What you’re about to read can change your life, and many of us have never heard it before.

It’s the secret of the weddings of Galilee, and it’s the key to understanding almost everything Jesus said. It’s also the key to understanding how much God loves us—loves you.

Jesus’ disciples were all from Galilee, so the jaw-dropping details of the Gospel of God’s Love were laid out for them using images from a typical wedding in Galilee. When these details are understood, Jesus’ message explodes to life and Scripture unfolds its breathtaking, precious meaning.

Galilean weddings were one-of-a-kind, unique to their culture, that perfectly aligned with the prophecies of Christ’s return.

These weddings lasted seven days, but the year leading up to that main event held many secrets and details we need to know.

First, when a Father chose a bride for his son, the price for the bride was decided. In surrounding cultures, this meant purchasing the bride—but not in Galilee. The price for the bride was the amount agreed upon to be paid to her family in order to take care of her in the tragic event that something happened to her husband. This dowry was agreed upon, and all the details of the marriage were written down in a contract, called a covenant, which was witnessed by the whole town to make it legal.

The bride was referred to in a special way as one who was bought with a price.

Then came the cup….

The groom was handed a pitcher of wine. With reverence and trembling, he poured the wine into a cup, called The Cup of Joy, and then he handed it to his beloved….

The power was all hers to accept the cup and say yes, or to push it away and reject him. She had all authority over her decision. If she chose to say yes, she drank from the cup and handed it back to him.

Overwhelmed with joy, the bridegroom sealed the engagement by taking one last sip. He then made the loud and happy announcement, “You are now consecrated to me by the Laws of Moses, and I will not drink of this cup again until I drink it anew with you in my father’s house.”

Does that sound familiar? It should, because our Jesus said the same thing to His disciples at the Last Supper.

This announcement set in motion a chain of events of unimaginable importance.

For the next year, the groom would return to his father’s house, separated from his bride until the wedding feast. He would be busy, working very hard to build a room onto his father’s house where they would live. He built their new furniture and collected dishes and made arrangements for the week-long feast that would eventually come.

At the same time, the bride was to be busy readying herself. She and her bridesmaids would make their dresses, and this was no easy task in Galilee where extravagant dress material was hard to come by. It often took months to collect what was needed from traveling merchants.

Not only that, she had to be pure and ready at all times in case her groom came to get her. She and her bridesmaids knew he would come in the night (like a thief was the expression), so to make sure they were ready, they all slept in their dresses and kept their lamps prepared—for a whole year. They had no idea when he would come; they only knew it would be at night. The wedding would be a terrific surprise.

In fact, even the groom didn’t know when he would come! Only his father knew, because it was up to him to decide. One day, at long last, after all the preparations were complete, while everyone was asleep, the groom’s father would wake him and tell him, “It’s time! Go get your bride!”

Ecstatic with joy that had been building all this time, the groom and his parade of groomsmen and friends would flood out into the street and begin making noise to wake everyone to attend the wedding ceremony. All the while, the groom would blow the shofar to sound the invitation so his bride would hear him coming.

Only the guests who were prepared and waiting could quickly rise and join the wedding procession making their way with the groom to get the bride.

And only the bridesmaids who had kept enough oil in their lamps could walk out into the night with the bride to meet the groom.

Finally, it was time for the groom to take his bride home to his father’s house. He had come back for her, just as he promised, to find her waiting and ready. But she wouldn’t need to do anything to get herself there. Her part was accomplished by simply being ready for his return. Now she would be lifted up and carried away, to the place prepared for her.

It was time for the wedding feast—a celebration of stunning magnitude.

In Galilean culture, if you were ready in time to join the wedding procession, and if you were dressed in your wedding clothes, you could attend the feast of the bride and groom. The lavish celebration was held behind closed doors at the groom’s father’s home, but once the doors were closed, no one came in or went out for seven days. No one was left out unless they chose to be unprepared, because everyone was invited.

The beautiful mystery of the Galilean weddings is the key to understanding what tremendous love lies behind Jesus’ words, I go to prepare a place for you….and all the other wedding imagery He used.

The whole thing is an invitation to say yes.

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Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in Me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with Me that you also may be where I am.

~ Jesus {John 14:1-3}