Jesus: The Savior, The Son Of God... The Bachelor?

Today's question is one that I've gotten now a couple times (I think by the same person). The question is this, "Why did Jesus never get married?" There is no passage in scripture, no historical evidence, no notion grounded in anything (that I know of) to believe that Jesus was ever married. So Jesus, really, was a bachelor. But why didn't He ever get married? This is an interesting question. Why?

Well, lets first look at 1 Corinthians 7:37-39. Paul, in verse 38 says, "So then, he who marries the virgin does right, but he who does not marry her does even better." Why would someone who does not marry do better? I believe that it's because, by not being married you are able to focus on God and His plan more. Now Paul also says that it's OK if you do get married. So marriage or not, doesn't matter. If not getting married is going to cause you to sin, then get married. But if it's not going to cause you to sin, then don't get married. Think of nuns in the Catholic church. As far as I know they don't get married because they are married to God. Jesus came on this Earth to complete the work of His Father (God The Father), which was dying on the cross for the sins of the world. For Jesus, getting married would have be a distraction and a delay from completing His mission, which would be a sin. Jesus never got married because that's not what He came to do, and that's OK.

The second thing that I'd like to say is this; all throughout the Bible and Jesus' teaching, He compared faith in God as that of a marriage. He continually called the body of believers the Bride, while God was the groom. He encouraged the Bride (Christians as a whole) to get and stay beautiful & faithful to the Groom (God). He encouraged the Bride to be open & honest with her Groom. He encouraged her to be patient & enjoy her Grooms love. This, among teachings on divorce, adultery, and making oaths, points to the fact that Jesus had a healthy view of marriage and believed in it strongly. But there is nothing to suggest that He got married. In fact His teachings suggest that He was looking forward to the moment when we would all join Him in heaven, where He could share the close, trusting, committed marriage type relationship with all of us.

So to answer the question, "Why did Jesus never get married?" I'd have to say that He never got married because that was not His mission and would have been a distraction which would have been a sin. He also never got married to one person because He looked forward to the time when He would share the same type of open, honest, loving, passionate, committed & faithful relationship with everyone.