The Marriage of Benjamin Orris and Sophia Aini

John 2:1-11

January 17, 2026

“Get wisdom! Get understanding! Do not forget, nor turn away from the words of my mouth. Do not forsake her, and she will preserve you; Love her, and she will keep you. Wisdom is the principal thing; Therefore get wisdom” [Prov 4.5-7]. In Greek, Sophia means wisdom, so Ben has achieved what the Bible says: “Get wisdom!” Get Sophia.

And the same admonition applies to you here, Ben: “Do not forsake her…. Love her.” One way you love her is to pray for her. This should be the first duty of a husband for his wife – and a wife for her husband. You set her needs, his needs, before the Lord. And in doing so, you are setting your spouse’s needs ahead of your own.

The practice of the patriarch Isaac is illuminating. Isaac and Rebekah have no children. God’s Word then says, “Isaac pleaded with the LORD for his wife, because she was barren” [Gen. 25.21]. Reading quickly, it seems to say, “Isaac and Rebekah have no kids, so Isaac prayed about it.” But that’s not quite right. It says, “Isaac pleaded with the LORD for his wife.” Isaac didn’t pray first about the situation. He didn’t ask for a child for himself. He prayed for his wife. She was the object of his concern.

This is what it is to be married. Your spouse becomes the object of your concern.

And this is your first concern: that you help each other on the journey through this life to the kingdom of God. Your home is a little church, a place where the triune name is praised, a place where the Word of God is read, a place where sins are forgiven.

In the world there is strife. In your home is peace. Your home is happy.

That’s what Haniyah means, yes? “Happy, cheerful, pleasant.” Well are you named this, Sophia, for you are a happy, cheerful, pleasant woman.

Sophia, or Shofiyatul, means, as far as I can tell, “Pure, chosen, sincere, excellent, the best.” But there is a term “wishful etymology,” where a person changes the meaning of words to what he wants them to be, not what they really are. If you’ve ever seen the movie “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” the dad in the movie invents a Greek meaning for just about every word he encounters; whether it’s true or not doesn't seem to matter at all.

Human languages were confused at the Tower of Babel. Therefore why not engage in a little wishful etymology? Perhaps we can take the beautiful name Haniyah Shofiyatul Aini, turn it into Hebrew and Greek, and get the entire meaning of your marriage out of it. Hannah in Hebrew is “grace,” and “Yah” is short for YHWH, the sacred name of God. So we get “The grace of God.” And then Sophia of course is “wisdom.”

You put that together, and it’s exactly what your marriage should be founded upon. We receive Holy Wisdom from the Holy Scriptures. Every day, read and listen to God’s Word together. Go to church. Have babies, and raise them in the true Sophia, the true Wisdom of Jesus.

You are sinners. You’re going to disappoint each other, offend each other, hurt each other. This is where grace enters in. You can’t keep score. God’s Word tells us keeping track of who has done what is the opposite of love. “Love,” the Lord tells us in 1 Cor. 13, “keeps no record of wrongs.” Neither should you. This is how God Himself is. “If You, O Lord, kept a record of sins, who, O Lord, could stand? But with You there is forgiveness.”

Let this be said of the Orris household: “They keep no record of sins. With them is forgiveness. With them is grace, the grace of YHWH, Haniyah.”

In the moment of crisis, though, can you really forgive? Can you really forget? Can transformation happen?

Only by the command of Jesus. In our Gospel, there is failure. The wedding is falling short. “They have no wine.” This symbolizes the collapse of joy. The problem is brought to Jesus. This is always the solution.

But He seems far away. He rebukes His mother. He seems cold, distant. Nevertheless, faith places everything at His feet. “Whatever He says to you, do it!”

And He rescues the wedding, He rescues the marriage, by His Word of command. Water becomes wine, sin becomes forgiveness, failure becomes friendship, sorrow becomes joy.

That’s embedded in your name, Benjamin. In the Scriptures, Ben-jamin was first called by his mother Ben-oni, “son of my sorrow.” For his birth caused her death. But again we have a transformation. He becomes Ben-jamin, son of the right hand. Ill fortune turns to fair, sin becomes righteousness, death becomes life.

That is the deep purpose of your marriage. As you do what God commands – the wife submits to her husband, the husband loves his wife sacrificially – the world is healed in your house.

For today God blesses you. Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. But God is building your house, Benjamin and Sophia. He is building your house on His grace, on His wisdom, on His transformation.

Cast every anxiety on Him, for He cares for you. He will prosper your marriage. +INJ+