Friday-Saturday, Nisan 15

And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast. –– Matthew 9:15

It was the saddest day of their lives. For over three years they had followed the Galilean. Their hopes had been high. They had seen his miracles. They had watched him confound the greatest leaders of his day. They had heard his teachings. They had walked with him back and forth from Galilee to Jerusalem on many occasions. This was the Messiah. They were convinced. “We trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel” (Luke 24:21). Now he was dead, crucified like a common thief at “the place of a skull” (Matthew 27:33), on the busy city road where passers-by could gawk at him and mock him. It was the saddest day of their lives.

The rest of Jerusalem was in a festive mood. It was the first day of the Feast of Passover. Celebrants had streamed in from throughout the land. News quickly spread among them. “Jesus of Nazareth has been crucified.” There was much rejoicing in meeting old friends and relatives. The sound of singing could be heard throughout the streets of the city, but there was little joy in the hearts of the small group that had followed Jesus.

The Bible does not tell us much about the events of that day, but we know the character of those who followed Jesus, and it is not hard to imagine their feelings. Despite their loss, they would be partaking of the feast of Passover, albeit with a heavy heart.

This feast was distinct from the dinner they had eaten in the upper room. The Passover festival ran for an entire week. It not only commemorated their deliverance from Egyptian bondage, but it was also an occasion for thanksgiving for the Spring crops. How their minds must have gone back over that earlier meal and the strange events following.

Their Master had told them that the bread and the cup were in remembrance of his death, but they had hardly anticipated it so soon. His mood in the preceding months had been increasingly somber; he left them many hints that he would die, but they were loathe to believe them. They could still feel the tension of Gethsemane — the gentle chiding of Peter, James, and John for not being able to stay awake and watch with him for one hour. The sudden noise of the guards who came to arrest him; the bitter realization of betrayal in the traitorous kiss of Judas; the ensuing scuffle with Peter’s sword thrust, severing the ear of Malchus; Jesus’ command to put back the sword and then his healing the wounded man. In fear, they had fled — including Peter who sought to observe the trial before Caiaphas from a safe distance. They would have heard the testimony of John regarding the final hours on the cross and the concluding triumphant words, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit … It is finished!” (Luke 23:46; John 19:30). Now they felt alone, somehow abandoned, bewildered, and confused.

The Passover

The band of followers had heard and read the accounts of the original Passover, but they would have had only the slightest concept of its real meaning. Soon they would learn that the death of their leader, which they mourned that day, was not only necessary in God’s plan but that Christ was the real Passover lamb. In fifty long days, when the feast of Pentecost would come, they would begin to realize that they were part of the antitypical firstborn who would be saved by coming under the blood.

As time went on, they would appreciate that not only were the firstborn saved on that miraculous night in Egypt, but that this was only the precursor for the deliverance of the entire nation. They would come to understand that the deliverance of the followers of the Nazarene was not an end in itself but was also a harbinger of the salvation of the entire world of mankind. Although they had been bred deeply in their Jewish heritage, they would also comprehend eventually that Jesus’ death was not only needed for their salvation and that of their people, but that even Gentiles would. be included in the resurrection guaranteed by Christ’s death. This was the promise of the future. But today was today, and today they were sad.

A Day of Bewilderment

The night must have been a sleepless one for many of them. The events of the preceding day had gone by at a lightning pace. Instead of seeing their Lord fearlessly confound his opponents, they saw him meekly bowing his head in acceptance. “As a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth” (Isaiah 53:7).

The day was a day for discussion. The closest followers of the Master were used to living day by day. They went where Jesus went. They sought always to be by his side. When they had questions, they knew where to go for answers. Now they were alone. Their leader had died; they were still alive. Sorrowful or not, life must go on. Some would decide to go back to their fishing businesses. Some determined to wait awhile for further developments. Others who had fled when Jesus was arrested spent the day in nearby villages. Confusion and sorrow were the common bonds that connected them.

It was a day for prayer. Never had they needed divine guidance more than at the present. Jesus had told them that whatever they asked the Father in his name would be granted (John 15:16). Now they must learn to rely on that power. How personal those prayers must have been! How fervent!

New Dimensions

Above all, it was a day for adjustment. Never again would they tread the dusty roads with the one they had come to dearly love. Yet never was Jesus as close to their sides as he would be in the days that lay ahead. He had said, “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world [Greek aion, age]” (Matthew 28:20). He would always be “this same Jesus,” yet he would always be different. They would need to adjust to these necessary changes.

They had loved to see his visage, to be cheered by the sight of him as he addressed the multitudes. Now they would have to adjust to an invisible Christ. He would be just as real, but not as manifest. This would take some preparation time. Just such a preparation they were to be having the next forty days, as he would appear miraculously in their midst, sometimes even behind closed and locked doors.

They had been used to a parochial Christ, one who had cautioned them, “Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not” (Matthew 10:5). Soon they would be sent not only to Samaria but “unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8). They would need to follow his unseen leading wherever they might go.

Their custom was to follow unquestioningly, looking to Jesus to make the many decisions that are required for daily living. Now they would have to think for themselves. They would need to sort out principles and apply them. They would not always do so correctly, as in the choosing of Matthias to replace Judas as an apostle (Acts 1:15-26), but they would learn through their mistakes to “rightly divide the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).

