The Bridgegroom Services of Holy Week

 

The first three days of Holy Week are referred to in the Church as "The End." Jesus was walking into the very midst of those who sought to take His life. He experienced deep anguish within Himself (John 12:27). Despite the triumph of the Palm weekend, which had confirmed the outcome of His Passion even before it had taken place, the Lord had already told His disciples that:

... he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. (Matt.16:21)

The moment of truth had arrived. No longer did Jesus speak to the people from boats or in the countryside. He spoke openly in Jerusalem itself. He confronted His enemies and publicly refuted them. He went directly to the Temple and cleansed it of the crooked moneychangers. He spoke to them sharply: "It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer'; but you make it a den of robbers' (Matt. 21:13). He refuted all the questions which the leaders put to Him in order to "entangle him in his talk" (Matt. 22:15ff.) He condemned the fig tree which had not brought forth fruit. He spoke and acted with great urgency:

Now is the judgment of this world, now shall the ruler of this world be cast out. (John 12:31)

The moment of truth revealed that even in the supposedly most religious and righteous places, the world was under the sway of evil. The Messiah came to inaugurate a New Age.

On the first three "great and holy" days of this week, it is the Gospel read at the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, the "end" of each liturgical day - when "the light of Christ illumines all" - that the "theme" of the whole day is revealed. On Monday the theme is quite simply the End: "Heaven and earth shall pass away but My words shall not pass away" (Matt. 24:3-35). On Tuesday we are minded of the vigilance and care required of all Christians as we hear Christ's parables of the ten virgins and of the talents, and we are filled with "holy fear" as we listen to Him prophesy the Last Judgment (Matt. 24:36-26:2). On Wednesday we hear about the harlot who anoints Christ's feet to prepare Him for His burial and of Judas who judges her, mercilessly condemning her act of mercy (Matt. 26:6-16). Indeed, "The Light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil" (John 3:19). And this darkness brings judgment.

Judgment is the theme of the Gospel lessons read in darkness each evening at Matins. On Monday we hear of the barren fig tree which Christ curses and causes to be dried up (Matt. 21:18-43); on Tuesday, of the blind and hypocritical Pharisees (Matt. 22:15-23, 39); and on Wednesday, of the final rejection of Christ: "now is the judgment of the world" (John 12:17-50).

The two themes are darkness and judgment are combined in the troparion sung at Matins on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday:

'Behold! the Bridegroom comes at midnight,

and blessed is the servant whom He shall find watching;

and again unworthy is the servant whom He shall find heedless.

Beware, therefore, O my soul,

do not be weighed down with sleep,

lest you be given up to death,

and lest you be shut out of the Kingdom.

But rouse yourself, crying:

"Holy! Holy! Holy! art Thou, O our God.

Through the Theotokos, have mercy on us!"

Midnight is the time for us to keep vigil, to watch and pray. The night time of "this world" is when we look for the coming of the Kingdom of God.

The first three days of Holy Week are commonly called "The Bridegroom Service." This service is customarily served in anticipation on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday evenings. Throughout the services we are never allowed to forget that Christ the Bridegroom who comes is God, the God who created man in the beginning and who now comes to do all things for his salvation in His love for mankind. He constantly demands that we return this love, and that we show to others the same mercy that He shows to us. On Great and Holy Thursday the last of the Bridegroom Services is celebrated, and there we see this vital Christian requirement of love to put to the ultimate test. For the last time we sing the exaposteilarion which forms the only link between all of the services of the first four days of Holy Week.

'Thy Bridal Chamber I see adorned, O my Savior,

but I have no wedding garment that I may enter.

O Giver of Light, enlighten the vesture of my soul, and save me.'

This hymn sung near the end of the Service tells us, in effect, that in our present state we are not ready to meet the Lord. There is no room for pride, callousness, or the recounting of our good deeds. We must repent, i.e., have an inner change of mind and heart before we can enter the Kingdom.

The first three days of Holy Week are concluded by the betrayal of Christ by one of His own disciples - Judas. On this day, the beginning of Great and Holy Thursday, as we enter Christ's chamber together with the glorious apostles to partake of His table, we see the impious traitor Judas indeed sitting at the table with no wedding garment. The troparion says:

'When the glorious disciples were enlightened at the washing of their feet before the supper,

Then the impious Judas was darkened, ailing with avarice,

and to the lawless judges he betrays Thee, the righteous Judge.

Behold, O lover of money, this man who because of money hanged himself.

Flee from the greedy soul which dared such things against the Master.

O Lord who art good towards all men, glory to Thee!"

We realize that all of the things we have heard about and experienced this week, all the things we have been called to do and to be in order to partake worthily of the Master's table, are impossible without Christ's mercy and help. And now we stand in the lengthening shadow of Calvary. Judas has made his choice. He has hanged himself in remorse, and Christ is in the hands of lawless men.

The End becomes our "end" if we, too, join in rejecting the Light and Life of the world, or share in selling the Master of all in order to satisfy our own self-centered motivations.