‘I Will Come Again’ by Douglas Bookman posted October 23, 2011

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It was only very late in Jesus’ ministry that He began to speak to His disciples of “coming again.”  Indeed, other than a somewhat cryptic parable concerning a man who went away to receive a kingdom (Luke 19:11-28, spoken within days of the Passover at which Jesus would die), Jesus said virtually nothing about a second coming.  And thus it must have been somewhat startling when, on the night before He died, in the upper room on the western hill of Jerusalem after Judas had departed to fetch the Sanhedrinists and the soldiers who would arrest Him, Jesus for the first time explicitly and compassionately spoke to the faithful eleven apostles of the fact that He was “going away” and that He would “come again” to receive His own unto Himself (John 14:1-3).  Those precious words were as follows.

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“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”

 

Given the context of 1^st century Jewish culture, those words would have been recognized as wedding talk.  Marriage ceremonies in that culture involved two stages – the betrothal and the wedding.  At the first stage, the betrothal ceremony, the dowry was paid by the family of the groom and the couple exchanged vows; thus they became legally bound to one another as husband and wife. But the wedding itself did not occur until months later, the precise amount of time generally determined by the father of the groom. During those months – the betrothal period – the bride and groom remained separate (cf. the time spent by Mary, the mother of Jesus, with Elizabeth in the Judean hill country, Lk 1:39-45), and each had a well-defined responsibility.  The task of the groom was to prepare a home for his bride in the midst of his family/clan; that is, the groom worked to provide a place where the new couple could live in the shadow of his father.  Indeed, one of the expressions for marriage in that culture was “adding a room to your father’s tent”! On the other hand, the task of the bride was to keep herself pure and make herself beautiful for her husband.

 

The actual wedding was fairly simple, though much celebrated.  The groom would simply go to the home of the bride and fetch her to the home he had prepared.  To be sure, there would be a wedding “parade” along the way which would include great merry-making and rejoicing and, depending upon the wealth of the families, such special features as musicians and poets to extemporize on the beauty of the bride.  And when the wedding party arrived at the home which the groom had prepared, there would commence a wedding feast to celebrate the happy occasion. But there was no ceremony or exchange of vows; that had been done at the betrothal. The essence of the wedding was simply that the groom, having prepared a home for his bride, would return and receive her unto himself that where he was she might be always.  Thus, the disciples would have heard Jesus’ words as wedding talk.

 

It is important to understand that there is no occasion or eventuality in all of Jewish culture which is more a cause for rejoicing and celebration than a wedding.  Thus it is delightfully appropriate that Jesus picture Himself as a groom who has betrothed Himself to those disciples, assuring them that He is going to prepare a place and that He will certainly return – as every groom would – to fetch His bride unto Himself.  It is hard to conceive of a more winsome, loving and comforting way in which Jesus might have communicated that promise to His disciples there in the upper room.  Thus it was that He prefaced that promise with the tender words, “Let not your heart be troubled.”

 

But there is another dimension to Jesus’ words which is little appreciated, and yet tremendously significant to the promise being made by Jesus.  To understand that dimension it is important to mention two other factors relevant to the culture of Jesus’ day.  First, it was very much a clan culture.  That is, the Jewish people lived out their lives in extended families (clans) which grew as sons were born and eventually brought home brides to grow the clan. Further, those extended families very carefully watched over one another.  Each clan was functionally led by a patriarch – a “ruling father” (pater/archos) who was ultimately responsible for the health and vitality of the clan.  To be sure, in the New Testament era Rome was ruling over all the land and political and military concerns were not left to individual clans.  But daily life and welfare was very much a function of the clan.

 

The second factor is this: when a family turned its young daughter over as a bride to be cared for by her new husband, they were not so much entrusting her to that man as to his family, his clan – and specifically to the patriarch/father of that clan.  Families sought out a clan which was large and strong and well established, all of which bespeaks a wise and dependable patriarch; a family could happily and confidently entrust their treasured daughter to a groom whose “father” can be thus described.

 

It is against that cultural backdrop that Jesus’ words ought to be understood. Much of what Jesus had been saying of late – and would go on to say in the next few minutes in the upper room – was terribly disconcerting to the disciples.  They were anxious for Him to inaugurate His promised kingdom, but He had been speaking again and again of dying (cf. Luke 13:31-34).  Those disciples had haltingly bowed the knee to Jesus’ claim to be the Son of God, one with the Father in essence but distinct from the Father in person and role.  Now He speaks to those disciples as a loving groom might speak vows of fidelity and comfort to his bride.  In essence, He reminds them of the infinitely glorious clan into which they have married, and of the eternally dependable character of the Father of that “clan.”

With all of that, think through those precious words once again.

 

“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. [That is, all of the history of your people has taught you that you can trust Yahweh God.  He is my Father!  Even though I am telling you things you do not want to hear, you have learned to trust my Father and you can trust me as well.] In my Father's house are many mansions: [My Father rules over a vast and strong household; He has proven Himself to be a wise and careful “Patriarch.”] if it were not so, I would have told you [If there were any reason at all to doubt His strength and wisdom, I would have told you of that.  But in fact He is worthy of your trust – even if some of what I have said to you causes you concern.] I go to prepare a place for you. [I am going away, and as a faithful groom I will make ready a home where we can dwell in the shadow of my loving and powerful Father.]  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again [as does every husband who has purchased a bride for himself], and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”

 

Those words are ours as well.  We, too, wait for the fulfillment of that promise.  And as we wait there is much to confuse and discourage us.  Well might we today – in the midst of all the moral chaos and seeming meaninglessness of history as it unfolds around us – ponder and embrace that loving promise of our heavenly Groom who has purchased us to Himself as His Bride, and whose all-wise Father will determine the appropriate time for the wedding feast to occur.

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Douglas Bookman is professor of New Testament Exposition at Shepherds Theological Seminary in Cary, North Carolina. You may contact Professor Bookman through his website, bookmanministries.com

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