9. The first public announcement of His Death

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The story of each man is told in two brief items: born—such a date; died—such a date. In the life of only One of all who have lived on this earth, death was first in the sense that dying was the reason for His coming. As Browning put it:

I think this is the authentic sign and seal

of Godship; that it ever waxes glad,

And more glad, until gladness blossoms, bursts

into a rage to suffer for mankind.

Though He came to die, it was not for the sake of dying. Hence, whenever there is suffering, death, or even a humiliation mentioned, there is always the counterpoint of glory, victory or exaltation. Divinity shines forth whenever His human nature is humbled. This intrinsic relationship runs all through His life. If He was born of a humble maid in a stable, there were angels of heaven to announce His glory; if He lowered Himself to companionship with an ox and an ass in a manger, there was a shining star to lead Gentiles to Him as King; if He was hungry and tempted in the wilderness, there were angels to minister unto Him; if His Blood poured forth in Gethsemane it was because His Heavenly Father reached Him a cup; if He was arrested because His Hour had come, there were twelve legions of angels to liberate Him if He did not will to offer His life for men; if He humbled Himself as a sinner to receive the baptism of John, there was a Voice from Heaven to proclaim the glory of the Eternal Son Who needed no purification; if there were townspeople to reject Him and throw Him over a cliff, there was the Divine power to walk through the midst of them unharmed; if He was nailed to a Cross, there was a sun to hide its face in shame and an earth to quake in rebellion against what creatures did to its Creator; if He was laid in a tomb, there were angels to herald His Resurrection.

What makes the life of Christ unique is that He conditioned the establishment of His reign on earth and in heaven, on His suffering and death. His victory over evil, by absorbing the worst that evil could do, had for Him a representative and vicarious character. Quoting Isaias, He said that He came to be “counted among the malefactors.” But His victory over evil, through His Cross, would pass on to men who would reproduce the experience of cross-bearing in their lives.

The Cross was everywhere in His Life. He could not speak too openly about it, for when He did, even His closest friends, the Apostles, did not grasp its meaning. The first public announcement that He came to die was occasioned by the Pharisees as they discussed with Him the subject of fasting. The Pharisees had complained to the disciples that Our Lord ate and drank in very questionable company. Joining themselves for the moment with the fasting practices of John the Baptist, they complained that Our Lord and His disciples were eating while John’s disciples were fasting. The devout person in Israel fasted twice a week, namely, on Mondays and Fridays, which were thought to be the days when Moses went up to Sinai. Our Blessed Lord apparently was not fasting with His disciples in the same way that John the Baptist fasted. This gave occasion later on for the Pharisees to complain that He was a glutton and a winebibber. The answer Our Blessed Lord gave to their question why His disciples did not fast, was much more profound than seems at first sight.

Can you expect the men of the Bridegroom’s company

To go fasting, while the Bridegroom is still with them?

As long as they have the Bridegroom with them,

They cannot be expected to fast.

MARK 2:19

He calls Himself “the Bridegroom.” The Pharisees, who knew the Old Testament well, were familiar with that idea. The relation between God and Israel was always that of Bridegroom and Bride. Over seven centuries before, the prophet Osee heard God speak to Israel:

Everlastingly I will betroth thee to Myself,

Favor and redress and mercy of Mine thy dowry;

By the keeping of His troth thou shalt learn to know the Lord.

OSEE 2:19

The prophecy of Isaias among others also spoke of the relation between God and Israel in the terms of the Bridegroom and the Bride:

Husband now thou hast, and the name of Him

Is the Lord of hosts,

Thy Creator; He, the Holy One of Israel,

That will now be called God of the whole earth,

Makes thee His own.

ISAIAS 54:5

His listeners knew what He was saying, namely, that He was God; He was the Lord to Whom Israel was espoused. He stepped into the place of the God of the Old Testament, claiming the same rights and privileges. Our Lord made other references to Himself as Bridegroom in the parable of the banquet for the king’s son, and in the parable of the ten virgins where the Bridegroom who cometh was Himself. John the Baptist earlier, when he saw Our Lord, also recognized Christ under that Old Testament figure of the Bridegroom, as he said:

I am not the Christ; I have been sent

To go before Him.

The bride is for the Bridegroom; but the Bridegroom’s friend,

who stands by and listens to Him, rejoices too,

Rejoices at hearing the Bridegroom’s voice;

And this joy is mine now in full measure.

JOHN 3:29

John was only the friend of the Bridegroom, or the “best man,” at the marriage, or the forerunner of the Messias. But Christ Himself was the Bridegroom, because by taking a human nature in Bethlehem without ever being a human person, He potentially espoused all humanity. Until the hour when sin would be vanquished and the Bridegroom would take as His Bride regenerated humanity, or the Church, John would prepare for the nuptials. Paul would later on describe himself as playing a role like John the Baptist’s, except that his would be in relation to the Church of Corinth:

I have betrothed you to Christ,

So that no other but He should claim you,

His Bride without spot.

II CORINTHIANS 11:2

The old Israel that was the Bride would become the new Israel, or the Church, and at the end of time, the glorious nuptials between the Bridegroom and the Bride would be celebrated in heaven:

The time has come for the wedding feast of the Lamb.

His Bride has clothed herself in readiness for it…

The merits of the saints are her linen.

APOCALYPSE 19:7

The answer to the question of the Pharisees was that the disciples of Our Lord did not fast because they were not sad; in fact, they were happy, because God was walking the earth with them. While He was with them, there could be only joy. But, it would not always be thus on earth. He came to die. Once again, there is that inseparable connection between the Cross and glory. He then proceeded to speak of His death.

But the days will come

When the Bridegroom is taken away from them;

Then they will fast, when that day comes.

MARK 2:20

The Bridegroom will be crucified; He will go to war against the forces of evil and then will claim His Bride. From the joy of the feast they would pass to the sorrowful gloom of the fast when the Bridegroom would be smitten.

This was the first public announcement of His death. His primary purpose in answering the Pharisees was not to emphasize the practice of fasting, but to announce the removal of the Bridegroom. He implied furthermore that His death would be no stroke of fate, but an essential part of His mission. That moment when Our Blessed Lord was speaking of the joy of a marriage feast, He looked down into the abyss of His Cross and saw Himself hanging there. The shadow of the Cross was never off Him, even when He rejoiced as a Bridegroom. Good Friday and Easter were here again united, but in reverse. It was from joy that He looked to the Cross in His first announcement of Himself as the Bridegroom.

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