In the Jewish marriage custom, before a man can marry the woman he loves, he needs to demonstrate the extent of his love and commitment to his bride-to-be. He would have to come to the woman’s house with his father who then would negotiate the price of this marriage. Very often, the bride parents would ask for a high price for she is precious to her family. Ha-ha... verily I say onto you, this Jewish custom is quite similar to our Chinese custom. The bride parents would demand a high price which at least would cause the bridegroom some "pain". (Remember because of us, Jesus had paid a heavenly price and died a painful and shameful death at the cross).
When the agreement is made, the man would then take a cup of wine with him and approach the bride-to-be personally. This wine is a symbol of his love and commitment to the woman. The presentation of wine in a cup is a gesture of saying to his bride-to-be: “I am pouring out my life for you just as this wine is being poured out. I love you so much that this cup is a covenant that I will give my life to you.” Smiling and deeply persuaded, the bride would accept the cup and drink from it as if she is saying, “I accept your love and I am willing to enter into this covenant with you for the rest of my life.”
Is this similar to what we are doing every Sunday during service? He ordained holy communion so that we can do this often in remembrance of Him.
Custom be it of the Jewish or Chinese origin, are pointers to a more glorious and profound love demonstrated by the Trinity God. During Jesus’ ministry and being a Jew Himself, He lived among Jewish community and offered the same wine of love to His disciples… There were at least three occasions that He celebrated the festival of the Passover with His disciples. But on the night before he died on the cross, He took a cup of wine, offered it to each and every one of them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”
Wow… being a gang of law abiding Jews at that time, how could this gesture escaped the minds of these disciples that what their Master offered them was something which could only be done by a groom to his future bride!
Jesus is indeed our Valentine. This same Jesus is offering the same love to us today. To demonstrate His love and commitment towards us, He had gone to the extent of hanging Himself on that cross at Calvary and set us freed from all our nonsense that lead us to our empty and meaningless life. He Himself demonstrated this love not only by offering us the cup but also through the breaking of bread, before inviting us to enter into His everlasting romantic covenant.
To respond to His glorious love, we just simply need to be persuaded, smile and partake of the cup in remembrance of His love and what He has done for us. Anything apart from the response like a bride is religion, not relationship. Therefore, confession of our sins before communion is indeed religious and self righteous!
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