April 18, 2024

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“Find out what pleases the Lord. Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the Head of the Church; His body of which He is the Savior. Now as the Church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.” (Ephesians 5.10; 22, 23,24)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

I have suggested two worldly consequences of sin in these reflections: making people stupid (forsaking obedience and wisdom) and the absence of listening (embracing the hearing of our own self above all others). There is a third that I would offer in light of these reflections on Paul’s word to the Christ community of faith in Ephesus: slavery to passion (the absence of reason and authentic purpose.) We can certainly use these three consequences more as categories under which a host of sinful actions could be listed. Such lists inspired the teachers of the Law and the priests to identify 613 commands which when followed to the letter of the Law would make one righteous. I have no doubt there a clear sense of failure with this kind of reasoning. Paul would confess that those who followed this kind of reasoning made themselves slaves to the Law. We can sing with the Psalmist David, “The Law of the Lord is perfect and refreshes the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple.” (Psalm 19.7) I find this psalm and this verse (I still sing the praise chorus often and find that simple refreshment in it as promised) more preferable to its distant cousin some 100 psalms away (Psalm 119). Psalm 119 is the longest psalm in scripture. It is beautiful and concise. It is voluminous and at times for me a bit cumbersome. Much in the same way the 613 commands as promoted by the Scribes and Pharisees were to the people of Israel. It reminds me of the soliloquy of Jacob Marley as he reflects upon “the chain I bore in life, it is a ponderous chain forged link by link and even more heavy than that.” When we think of chains our mind my reflect upon a leash for a pet. But, we would be deceived if that is the image we dare focus on when we speak of sin. That chain is like the anchor chain of a large ocean-going vessel. One link of that chain no human could lift on their own; even if they possessed all desire to cast it off. Sin seeks to enslave us with chains that not only bind the body but weigh down the heart, mind and soul of each person.

Not so with the ministry of being a disciple of Jesus the Christ. Paul speaks of this “slavery” as well. It is where we bind ourselves to the Master we know intends to do well for us and by us. In ancient Israel, when a slave had paid off their debt and fulfilled their vows of servitude they could be freed. However, if they chose to remain in the service of their master, their left ear was pierced with a symbol representing their master. As mighty ones of God, we cannot ever free ourselves of the debt we owe. There is no amount of good works and financial gain sufficient to free us from the slavery which leads to eternal death. Even if we thought we could deny we were slaves to sin, the lie would eventually be known and the burden would only be increased by the denial and the desire to live in such denial. We are free from the penalty of sin which is eternal death because “our price” has been paid…by Jesus at the Cross. He took upon Himself the chains of sin’s slavery and bore the weight of it to His physical death. He surrendered even His spirit which bolstered Him in those hours of trial and tribulation to God as He felt the burden pressing in and down upon Him. Physically and spiritually, Jesus pushed Himself up toward Heaven to speak in confession and profession of faith until His very last breath. Isaiah prophesied “He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was on Him. By His wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53.5) He bore the sign of the cross upon His body. He was indelibly etched by nailprints, rope burns, whiplashes, thorn gouges and a sword. So horribly was His disfiguring by the crucifixion that if you had not seen Him before you would not have recognized Him after. His appearance, in fulfillment of scripture, did not draw all eyes to Him and thus not to God. Yet, by His wounds we are healed.

That healing, mighty ones of God, is not guaranteed on this side of Heaven to be a physical one; though many have been healed in Jesus’ name. The healing which Isaiah declares as the Word of God concerning the Messiah was the healing of our souls bound for death in eternal Hell. What we cannot do, Jesus has done. He has done it, as Paul taught, for the Body for which He is the Savior. Should we not then bear the piercing upon us to witness the fact that we have chosen to bound to the Master of our Lives? Or should we, as some did, assume that such freedom which grace affords cancels the past so that we are free to sin again and again without consequence. The parable of the Master who forgave the debt of one man who then in turn demanded payment from another who owed him speaks to this. When the Master heard of the travesty, the first man was brought in and punished and cast into the debtors’ prison for ever. In the understanding of some that included all of the family and servants as well. Hear the angst of the Rich Man as he cried out from Hell to Abraham that someone be sent to His family to warn them to repentance. The burden is real. The freedom is real as well and not without constriction. How we live after the fact becomes as important as the fact that we have been freed. Little wonder why Jesus would say “On that Day many will cry out ‘Lord, Lord’ and He will say ‘Away with you for I never knew you.’” And Paul uses these images as the background knowledge for speaking of the submission of wives to husbands, husbands to wives and the two to the One.

Marriage and the marriage vows are meant to become the signs of our healing of “own-ness” and “alone-ness” to become as we were intended to be: a “One-ness.” The rings are the marks of our decision to be made whole and to live as one not only with one another but with God. To do so with any less intention maintains the bond of slavery as if we were never free and real and authentic. Is it no wonder why divorce rates remain so high? Or the percentage of those who merely live together believing it would be hypocrisy to get married only to face divorce? And what of those whose identities are confused and their choices for marriage partners denies the true purpose of such union which is not to self but to God? Yes, sin binds us as slaves to ourselves, our will, our desire, our purpose. Faith binds us as servants to all, God’s will be done, our desire to love one another as we ourselves have been loved for the purpose of honoring and glorifying God in what we say and do. With this Paul leads the Church, as local congregations and as the sum of the whole number of congregations, to its truest identity: wise, faithful and good servants who worship God in spirit and in truth.

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 brought 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.