Photon Farms: Jesus the Bridegroom

Card #11

As stated in our "Heart of the Matter" page, one way to sum up the entire message of Holy Scripture is to say "God wants to marry us!" One of the study groups that I attend is currently diving into this theme with the help of various authors.

Seeing that the Eastern Church has an icon titled "The Bridegroom" it seemed appropriate to develop a Visio Divina Card that gives our little study group a focal point. In a recent chat with renowned iconographer Aidan Hart, he mentioned that this icon, at least for the Eastern Churches, represents the Unity of the Holy Trinity to woo humanity and win our love. In fact the caption placed under the icon (To Win Your Love I'll Endure Hell) was received almost verbatim from Mr. Hart's mouth and I have him to thank for jarring my mind with those beautiful words.

Admittedly, this focus is scandalous to our notion of refined sensibilities. How in heaven's name is the brutal torture and shameful exposure and execution of our Lord and Saviour somehow juxtaposed with God's marriage to humanity?!

Yet as disturbing as it may be to our hearts this theme is brought out repeatedly throughout scripture. It is especially unavoidable to anyone studying the Bible from an ancient Jewish perspective. The spousal aspects of God's love would have been obvious to any first century Jew with even the slightest training in Hebrew scripture. For the first century Jewish Christian, exposure to the Gospels and writings of the Apostles would have solidified and augmented this and put on full display God's reckless determination to even endure hell to win our love.

The last lines on the back of this card are a refrain which is sung repeatedly during Holy Week in the Byzantine liturgies, especially on Holy Thursday. I was present as Father John Winfrey (may his memory be eternal) belted out this beautiful song and the Church (led by my godfather Guy) responded. haunting and bittersweet , it reminds us of our initial longing for baptism which cleanses our souls. It also is a beautiful reminder for the renewal of our baptismal vows for the initiated.

My favorite study group chose to dive into Dr. Brant Pitre's Book: "Jesus the Bridegroom: The Greatest Love Story Ever Told". We were so blessed to have Dr. Pitre help us replace our skewed modern western spectacles with something more like the lens any of Jesus' followers would have had. It is both disturbing and refreshing in equal parts: disturbing to see how uninformed and full of error our views can become without the corrective ancient Jewish lens and refreshing to finally unlock a deeper understanding of the blazing and unified love of the Holy Trinity. It turns out to be more deeply personal than many of us dare to imagine for it is after all the greatest love story ever told.