rose in rank in the Royal Military like his fathers before him.
He was never married and never had to face the extreme challenges of social class and racial background like his beautiful girlfriend Meghan Markle.
In society, his Royal blood ensured that he was always accepted, included, and loved. His very birth was even saluted by the sounding of fanfare, cheers, national news, and a royal crier.
How Harry Met Meghan
Then from nowhere the two star-crossed lovers were engaged.
To the public the whole thing seemed absurd. Harry was a rich young Prince, from a royal family, fifth (at the time) in line for the throne.
Meghan Markle was a divorced, bi-racial, thirty-six-year-old American from a ‘broken-home’.
Quite honestly, Meghan Markle is an amazing and smart woman who has done outstanding work for women and charity. Since learning her story, I strive to mimic her class, eloquence, drive, and activism in every way- but to the British and American public, Harry and Meghan’s love story made no sense.
Shouldn’t Harry marry another Royal and run off into the sunset. Why Meghan?
Biblical Love
This is where their love story takes a biblical turn for me.
In the Bible, especially in the New Testament, Christians, or the Church, is described as the bride of Christ.
Jesus is the Bride-Groom and we are his bride. Jesus came to earth and died on the cross for the redemption of our sins so that we may not perish, but have everlasting life (Checkout John 3:16).
As the Bride of Christ, Christians have responsibilities and benefits that no other set of people can claim without the redemption of His blood.
No Harry is not a savoir, by far, and neither is Meghan a poor soul that needed saving, but if you use their wedding as an illustration you can understand God’s undying love for us.
Meghan Markle enters church with her veil held by two young men.
The public deemed Meghan as unfit for the love of a prince- she was publicly bullied and threatened. To the world she was stained by divorce, DNA, and birth. She was thought of as a peasant and frowned upon.
However, at the Royal Wedding something changed. With each step up to St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, a little bit of the public’s negative opinion fell. She became by the standard of haters “worthy”.
This is Christ’s redemptive love for us. When we choose Christ as our personal savior, we become his bride, and we become clean. (Again, I am not saying Meghan is unclean she is amazing! I love the very idea of her and calling her dirty would be like calling myself dirty. Remember this is an illustration).
Washed away are all our sins and we become fit for eternity with Jesus Christ. Take a moment to meditate on these scriptures from Ephesians 5:25 – 33 which highlight the love a husband should have for his wife, the same love that Christ has for Christians (the church) :
25 For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her 26 to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word.[a] 27 He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. 28 In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself. 29 No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church.30 And we are members of his body.
31 As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.”[b] 32 This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one. 33 So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
Markle descending down the aisle of the church like a rapturous vision.
This holy text not only speaks to the completeness of marriage, but the sheer love of Christ. And we thought the Royal Wedding was a spectacle?!
Imagine the joys that await us in this life and the next, with Christ as our groom. The protection, wealth, status, and love Prince Harry can offer Meghan is great, but limited, as he is just an earthly prince. But with Jesus as our Savior and our groom, the love, protection, wealth, and peace is limitless!
Prince Harry removes wedding veil to view his lovely bride, Meghan.
Jesus’s love is powerful, cleansing, and redemptive. The moment we say “I Do” and accept Jesus as our personal savior we are engaged to a King.
It’s a love story, for the ages. Jesus’s love makes us new and whole. We become joint heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17), all things are made new (Revelation 21:5), and we begin a new life with Jesus as the head of our lives (Ephesians 2).
If you want more, read Revelations Chapter 19-22 that highlights the biggest and best Royal Wedding of history – our wedding to Christ!
Do you wish for a love greater than our Duke and Duchess of Sussex? Accept Jesus as your personal Savior in prayer, confess of your sins, ask for forgiveness, believe with your entire soul, heart, and mind that He is your risen Lord and Savior who made a precious sacrifice on Cavalry for your sins and mine, ask the Holy Spirit to enter your heart as a compass and guide, and just like you are engaged to a king!
See you at the Royal Wedding, you can’t miss me- I’ll be the one in white, and hopefully so will you!
The newly married couple on their way to their wedding reception. Meghan is sporting Princess Diana’s blue ring
If you would like the “Mood Music” for this piece, please follow me on Spotify. Search SHOUTN2THEVOID and listen to the “Royal Wedding 2018”
