Holy Bridegroom-Bone of my Bone, Flesh of My Flesh

We are in the midst of a meditation on being brides of the Holy Bridegroom. Last time we looked at how brides were chosen, until fairly recently, as a means to improve and carry on the lineage of a family/tribe.

We are brides for the Holy Bridegroom, chosen by God the Father, in order to bear fruit for the Family line. In the last blog, a few of the Old Testament brides were noted and their stories are certainly informative. Let’s look at one Old Testament bride, though and what she could teach us about how to live faith-full lives.

The very first Bride was Eve, specially created and chosen by God for Adam. This picture is from the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo depicts Eve as worshiping God after she is created from Adam's rib. “This is bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh,” says Adam. (Genesis 2:23). Isn’t this what we should be in relation to our Holy Bridegroom? What might it mean to be ‘bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh’ with the Holy One?

Bones form the support and structure of a human or other vertebrate. What forms that support structure of our relationship with one another and with God? The very backbone of our relationship with the Holy Bridegroom is that we were Chosen by God. John 3:16-17 says, “For God so loved the world (and that means each of us) that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God sent his Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” God CHOSE to redeem us-each and every one. Like the dutiful brides of old, we did not decide we wanted to be betrothed and joined to the Holy Bridegroom. Instead, we were chosen for and by God!

If God’s loving choice of us is the backbone of our relationship, then what is the flesh on those bones? Is it not Love? The Love Jesus tells his disciples about in John 15:12-17: “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.  You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.  You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.” Again we are reminded that we are CHOSEN-chosen to love and be loved.

This is the Love that the Holy Bridegroom has for the bride. Love that chooses relationship over service and Love that lays down life! Because of the Love, we are to ‘bear fruit that will last’. And how do we do that? The answer is found in 1 Corinthians 13:13 where we are told that “Faith, Hope, and Love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

We are chosen, not because we are perfect, but because we are loved. “Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:39). We are chosen, not because we are special, but because we are loved. Like Ruth and Rahab, we were outside the tribal lineage, but chosen for the Holy Bridegroom. Rahab, a Canaanite woman, whose action of faith saved the Hebrew spies before the siege of Jericho, gained a place in the lineage of Israel by marriage to Salma. Ruth, a Moabite widow, was welcomed into the heritage by her faithful love of her mother-in-law Naomi and became great-grandmother of King David. Their lives showed that they were of the holy lineage, even if their bloodlines didn’t. Our lives should also show our lineage and our connection to the Holy Bridegroom.

We are chosen as bride by Grace to share in the bone and flesh of the Holy Bridegroom! “Through [our Lord Jesus Christ] we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God.” (Romans 5:2) By being chosen as bride, we become bone of bone and flesh of flesh with the Holy Bridegroom. Like Eve, Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, Leah, Ruth, Rahab and the rest chosen as brides to bear the lineage, we are chosen.

Being chosen as bride of the Holy Bridegroom is a responsibility. We are called by Christ to “Love one another” and to “bear fruit that will last”. Because we are the bride, and have access to the Holy Bridegroom, we have the responsibility to “share the glory of God” not with “tongues of men and of angels…prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge…faith so as to remove mountains…,” (1 Corinthians 13:1-5) but rather with Love as outlined by the life of our Lord. Love spelled out in 1 Corinthians 13, which is patient, kind, sympathetic, selfless, endless, caring...

As a chosen bride, as flesh and bone of the Holy Bridegroom, we are free to be all that God created us to be! Isn’t that exciting!

Next time we’ll glance at the story of one bride in the New Testament.