Eighth Sunday After Trinity (10 August 2025)

Today’s meditation is based on our readings from Songs of Solomon 8:5–7 and 2 Peter 3:8–13. I would like to start with an introduction about Songs of Solomon. Mostly, we skip this book and don’t give much importance to the spiritual meaning of King Solomon’s writing. In Hebrew, this book is called ‘Shīr ha-Shīrīm’ which means ‘Songs of Songs’ or ‘Canticle of Canticles’. In some other languages, this book is translated as ‘Elevated Songs’ or ‘Exalted Songs’. This dramatic poem is not based on lust but talks about the divine love between the bride and the bridegroom. Jesus is the bridegroom waiting for the bride which is ‘the church’. All who are redeemed by His precious blood are the bride or church. The bridegroom, Jesus Christ, came into this world and redeemed every one of us by shedding His blood and making a new covenant with us. The covenant is similar to the covenant made between the bridegroom and the bride in Jewish culture. We can understand Songs of Solomon if we read and understand it based on the intimacy of the bride and the bridegroom and the expectation of the bridegroom on the bride.  

We know that the first Adam yielded into temptation and passed the early sin to the next generations. The laws and commandments that the Almighty Father gave to save the people from the chain of the bondage of sin did not guide the people to live a righteous life. So God the Father gave His only begotten Son to suffer and lay down His life as a sacrifice for the atonement our transgressions. Jesus came as the second Adam to this world to save us all from eternal death.  

Jesus fasted and prayed in the wilderness for forty days and forty nights. Life in wilderness is not easy. It is living without shelter, food, water or facilities. It is living with wild animals and birds, in the cold winter or hot sunshine. Jesus lived in the wilderness because of the love of the Father Almighty and the Son Jesus Christ on humans. Bible mentions three temptations, but Jesus faced many temptations in the wilderness. Jesus overcame temptations in the wilderness as the second Adam to and broke the chain of the bondage of sin. The bridegroom Jesus broke the chain of the bondage of sin in the wilderness. This was the first thing the bridegroom did for the bride.  

Then Jesus shared the love of the Almighty Father by sharing the good news. His preachings opened people’s eyes and led the people out of darkness. Jesus came as the true light who guided and led people to the everlasting life.  

When the time came for Jesus to lay down His life as the Passover Lamb, He was despised and rejected of men. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He bore our griefs and carried our sorrows. He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him. We read about the troubles he endured in Isaiah 53. On the night before He was crucified, Jesus made a new covenant with us, who are the church or the bride through His precious blood. He shared His body for us and shed His precious blood to cleanse our sins. He paid our debts on the cross and redeemed us by His precious blood. This was the symbolical representation of the betrothal between the bridegroom and the bride. Before crucifixion, the bridegroom promised us that He will go and prepare a place for us. He promised to come back to receive us as His bride.  

Although Jesus promised to come soon to receive us as His bride 2000 years ago, we are still waiting for the promise to be fulfilled. We commonly hear questions like ‘Will Jesus come again?’ ‘When will he come?’. Nobody knows the time of Jesus’s second coming except the Father. No one knows how long this grace period will last when we have the Holy Spirit to guide us. A few weeks earlier, we heard that the second coming of Jesus is delayed because it is not the Lord’s will that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:10 says “the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night.” The bride or the church will be taken away on the day of the Lord and will be with the bridegroom.  

Let us self-reflect on our lives. The bridegroom Jesus fasted and prayed in the wilderness, overcame temptations, preached the good news, brought people from darkness to the light and sacrificed His life for the bride. Have we understood the purpose of His life, sufferings and death on the Cross? Are our lives in this world reflecting the purpose of Jesus’s life and death?  

It was the love of the Almighty Father and Jesus that opened the door to eternal life for us. Songs of Solomon 8:7 says, “Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.” The bridegroom Jesus has showed this love for us. As His bride, do we have this love on the bridegroom?  

We are the church, the bride separated from the world and redeemed by the precious blood of the bridegroom. The bridegroom paid our debts on the cross. The bridegroom is longing to meet the bride which is the church. But His coming is delayed so the bride is prepared as He expects. Songs of Solomon 8 verse 5 asks, “Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?” Let us ask ourselves if we will be with the bridegroom in New Jerusalem. Are we willing to prepare ourselves to become the bride that He expects?  

Our bridegroom expects His bride to live holy lives as His witnesses. He expects us to bring more people to His church. We can do this only with the Holy Spirit’s guidance. We can endure unto the end and be loyal in our personal relationship with the Lord Jesus only by receiving strength from the Holy Spirit. Have we received the Holy Spirit? Are our lives directed by the Holy Spirit who is the best counsellor?

During Trinity Sundays, we are meditating on the importance of receiving the Holy Spirit and the role Holy Spirit plays in various areas of our lives. I hope and pray that this Trinity season is a time of preparation and restoration of our relationship with our bridegroom Jesus following the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Amen.