Sermon Cloud

Here Comes the Bride(groom)!

Mark 2:18-22

Walt Russell

Mark 2:18-20 - John the Baptist's and the Pharisees' disciples ask Jesus, "Why don't your disciples fast like we do?"

Jesus' answer pictures the present days as that of the Bridegroom with His wedding attendants when fasting is totally inappropriate (v. 19).

While the Old Testament and intertestamental Jewish literature did not pcture the Messiah as the bridegroom, the rabbis did use the image of the wedding feast to express the joy of the Messianic era.  The New Testament expands both the image of the wedding feast and also Jesus' role as the Bridegroom of God's people to picture His relationship to the Church:

John 3:27-29

2 Corinthians 11:2-3

Ephesians 5:23, 25

Revelation 19:5-10

Revelation 21:1-2

However, Jesus pictures future days when the Bridegroom "is taken away from them" and fasting will be a very appropriate response by His disciples (v. 20).

Mark 2:21-22 - Jesus further illustrates the inappropriateness of the old practices of the Pharisees' and John the Baptist's disciples in the present Messianic era:

v. 21 - it would be like sewing a new, unshrunk patch on an old shrunken garment.

v. 22 - it would also be like putting expanding new wine in stretched-out old wine skins.

Jesus' point:

And so we ponder the three periods of our Bridegroom's wedding:

Past - Feasting!

His betrothal to His bride & "commitment" to her

Present - Fasting

His preparing of a place for His bride in His Father's house

Future - Feasting!

His "processional" to take His bride to the Marriage Feast of the Lamb