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Jesus as Bridegroom

There are several passages in the New Testament which reveal the Lord Jesus Christ as a bridegroom. When challenged by the Pharisees about the behaviour of his disciples, “Jesus said to them, ‘Can the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.’” (Mark 2:19-20)

In the opening verses of Matthew 25, Jesus told a parable with Himself as the key figure, which was a bridegroom. Paul wrote to the church in Corinth of his feeling for them, “For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.” (2 Corinthians 11:2) Finally, two chapters in Revelation make references to marriage and in each case, the Lord Jesus is cast in the role as bridegroom. (Revelation 19 and 21)

As we think about what this word picture of Jesus tells us about Him, we’ll have to keep in mind that we’re looking at generalizations here. Individual bridegrooms will never give us a fair indication of the authors’ intent as they employed this metaphor. We have to think about bridegrooms in general. We’ll touch on four main areas.

Firstly, the romantics among us will immediately associate love with marriage. This is certainly appropriate as we apply this metaphor to Jesus. His love is declared in word and deed repeatedly. Within a few months of teaching that the greatest love that one person could have for another was to lay down his life for his friend, He laid down His own life, not just for his friends, but for His enemies as well.

In all of the cultures with which I am familiar, on the wedding day, the bridegroom makes a commitment to the bride. He takes her from her birth family and, with her, begins a new nuclear family. As he does so, there is an implicit understanding that he will provide for her needs, care for her, and act sacrificially to protect her. Surely, this picture is representative of the Lord Jesus as He makes every provision for our spiritual needs.

Weddings are all about exclusivity. Part of the commitment the bridegroom makes is to limit his emotional and sexual expression to his bride. In western culture, this aspect of the picture is enhanced by the general decline in formal marriages in the broader culture. People (both grooms and brides) are reluctant to make those exclusive commitments. The Lord Jesus does not hesitate. Ephesians 5:25 tells us that “Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it.”

Finally, I want to mention passion. For much of my life, this was never spoken of, but let’s face it: Biblical marriage is the opening of the door to sexual expression and that anticipation raises the energy level at weddings to heights generally not attained in other social gatherings. Humanly, this passion is largely about sex. When we talk about the passion of the Lord Jesus for the church, we’re talking about something that is so far beyond mere erotic passion that we can’t imagine it, but that’s not to say that the picture of Jesus as bridegroom doesn’t include this. Any man who would go to the lengths Jesus did to procure a bride to take home to his father’s house is a passionate man.

Now we come to the “so what?” question. Jesus is the bridegroom of the church. How does that affect me as an individual? As part of the church it should make us very careful about the way we live. It is certainly a motivation to moral purity. According to Paul’s statement mentioned earlier, his goal was to present the churches he planted as a “chaste virgin” to the heavenly Bridegroom.

But more than just maintaining moral purity, members of the Bride of Christ will be concerned about pleasing Him in all aspects of their lives. There are some pretty grim unchristlike morally upright people. Think about the other characteristics of Jesus and reflect them. We are to become more and more like Him. That would mean, just on the basis of what we’ve looked at here, that we would be more loving, more committed, more devoted and more passionate as we live out our daily lives.

Ron Hughes
© July 2006