19 August 2008 Devotion for Today “Who is the Head?” Ephesians 5:23

The other morning I was awakened by a terrible leg cramp. Sometimes I know when they are coming and I can prepare myself by jumping out of bed to walk it off. This one hit with absolutely no warning and hurt so bad it not only took away my circulation but my breath as well. The pain was excruciating As I tried to stand on the floor and put my full weight on it, it was so limp that it buckled underneath me. If I had not caught myself I would have surely fallen. It nearly did a ‘faceplant’ in the middle of the floor. Now I know the Bible teaches that “All things work together for good for those who are called according to His purpose.” I knew there had to be a sermon in this somewhere. At that point I was struck by the realization that you don’t fully appreciate the members of your body until they are either missing or not functional. The rest of my body joined with my leg and together we writhed on the floor in agony.

And in our text today the Apostle Paul discusses what happens when we encounter the spiritual equivalent of getting a Charlie horse in the body of Christ, and uses the human body as an analogy of the Church which is Christ’s body here on earth. Each one of you is an important part You each have a special job to do, a unique function to perform. And as I have already demonstrated, as members of the body, when one of you hurts, we all hurt with you. That’s just the way God made us- but even better, when one of you has something exciting or awesome to happen, we all share in that joy.

Each one of you is an important part- and the reason this is true is because Jesus Christ is the head. It almost goes without saying, but without the head, you won’t have much of a body. If you have ever witnessed a chicken being decapitated, it is not a pretty site. Everybody knows that its dead- everybody except for the chicken that is. He’s running around, bleeding in all directions, trying desperately to find direction, but after a while it flops over dead. And my friends that’s exactly the picture of what happens to us when we don’t have our head firmly attached to us- and when we do not understand our roles and proper places in the body. And the head of our body is Jesus Christ. Paul demonstrates this in Ephesians 5:23 For the husband is the head of the wife as also Christ is the head of the church.” Christ is our head, and as our head is the nerve center which makes decisions and reacts to all the messages each member of the body is sending it, so is Christ the head of the church.. and as Ephesians also says He loved her and gave Himself up for her.” The whole reason why we exist is because of Christ. He alone deserves to be our head because of His sacrifice on the cross for our sins. Jesus is the one who holds all of us together in a singularity of purpose and that is to glorify and worship Him.

Often cramps, or conflicts happen in the home when we do not acknowledge who the head of the home is. If Jesus Christ is the head of our home, then we should not have any problem understanding who is “wearing the pants in the family.”

May God give you a good and blessed day today, and if you ever experience a cramp, you may have to first fall to your knees before it gets better.