The First Bridegroom

Note: This is a post for week 4 of the class on the Old Testament and New Testament

“Nevertheless, before Jesus displayed his wisdom as a teacher, before he exercised his authority as an exorcist, and before he manifested his power as a healer, the first thing he did was perform a miracle in which he, though unmarried, deliberately acted like a Jewish bridegroom by providing wine for a wedding.” – Jesus the Bridegroom (35)

In our lesson on the Old Testament and the New Testament in relationship to the nuptial mystery the point that took hold was that the Bible starts with a wedding feast (in Genesis) and ends with a wedding feast (in Revelation). With that point made we can see the climax of this understanding of marriage comes with the person of Christ. This lens of Scripture can help us understand God’s relationship to us in a unique and intimate way.

In Genesis God speaks and says, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” (Genesis 1:26) To be created in the image of God was to radically give oneself over in gift to other as God did for us. There was no other reason for God to create than to give himself as gift to us. Therefore, in this reading that can be used at Catholic weddings as we see from http://www.foryourmarriage.org/ we see that marriage points back to the original destiny of humanity to be total self gift.

As we know this original destiny of humanity becomes disordered through the fall but the Lord as Bridegroom does not abandon his people. As it says in another wedding reading from Jeremiah, “The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.” (Jeremiah 31:31) This new covenant is the Lord giving himself as gift to the people of Israel as he did at creation, and the Israelites will give themselves back to God alone. In our lecture it was quite interesting to see that the people of Israel had monogamous marriages unlike some other cultures because the Israelite’s marriages were in reflection of their communion with a ONE TRUE GOD, unlike other cultures and their worships of many gods.

Lastly, as said in the beginning of this post, this covenant  culminates with the person of Christ. Jesus comes to restore what communion looked like before the fall of Adam and Eve. We can see this in his first miracle of turning water into wine. As it says in the Scriptures Jesus provides an abundance of wine, which as Brant Pitre suggests shows that “Jesus is also beginning to suggest that the prophecies of the divine bridegroom are being fulfilled in him.” (45) This image of Jesus as Bridegroom begins to reveal itself at the Wedding of Cana and ultimately Jesus consummates this relationship as the Bridegroom for his people from the cross. Jesus from the cross shows his perfect love for all of humanity and therefore gives us a way in which we respond back to him in total self gift.

Paul in his letter to Ephesians clarify this imagery as he says, “Live in love, as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us. Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ.” (Ephesians 5: 21) Through all of this imagery presented in Scripture we can come to a fuller understanding of how husbands and wives are suppose to love one another – in total self gift as Christ did for us on the cross.