SONS OF THE BRIDECHAMBER
[p. 36] SONS OF THE BRIDECHAMBER
The Lord would identify His own with Himself in the blessed service (see Mark 1: 17; Mark 2: 15; Mark 3: 9). Then they are formally commissioned in chapter 3: 13 - 19 and are sitting around Him at the end of that chapter.
The disciples were not fasting. They were divinely taught not to fast. They were “sons of the bridechamber” — a remarkable title. It implies an understanding of who was present: the Bridegroom was there. The One who was entitled to Israel’s affections had come to win them by His service of love. “Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep” (Hosea 12: 12). The Lord exalts His disciples into a very blessed communion with His own thoughts by calling them “sons of the bridechamber”. The presence of the Bridegroom was a peculiar moment, and fasting was not in keeping with it. If Israel missed her opportunity it would be a time of fasting indeed. But the Lord plainly declares that what He was bringing in was new and it could not be connected with the old garment. You cannot connect Christ with the righteousness of man after the flesh. There must be a new garment to suit the Bridegroom — to suit the One who serves in love and who wins the bride that way; she must be clothed with His worth, for nothing would suit His eye or His heart but that. To bring in a little of Christ only makes matters worse (verses 21, 22).
So the new wine must have a new vessel. It is a question of what God is for man as set forth in the Bridegroom. But then there must be a suitability in the vessel — a God-given capacity. The new vessels are then divinely taught and formed. The capacity is in affection.