Following On

They were going to be married. The groom had spoken to her father about the mohar (the amount of money her father expected for the loss of his daughter.) They had determined the bride price (one ox and two sheep) and then the young man had returned to his father’s house in order to prepare a home for his bride. They were betrothed. They were promised. They were husband and wife in all but proximity.

Then in Matthew 25:6, “At midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.” The groomsmen were coming! She hurried out to look down the road, only to see torches bobbing in the distance. She must hurry to gather her things and say farewell to her parents, because: this was the night, and the cry had been made. Her neighbors stood in their doorways to watch. The first groomsman arrived with these words on his lips, “The bridegroom cometh.” Two hundred feet behind him another groomsman, quoting those same words, “Behold! The bridegroom cometh.” And there at the back – a man dressed in white - It was her beloved, the bridegroom.

There, at that midnight hour, he takes her hand and the two of them return back by the way he came. At a turning of the road, she sees his father’s house. Inside that house are dozens of guests: singing, laughing, shouting, waving banners. For the next ten days they celebrate. What joy! What rejoicing!

Oh, but wait, did you know that we are the bride and that Jesus is the bridegroom? That’s what the Bible says in Ephesians 5:25, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her … that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing …”

There is a duty for the groom - which is to prepare a home for his bride. There is also a duty for the bride - which is to stand ready for the coming of the groom. Paul tells us in Ephesians that we make ourselves ready by living a pure, spotless and wrinkle-free life. We do that by saying, “Yes Lord, I choose your way. Make me into the person you want me to become.” That’s how we stand ready. Therefore, keep looking up - for the bridegroom cometh.”