Tuesday, August 6, 2013
Matthew 9:15 Jesus answered, "How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them?"
PUREST PLEASURE
This coming Saturday, a young couple will be married. Perhaps this could be said on many days, but that would not change the joyful anticipation felt by each couple as they look forward to their walk together from that day forward, standing shoulder to shoulder, facing future trials and triumphs as one, dividing their sorrows and doubling their joys! Surely such joy is also the subject of many prayers that day for the bride and groom by family and friends.
John the Baptist once spoke of his relationship with Jesus as being like a "friend of the bridegroom." He declared himself to be "full of joy when he hears the bridegroom's voice" (John 3:29). Jesus also referred to himself as the bridegroom and asked, "How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while He is with them?" (Matthew 9:15).
The joy that Jesus brings is not limited to married couples, but is the great treasure of every one of His friends. This is a joy that does not go up and down with our earthly circumstances because it is founded on the finished life and death of the Son of God, who gives us peace with God through the forgiveness of all our sins. This joy can balance any of the temporary sorrows of this life and will even outlast death. No wonder the Fountain of such pure pleasure is our Priceless Treasure!
Jesus, priceless Treasure,
Fount of purest pleasure,
Truest Friend to me.
Ah, how long in anguish
Shall my spirit languish,
Yearning, Lord, for Thee?
Thou art mine, O Lamb divine!
I will suffer naught to hide Thee,
Naught I ask beside Thee.
(The Lutheran Hymnal, 347:1)
