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Here Comes the Bride

By December 1, 2007June 6th, 2014No Comments

Paramedics stood over my husband’s body.  Before they arrived, I had given him CPR while a 911 operator stayed on the line.  As the medics took over, I blurted something that shocked even me.  “Now Jesus is my husband.” Other than the Lord, I don’t know where that startling statement came from.  Somehow, hours before the official pronouncement, I knew that my husband of forty-three years, Roland, has passed from death unto eternal life with our Lord.

That evening when I left the hospital and my husband’s body, my children took me to their home to spend the night.  I asked my daughter to go back to my house to get me some clothes.  She found a white t-shirt that I normally threw in the drawer, but my husband had hung it in the closet for me.

I’ve often thought of how the Bride of Christ will be dressed in “fine linen, clean and bright” (Revelation 19:7–9). On his last day, Roland provided a symbol of my wedding garment. It was there just for me. Someday I’ll take part in another wedding with my earthly husband, but at that time we’ll both be joined to the Groom, Who bought us with the greatest price ever and will grant us to be dressed in pure garments, that is, “the righteous acts of the saints” (v. 8).

My Own Story

Roland and I started our marriage in December 1960. June is the preferred month for weddings, so why did we get married two days before Christmas on a snow-blanketed Iowa day? Were we meshugah? (Yiddish for “crazy.”) Not at all. The groom-to-be was a soldier in the U.S. Army, so you might say we deferred to our Uncle Sam, who wanted it that way.

I remember our modest wedding and honeymoon trip to White Sands Missile Range. Our ’57 Plymouth Fury was filled with gifts, and my husband’s identical twin brother sat in the front seat with us. Oy! God’s grace went with us, every mile of our lives. And by His grace we kept our vow to stay married “so long as we both shall live.”

Modern Marriage

Today weddings tend to be more lavish than they were forty years ago. For example, couples in Phoenix and Scottsdale, Arizona, spend an average of $31,000 to finance an extravagant wedding; and in Des Moines, Iowa, costs run about $29,090—all aimed to impress and create a lasting memory. Honeymoons at Amanjena, meaning “Peaceful Paradise,” in Marrakech, Morocco, run from $900 to $3,200 per night. And golfer Tiger Woods shelled out $57 million for his honeymoon on the yacht The Privacy. In the process of staging a wedding and honeymoon “to remember,” our culture has lost much of the rich symbolism behind traditional weddings.

Since God doesn’t change, we know that He had a design for weddings: past, present, and future. Today’s trends are all too familiar, so let’s look at the other two—past and future—while we consider the symbolism.

The Jewish Wedding in Jesus’ Day

The bridal price

Jewish customs help us understand spiritual truths, like the marriage custom in Jesus’ time. After a talk with his father, discussing the amount of money to be paid to the bride’s father, a Jewish groom would go to his bride’s home. He initiated the engagement and took his father’s advice on the dowry. The groom may have been taken aback by the high price he would have to pay.

The spiritual correlation here is that Jesus referred to Himself as the “bridegroom” (Matthew 9:15). And believers are called a “spiritual house” (1 Peter 2:5). So Christ is the groom, and believers who make up the church are the bride. Jesus found the price for His Bride very costly: His own blood, death, and separation from His Father (Ephesians 5:25). The Bride is reminded, “For you were bought at a price” (1 Corinthians 6:20).

The marriage covenant

Only after the father of the bride received the dowry was the marriage covenant established. (A covenant is a usually formal, solemn, and binding agreement.) Such a covenant was based upon trust between the parties, had unlimited responsibility, and could not be broken. The bridegroom and bride drank wine from a cup to seal the agreement. Just as Jesus took the cup at Passover and gave thanks, a blessing would be given: “Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, Creator of the fruit of the vine.” Spiritually, the “fruit” symbolizes the believer, and the “vine” symbolizes Christ (John 15:5).

The moment the covenant was established, the bride was set apart for the bridegroom. Similarly, the believer is set apart for God by the price Christ paid. Drinking from the cup—as Jesus did prior to His crucifixion—signified that the (new) covenant relationship had been established (Luke 22:20; cf. 1 Corinthians 11:25). Thus, the wedding covenant fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah 31:31, for the Lord will not break His promise of salvation to all who trust in Him.

The Groom’s Return

Before the groom left, he told the bride, “I am going to prepare a place for you. I will come back to get you.” Sound familiar? In John 14:2 and 3, Jesus said that He is going to prepare a place for His Bride (all believers) in His Father’s house of many mansions.

Then the groom of Biblical times returned to his father’s house, where he built a bridal chamber, or mansion, where the couple would have their honeymoon. Meanwhile, the bride waited at home for the bridegroom to come for her. She busied herself by preparing herself for the wedding.

Her oil lamp she kept full, and she stood by waiting, looking. Her groom could come at any time, perhaps in the night to surprise her (Matthew 25:1–7).

Even the groom himself didn’t know when the big day would occur. The decision was up to his father, as the time of Christ’s return is up to His Father (Matthew 24:36; 25:13; Mark 13:32). When the father of the groom said it was time for the wedding, usually twelve months after the covenant of marriage and the drinking of the cup of wine, the groom gathered his best friends, or groomsmen, and slipped over to the bride’s house to take her away.

At midnight the groom came with a warning—a shout: “Behold, the bridegroom is coming!” (Matthew 25:6). The bride was properly warned so she could trim the lamp and leave with her attendants. At the home of the groom’s father, the bride privately entered the chamber with her groom, and the marriage was consummated. Afterward, a seven-day celebration ensued.

The Wedding of the Lamb

The church prepares herself

From the moment the covenant was established, the Bride of Christ was set apart for Him until His return for her. With His blood, Jesus paid the price that the Father had set for the redemption of the Bride. Jesus went away to prepare a mansion for believers. We, the Bride, are getting ready through watchful prayer and service. When God the Father signals to His Son that it is time, Jesus will come with a warning shout and a trumpet blast (1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17). The dead in Christ will rise first. Then those who are alive will be caught up—raptured—and together the Bride will meet the Groom in the air. Imagine Jesus saying in our vernacular, “Here comes the Bride!”

The marriage

In Heaven there are no husband-and-wife marriage relationships as on earth—except one: Jesus and His Bride (Luke 20:34–36; Mark 12:25; Matthew 22:30). The two shall be one; the covenant marriage will be consummated. We will sit down at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb and begin an unending celebration of joy! In Heaven, love truly will know no season. It will last longer than a lifetime. The love of God through His Son, Jesus, is everlasting. “Forever” truly means “forever and ever and ever and ever. . . .”

These glimpses of present, past, and future weddings remind us that the Bride is looking for her Groom to return. It’s encouraging to anticipate such a wonderful day (Titus 2:13).

When’s the big day? I don’t know—only God knows. I am still here waiting and watching and looking forward to the greatest day of my life. I’ve already said, “ ‘I do’ take Jesus as Savior and Lord.” When He calls, I, along with all of the believers throughout history, will go up to meet Him as His pure, spotless Bride.

Now that’s what I call a Chasseneh—“Marriage made in Heaven.”

Effie-Alean Gross, a freelance writer, lives in Pella, Iowa, and in Arizona.

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