They were comfortable with Jesus. Now they would have to work with a new force in their lives, the holy spirit. The giving of that spirit at Pentecost (Acts 2) must have been as surprising to them as it was spectacular to any onlooker. Even though he had bidden them to await the arrival of the spirit (Acts 1:4-8), yet they must not have comprehended these words any better than his earlier statements regarding his death. There was much to learn! There seemed little time to learn it all! Their Master tried to prepare them for this very hour by saying, “All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered. But after that I am risen, I will go before you into Galilee.” To Galilee, they must go. But that was tomorrow — today it was time to mourn and wonder.

Children of the Bridechamber

The followers of Jesus are called to be his bride. They are also likened to virgins awaiting the bridegroom (Matthew 25:1-10), to guests at a wedding (Matthew 22:1-12), to servants waiting for their Lord to return from a wedding (Luke 12:36) and in our theme text to the “children of the bridechamber.” There is no inconsistency in these similes. They are each separate and distinct pictures. They are all true. Each point to a unique feature of likeness.

The expression “children of the bridechamber” is a Greek idiom. It is related both to the expressions “virgins” in the parable of the wise and foolish virgins and “friend of the bridegroom” in John 3:29: “He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled.”

In the latter verse, John the Baptist refers to himself as “the friend of the bridegroom.” He uses that term as we would use the word “best man” today (see Nelson’s Bible Dictionary). The “virgins” were the female members of the wedding party and “the children of the bridechamber” were the male members. The term “children” is from the Greek huios, meaning, literally, “sons.” The idiom is a bit more direct than merely “bridal party.” In first advent times a Hebrew child was known as a teknon, “child,” until about the age of twelve when, after a ceremony similar to the Bar Mitzvah of today, he became a huios. This latter term conveyed not only the concept of an older child but one who copied the parents and sought to be in their likeness. Thus “the children of the bridechamber” implies those who enter fully into the spirit of the oncoming wedding and partake fully in the joys of the bridegroom.

This was certainly an apt description for the followers of Jesus during his lifetime when they could not yet be the “bride,” because the holy spirit had not yet come upon them. They could rejoice to be in his presence, and they did so. But now, on the fifteenth of Nisan in the year of our Lord 33, they no longer had the bridegroom in their presence. Now they laid aside the rejoicing clothes of the wedding and put on the garment of sorrow.

Fasting

Not only did they mourn, but our theme text indicates that they also “fasted.” Nelson’s Bible Dictionary comments on fasting: “Going without food or drink voluntarily, generally for religious purposes. Fasting, however, could also be done for other reasons. It was sometimes done as a sign of distress, grief, or repentance. The law of Moses specifically required fasting for only one occasion — the Day of Atonement.”

There are many examples of fasting over grief in the Bible. There was a seven- day fast after the burial of King Saul and his sons (1 Samuel 31:13; 1 Chronicles 10:12). David fasted after hearing of the death of Jonathan and Saul (2 Samuel 1:12), and Nehemiah fasted when he heard that Jerusalem lay in ruins (Nehemiah 1:4). For seventy years there were commemorative fasts in the fifth month when the siege of Jerusalem was begun, and in the seventh month, when the city fell to the Babylonians (Zechariah 7:5).

Abstaining from food is no easy task at the best of times but, as anyone who has been on a diet can testify, it is most difficult when all around you are feasting. Such was the case with the disciples. They began this spiritual “fast” on one of the great “feast days” of Israel, the first day of the seven-day feast of Passover. Nor did their “fast” only last one day, nor yet the entire seven days of the feast, nor even the biblical forty days; it was a “fast” that would last for nearly two thousand years, until the return of the bridegroom.

Looking Forward

That sober Saturday was not merely a day of looking backward. Now, despite their great loss, they needed to look forward. Their long-range plans had not yet materialized. They deduced from Jesus’ words in Matthew 26:32 that he wanted them to return to Galilee (the home of the remaining eleven apostles). First, however, they wanted to pay their final respects at the tomb of their beloved Master.

Because it was the Sabbath, they could not go without the city on the fifteenth of Nisan. This would be their first order of business on the morrow. Three of the women had purchased sweet spices, probably between the time of the crucifixion and sundown on Friday. They prepared these for placing on his body on Saturday so that, first thing in the morning on Sunday, they would go to the tomb and anoint him (compare Mark 16:1; Luke 23:56; 24:1).

Even though Nicodemus had already seen to the procurement and use of some 65 pounds (a Greek “hundred-pound weight”) of embalming spices (John 19:39,40) these three devoted women wanted to add their portion as well.

Thus, it was with the deepest of love they mingled the spices, and with them their tears, for one last expression of their devotion. The eleven, still troubled in mind, ended the day by settling down for another uneasy sleep, also planning to visit the tomb. They would probably plan to complete the feast in Jerusalem (for they were faithful Israelites) and then return to their homes in the north.

They had been unprepared for the sad events of the previous day. Little did they know that they would meet a new surprise for which they were equally unprepared … in the morn.

On the morrow, they would hurry forth to the tomb of their beloved Lord. And they would find it … empty!

–– The Herald of Christ’s Kingdom 1996/2