Rejoicing in the bridegroom

Anticipation and joy were clearly etched on Matt’s face in the photo. A friend gave us the picture after our wedding. She’d captured Matt’s expression as he walked down the aisle after the ceremony and I treasure that snapshot.

A bridegroom celebrates his bride and rejoices in the marriage.

Yesterday, we talked about the Samaritan woman as a bride of Christ. I want to point out some other interesting parallels in the early part of the book of John.

Jesus’ first miracle, the famous turning water into wine at Cana, happened at a wedding. In the midst of the celebration, the wine ran out. The festivities were about to end on a lack of planning but Jesus supplied abundant excellence, allowing the celebrating to continue. There are many other images in the story, but this wedding thread is an interesting one.

And the thread works its way into the next chapter, where John the Baptist describes Jesus as the bridegroom. John the Baptist understands his own role, as a friend of the groom celebrating the marriage.

He who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. (John 3:29)

Finally, the thread continues into John 4. In John 2, we see Jesus as an outsider blessing a wedding celebration with abundance and new life. In John 3, John the Baptist describes Jesus as the bridegroom. It’s in this context that John expresses his need to decrease while Jesus increases.

That increase fully blossoms with the encounter at the Samaritan well. Jesus is no longer onlooker but bridegroom.

This marriage imagery is no accident. The author, John, weaves a rich fabric using such threads. We are drawn to the wedding metaphor. Imagine Jesus as the bridegroom beaming with joy and anticipation.

From the Cana wedding to the Samaritan revival, John has shown how Jesus’ ministry is about life. And the description escalates: not just the life of a wedding celebration, but about eternal life.

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. (John 3:36)

Even the knowing has escalated. Where the Cana wedding miracle was done in sight of a few servants, the Samaritan woman proclaimed Jesus to her community. Many followed him as their divine bridegroom.

The Bridegroom rejoices in us. Many are the gifts he showers on us. How does the bride respond?

May your day be filled with joy and with John’s declaration:

“That joy is mine, and it is now complete.”

John 3:29