Saturday after the Twenty-First Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on November 7, 2020 by under
Scripture: Ephesians 5:22-33 (NKJV)
5:22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. 24 Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, 26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, 27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. 28 So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. 30 For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. 31 “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. 33 Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
Devotion
This week’s lections began by talking about an inheritance. We have an inheritance in Heaven—we have been made citizens of Heaven—on account of what our Lord Jesus Christ has done for us. We have a family—a household which is called the Church. The appointed readings for this week end with the Blessed Apostle St. Paul telling the Church at Ephesus that this family of Christ and His Church is modeled in the most intimate of families: husband and wife.
Like a husband and wife are two that become one flesh, so too Christ and His Church are united as one. The Church is washed in the blood of the Bridegroom, our Lord Jesus Christ. He cleanses His Bride with His blood; the blood shed on the tree of the holy cross. He feeds the Church with His real and substantial Body and Blood in bread and wine; the Body and Blood which He offered on the cross for His Bride, the Church.
Through these means the Church is united to her Bridegroom. All those born through faith are born of mother Church and enjoy all the gifts that the Bridegroom gives to His Bride. Our Lord Jesus makes of us a household—a family—and gives us the inheritance that He won for us on the tree of the holy cross. He clings to us on account of His love for us, and we cling to Him through faith in His love for us.
Prayer: Lord, we beseech Thee to keep Thy household, the Church, in continual godliness, that through Thy protection She may be free from all adversities and devoutly given to serve Thee in good works, to the glory of Thy Name; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
