The Bridegroom's Joy and the Soul's Seasons

"Can the children of the bride-chamber mourn?" Christ asks in Matthew 9:15. The phrase paides tou nymphonos (children of the bridegroom) reveals the spirit reigning in Jesus's circle—not accident or temperament, but the natural radiance of new life imparted to those joined in His society.

Christ embodied joy through His vocation and the original fountains of truth His religion afforded, sweet after the mechanical routine of religious formalism. The Twelve entered into three dimensions of this joy: fresh religious intuitions, spiritual freedom, and right response to divine circumstance.

Horace Bushnell, D.D., illuminated this paradox: "Let there be liberty in God while there may; let the soul go by inspiration when the gale of the Spirit is in it. When the Divine movement is upon it, let it have its festal day with the Bridegroom, and when the better presence fades, let it set itself to ways of self-compulsion."

Like a city with two water supplies—one flowing freely from high ground, one requiring forced pumps from wells—the soul alternates between seasons. With Messiah begins the hieros gamos (holy union) between soul and Elohim, as prophets declared. This first hour of spiritual espousals must be one of joy. Yet sorrow approaches: tokens already appear in the malice of hierarchy's rulers.

The navigator sets sails to wind; the seed requires position in warm soil. We position ourselves for God's work by receiving His joy when He offers it, and by disciplined obedience when the Spirit's presence seems withdrawn.