Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
Eph 5:25 -27 NIV Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
Eph 5:25-27 New Jerusalem Bible
Husbands should love their wives, just as Christ loved the Church and sacrificed himself for her to make her holy by washing her in cleansing water with a form of words, so that when he took the Church to himself she would be glorious, with no speck or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and faultless.
[The NJB is the only one of the versions that translates this passage using the words ‘form of words’. No doubt, many of us have heard or read this passage and are quite familiar with it, but I would like to use the NJB verse to take us a step deeper into perhaps something new.]
The word form translated here comes from the Greek word eidos; when Jerome translated it from the Greek into Latin, it became Video.
video= word-forming element.
Parenthetically, word, in the scriptures, can mean an individual word, or a whole group of messages, books, etc.. When we put together a group of story boards in motion pictures, we call them a movie or a video—together they give word-forming elements to interactive media.
God wants us to watch, and tell the world to watch, the video of His Son dying on the cross and to tell the reasons why: so that his bride might be washed by the water from this word. It should be the only movie in town, as it were. We should see tears on all those who exit the showing; we should be refreshed when we think about its meanings; and we should be purged and cleansed by its power—the power of the creators that have been choreographed into the cost of making this movie for us. And it should be a daily showing, marqueed as the featured and the matinee showings of the theater. Best of all, for free.
We should never think narrowly of this display either: that a single viewer at a single hearing could know everything about its application. Sin is an extensive problem, and the remedy for its eradication was a forever gift; that is: the value given to redeem was equal with the item which had been lost, plus was equal to all of the damage that had occurred to the reputation of the one offended.
Most movies, videos and Power Point presentations are packed with nuances of color and behind-the-scene details which keep us amazed long after the 90 minutes are over. Well, this video-of-all-videos has a cast of starring characters who have dwelt in the lights for ages, who brilliantly play themselves on the set, and who expertly deliver a plot which concerns the eternal wellness of the universe—and all of this couched in magnanimous truths and manifold twists that will take many lifetimes to understand the psychology of its production. The grand scale of its cinematography alone should keep one a gasp with its realism, and the joy-forming sound of its music are guaranteed to form sure words which will fulfill by promise every desire of the heart to every person who makes it into the eternal kingdom of God. Its study is never to be exhausted, and for eternity the people of this kingdom will thank and praise-out each new sub-plot found.
In retromath, this video tells of the guttural pollutions that were spewed into the nostrils of the purest Son of God; records for mankind the audio sounds of the re-used, corroded nails as they were hammered through sinless hands; and re-imagines for us forensically the soiled dirt left beneath the heart from an unwashed spear: truly a son has been given from thoughtful God.
It is my hope that anyone who personally receives this movie into their mind—whether over-nighted to them by an angel, bellowed at them by a busker, or brought lovingly by a bible friend—that they will preview and conclude that it is not just an historical tale about Roman cruelty, brotherly envies, and a half-day’s night of suffering on a tree, but an ever-true gospel about an infinite loss, an infinite love, and an infinite video.
—Dumas fils
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