God as the Bridegroom

IN RELATIONSHIP

GOD AS BRIDEGROOM

I saw that [our Lord] is to us everything which is good and comforting for our help. He is our clothing, who wraps and enfolds us for love, embraces us and shelters us, surrounds us for his love, which is so tender that he may never desert us. And so in this sight I saw that he is everything which is good,

as I understand.

Julian of Norwich

We return to a celebratory frame of mind in this chapter as we encounter the image of God as bridegroom. We might anticipate that this is strictly a New Testament image for Jesus, but we find a number of Old Testament references to God as a bridegroom, with this hope-filled one from Isaiah 62:5. “As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.”

 We first find this image on the pages of the New Testament in John 3, verses 27-30, when John the Baptist tells his disciples: “The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete.” Jesus also used this term to describe himself in Mark 2:19, “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them.”

            The image is mentioned in a number of other New Testament references as the church is called the bride of Christ, putting Jesus in the role of the bridegroom. And finally, in the 19^th chapter of Revelations, verse 7, we find a glorious reference to Jesus, the Lamb, as the bridegroom. “Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready.”

            Here is the breathtaking truth of the gospel. Our God is a bridegroom who is waiting for us!  We picture the bridegroom standing in the front of the church, anticipating the entrance of his bride. While all eyes may be on the bride as she enters, it is the bridegroom whose eyes are brimming over with love for her. As people who accept the love of God, we are looked upon with the love that a bridegroom has for his bride – a love that brings with it a desire to protect, to honor, and to cherish.

What we see in the image of the bridegroom is that the love of God is all-encompassing – as the love of a bridegroom for his bride, the love of Christ for the Church, the love of God for his children. Here we have a beautiful picture of the God who tells us through the prophet Jeremiah, recorded in Jeremiah 31:3: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.”

Hear the image of the loving God in The Interior Castle by Teresa of Avila, This Beloved of ours is merciful and good. Besides, he so deeply longs for our love that he keeps calling us to come closer. This voice of his is so sweet that the poor soul falls apart in the face of her own inability to instantly do whatever he asks of her.

Here is how a more contemporary thinker, psychologist Dan Allender, uses the image of bride to describe our relationship to God: What does it mean to fear God? It means to be anxious and eager to greet him. It means to build our lives around the call of being his bride, to anticipate the pleasure of love and the aroma of passion. To fear God is to be consumed with His presence. To fear God is to fear the intense, radically other-centered love.

This image of God brings us to a point of decision. Will we be like the runaway bride who flees the bridegroom awaiting her on their wedding day, or will we walk with joy to the altar of faith and become the cherished bride of Christ? And even for those who have been following Jesus for many years, each day brings the opportunity to greet our bridegroom with new eyes and with a renewed heart. Might it be so.

HYMN

My Jesus, I love Thee, I know Thou art mine;
For Thee all the follies of sin I resign;
My gracious Redeemer, my Savior art Thou;
If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.

I love Thee because Thou hast first loved me,
And purchased my pardon on Calvary’s tree;
I love Thee for wearing the thorns on Thy brow;
If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.

I’ll love Thee in life, I will love Thee in death,
And praise Thee as long as Thou lendest me breath;
And say when the death dew lies cold on my brow,
If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.

In mansions of glory and endless delight,
I’ll ever adore Thee in heaven so bright;
I’ll sing with the glittering crown on my brow,
If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.

William Featherstone

POIEMA

bridegroom

the bridegroom waits

lohengrin’s poignant invitations swells

the very air vibrates with eager anticipation

an aura of holy expectancy grips the scene

passionate patience

the bridegroom sees

eyes feast upon the radiant beloved

nakedness bathed in billows of purest white

drinking in her beauty, spotless, unstained

unclouded vision

the bridegroom moves

gently lifts gomer’s muddied veil

tenderly caresses magdalene’s trembling hand

whispers my name in welcoming mercy

ultimate forgiveness

the bridegroom embraces

heaven’s primordial vow fulfilled

arms enfolding, to have, to hold into eternity

mystical union now consummated, one flesh promise sealed

perfect constancy

the bridegroom rejoices

mendelssohn’s chords of exultation peal from heaven’s organ

extravagant grace pours from the soul of the almighty

cherished daughter now the glorious God-bride

joyous celebration

INTO OUR HANDS, INTO OUR HEARTS

• Prayerfully consider what it means to you to prepare your house for the return of your beloved.
• Do some reading on the Catholic tradition of nuns becoming the bride of Christ.
• Watch The Runaway Bride.
• Listen to Kim Hill as she sings Holy, You Are Still Holy.
•  If you’re a woman, think about the dress you would wear as you await God as the bridegroom.
• Look at wedding pictures.
• Prepare a wedding feast for the Lamb and invite fellow believers to share in it with you.
• Convince a friend to go with you to a bridal show just for the fun of it.
• Sing Samuel Stone’s hymn, The Church’s One Foundation:

The Church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord,
She is His new creation by water and the Word.
From heaven He came and sought her to be His holy bride;
With His own blood He bought her and for her life He died.

PRAYER

O Lord, my waiting bridegroom.

I am ready.

I want to know you more,

I want to love you deeply,

and I want to be embraced in your love.

My face is aglow with anticipation of your overwhelming love.

In your precious name, Amen.

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