GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 2:19
Honeymoon
At 6:00 p.m. on Saturday, June 17, 1961, at Tri City Park Tabernacle, Rev. R.D. Shaw pronounced Alice Marie Hedge and Claude Lee Black married. From the church, the wedding party and guests went to Ridgedale Hall which was reserved by the bride’s parents for a catered reception. After opening gifts, a meal with the guests, and circulating and thanking all the guests, the newly married couple was off for a honeymoon.
St. Mark said that Jesus replied to the scribes’ and Pharisees’ question about fasting, “And Jesus said to them, ‘Are the sons of the bridechamber able to fast while they have the bridegroom with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they are not able to fast.’” (2:19) In order to understand Jesus’ message, it’s necessary to shift one’s focus from Ridgedale Hall and thousands of similar places to the Capernaum of the New Testament. In Capernaum, newly married couples did not immediately run away for a honeymoon; they stayed home and opened their house to close friends of the bride and the groom, who were called “children of the bridechamber.” The guests would bring food and gifts. It was a time of feasting. The wedding week was a happy time for a newly married couple. There was actually a rabbinic ruling that, “All in attendance on the bridegroom are relieved of all religious observations which would lessen their joy.” In other words, wedding guests were exempt from fasting. Jesus, then, likened his presence to that of a bridegroom, and all his followers as “children of the bridechamber.” They could not fast while the bridegroom was with them.
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