February 16, 2024

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE READING:

“Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of Him who is the head, that is, Christ. From Him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” (Ephesians 4.14, 15, 16)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

As Paul described the “body of believers” with the image of the human body we are led to associate ourselves with body parts such as “an eye, a nose, a hand, a foot.” We could go further and speak of other body parts and organs such as kidney, liver, finger and toes. But, he makes a clear distinction about two “parts” of the body that none of us can ever be: head and ligaments. I would think that “heart and soul” would fall in that category as well but they may exist between the two as we would find in a Venn Diagram as that which is in common between the two sets. Thus, “heart and soul” are under the influence, though they exist in the body, of the head and ligaments which hold the body together and give it the understanding of reason and purpose.

THE HEAD: This is the most easily discernible of the two as Paul states clearly that Christ is the head. Let us make an even more indisputable claim that it is Christ who is the head and not simply Jesus. Simply Jesus? By that I mean, Jesus who is the Christ was Jesus of Nazareth, born of Mary. As a human being, Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, was able to represent the righteousness of God and the fruit of that representation completely and without question. The people, pro and con, could see that His words and actions, while similar and familiar, were vastly different from the words and actions of others. Jesus without crucifixion and resurrection would have been a good man, a good prophet, a good friend and like a good neighbor. But Jesus is not known apart from His crucifixion and resurrection. By their addition to His ministry, Jesus fulfills the Law and the Prophets and is manifested then by God as the True Messiah, the Christ of God. Thus, it is Christ Jesus who is the Head of the Body, the ecclesia of God, or the Church as the faith community professing Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God through whom He alone makes our salvation possible. Without, let us remember, the presence of the Holy Spirit “on Him, in Him and through Him” is how Jesus was able to accomplish all that God had sent Him into the world on earth and “under the earth” to do. What was Jesus the Christ intended to do? He says it simply “To seek and save that which is lost!” It is the ultimate expression of God’s being and desire for His people…all people.

THE LIGAMENTS: Paul expressed the vital importance of “every supporting ligament” to the vitality and integrity of the body. It is how we, the many parts of the body, are held together collaboratively in harmony with one another. I believe that the Holy Spirit, as presented in this description of the body, are those connecting and supporting ligaments. They give us movement, strength and capability to do what the whole body is created to do. That is why Paul will say that one part of the body cannot say to another “I have no need of you.” Equally, no one part of the body can say “I am the whole body.” Honestly, to be a body of eyes or noses or hands or feet or stomachs probably limits our ability to say and do what God fully intends for each of us to say and do. We need the Holy Spirit both in us, as we receive in part at our conception as well as upon our submission in baptism, and on us as we make our profession of faith in Jesus as the Christ and Lord and Savior and commit ourselves to serve Him only all the days of our lives. Jesus confers the gift of the Holy Spirit upon us. In truth, He bequeaths His Holy Spirit to us as part of His “Last Will and Testament” there in the Upper Room on the night He would be handed over to the ruling authorities with Judas in the lead. Though scripture tells us that “Judas was possessed by Satan,” Jesus embraced the sad situation of Judas’ life as a manifestation of the will of God through the Holy Spirit. When Jesus said “What you are intending to do, do so now and quickly.” Why quickly? Jesus knew the conviction of the Holy Spirit was coming to confront Judas and strip away the lie which had overtaken the truth in him. It can be said of that moment, the similar expression Joseph declared to his brothers when he revealed himself to them, “What you intended for evil, God has worked together for good.” The inevitability and inescapablity of the truth is revealed to us by the Holy Spirit which “holds us together.”

Mighty ones of God, let us be drawn together to do the good we are intended. Let each one of us be held together by the Holy Spirit and accomplish that which is told to us by the head of our existence who is Jesus the Christ. In doing so, we shall be able to fulfill the very word of God who calls us into being and desires to confer on us the blessing of “well done, My good and faithful servant, whom I call My very own.”

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, before we were conceived in the womb, You had already formed us in Your love and by Your Spirit spoke us into being. Each one of us is blessed with the opportunity of doing right, being good and producing the fruit of the Spirit so that others may be fed the truth of that same love so that the two will become one. It is our soul’s sincere desire to embrace the oneness You have in mind that we would know that we are Your people and that You are our God. Lead us in that discovery of the truth and the manifestation of that love for us all. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.