Bridegroom

“And Jesus said to them, ‘Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.’” (Matthew 9:15)

I was looking up Christmas movies the other day and there were a ton under some series called “A Christmas Prince,” somebody has capitalized very well off of that idea!  There’s a reason stories and fairytales and movies about Prince Charming are so popular, we are all longing for that one perfect man to come along and save us from everything.  Even if you take the romantic aspect out of it, how many Superhero movies are there?  My husband and kids are all very much into the Marvel series.  There are so many of those movies I can’t even keep track of which one is which anymore.  We all love to get lost in a story where we are rescued from impending doom and given a new, better life. 

This isn’t a new idea.  We’ve needed rescue since the garden.  God has promised us a Savior from the beginning, and our heart’s deepest longing is for Him to come and make everything right.  These stories aren’t new, “What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9).  It’s the “tale as old as time”, and it’s the most popular narrative because it resonates most in our souls.  We love to read stories and watch movies about Prince Charming because we are waiting for our Bridegroom to come for us. 

God gives us this imagery of a Bridegroom to show us the loving, protective, sacrificial relationship Jesus has with the church.  It is a holy union that brings joy and celebration.  When Jesus came to earth the first time, He showed us exactly what a Bridegroom looks like through everything He said and did.  He gave us the promise of the Holy Spirit, a seal, much like a ring, symbolizing His commitment to us and His presence in us.  We have so much already in this time some call the “already but not yet”.   Jesus is coming again, and the church, all of us who have put our faith in Jesus, will be like a bride dressed in white, forgiven and made clean by the sacrifice Jesus made.  Next time Jesus comes, He will rescue us once and for all and put an end to our struggle with sin, death, shame, sickness, and all the suffering we face on this broken planet.  We can look to Jesus with that anticipation as we wait for Him to come and make things new.