Body by God

Yesterday may have been the most amazing day in the life of the Table. And there are many to come. But we had more participation from Table members in that event yesterday than any event we’ve had. It may also be one of the most amazing things I’ve witnessed. Jesus is using The Table to bless many people. I saw that yesterday. And I thought it would be good just to let it soak in for this morning. Not to pat ourselves on the back, but to encourage us and to make sure we are rightly thinking about what just happened.

Paul writes what we just read to a group of people who don’t get along. The church in Corinth was a mess. There was fighting and bickering. Many of them, quite frankly, didn’t like Paul. They had significant disunity, people not treating each other right, especially those with money looking down on those without money… and using the Lord’s Table as a status benchmark. They didn’t love each other. The whole thing was a mess.

But Paul still calls them a church. He’s still encouraging them. He still loves them. He writes this letter addressing a lot of their issues. One of the places where their disunity shows up was in how they are viewing the various gifts that God has given them. And so he writes what we just read. It’s helpful for us to hear Paul talk to this church as we understand our own situation a couple thousand years later.

Paul makes a series of statements that we are going to ponder this morning.

The body is not one part, but many. (v 14)

Paul uses his favorite way of talking about the church, the gathering of believers. The church is a body. It’s a metaphor that Paul comes back to time and again. And there’s a reason for it. From the very beginning of the Bible, the story of Jesus and His redemption of us involves talking about the body in ways that we are to understand the body as a way of thinking about how all of us interact with our Creator. In the opening chapters we are told that God breathed his breath into Adam and Adam became a living soul. And from there on out, the body is an important way in which we engage our creator. So much so, that over time, we begin to see that all of God’s people are being talked about in terms of being a person, a body. That God breathed into His people and His people came to life. It’s a picture of what Jesus has done for us.

So here Paul is, with a dysfunctional church, and he is reminding them of their identity. And he begins by reminding them that they all can’t be the eye, they all can’t be the ear. Jesus has created his body in such a way, that he has given us a diversity of gifts. And all of the gifts are important. None of the gifts are dispensable. In fact, he uses the word “indispensable”.

Paul wants all of us to know how valuable we are to each other and to the world. And goes right after the way we talk to ourselves and the way we talk to each other.

“I don’t belong to the body”

“I don’t need you”

He corrects the way we think and talk about ourselves. We cannot begin to say to ourselves, well, because I don’t have this gift or that gift…because I’m not skilled in music, or I’m not skilled in speaking, I can’t tell myself, I don’t belong to the body.

Then he corrects the way we talk to each other. We cannot begin to say “I don’t need you”. This can be more of an unstated thing than even stated, in the way we talk to each other. We have to work hard at this. We are so individualistic in our culture. We are coached and trained and told over and over and over again that you are what you make of yourself and you need to always be looking out for number one. So when we come into group settings, here’s what we say: if you want something done right, I’ll just have to ___________. What? Do it myself. There’s a lot we could say about that statement, but one thing that statement does, there’s a very subtle “I don’t need you” running underneath it. “I don’t belong to the body” can’t be part of our self-talk. And “I don’t need you” can’t be part of our talk to each other.

And Paul asks three questions to make his point:

Three questions:

If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be?

If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?

If they were all the same part, where would the body be?

I find the last one kind of funny. The first two make the point. But then he just goes crazy. It’s over the top. If we’re all the ear. If we’re all the foot. But his point is made. All the parts of the body need each other. And that’s the point of all this and that leads Paul to say this:

There are many parts, but one body. (v 20)

Paul inverts his statement. There’s one body, but many parts. Many gifts. All gifts are helpful. All gifts are diverse and important. We need all the gifts to function right as a body. But then here’s this: all the parts are one body. There’s a unity to the body. All of these gifts together are not only necessary, they are meant to unify all of it. All of the parts are moving in the same direction for the same purpose.

You are the body of Christ. (v 27)

This isn’t just a way of thinking about our relationship with Jesus. We are Christ’s body. As this church moves, Jesus is moving because we are his body on earth. His eyes, his ears, his hands, his feet. It’s who we are.

This is an absolutely amazing statement. What do we know about Christ’s body? Don’t make this too difficult. What we know about Christ’s body. We’ll be talking about this in just a few weeks. It’s the whole point of Christmas. The point of Christmas is Jesus’ body. The 2nd person of the godhead got a body when he was born in Bethlehem. Jesus’ body grew up. Jesus body took naps. Jesus’ body was hungry. Jesus’ body spent time touching people, healing people. Jesus’ body was crucified. Jesus’ body has scars.

And now Paul says you are Jesus’ body. Well, which is it? It’s both. And it’s both in ways we can’t really begin to understand or described. All we know is that the Holy Spirit who lives in us has made us one body and has made us Christ’s body in Christ’s death and resurrection. And it all becomes ours in our baptism:

1 Corinthians 12:13 “For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free”

We were all baptized into one body by the one Spirit. Our baptism places us together. It unifies us. It makes us one. And this is where Paul is going with all of this body talk. We don’t make ourselves one body. That’s been done for us. This is God’s doing. He begins in our baptism. He makes us one, one living, breathing body together. Yes, we have diverse gifts, but these gifts are all part of who we are as one body, for the good of the one body.

And this is all God’s doing.

God has put the body together (vs 24)

As if the point already has been made, Paul says this again and again in this paragraph. God did this. God put the body together. God made us one body together in our baptism. We can’t do this. We’re sinners. We’re selfish. We’re constantly trying to one-up each other. We are narcissists by nature. But God steps in and gives us new life and makes us one with each other. All of us with all of our various gifts.. gifts that God gave us for the purpose of blessing the body and blessing others. As one body.

God has arranged each one of the parts in the body just as he wanted. (v 18)

But then, there’s the most remarkable statement of all. This blows me away. I missed this the first time I read it. What’s funny is last night I’m looking at this verse and I realize it is saying something that is absolutely off the charts. God has arranged the parts. We get that. That’s what Paul is saying throughout this whole thing… that all of this is God’s doing. That this is Jesus’ doing in his death and in his resurrection and through our baptism. This is God working in each of us. But that’s not all that’s being said here.

Look at the last four words of that statement:

Just. As. He. Wanted.

I can’t even begin to talk about how profound that is. How gut-wrenching that is. How life-altering that is. Just. As. He. Wanted. The creator of the universe wants us to be his own hands and his own feet. He “wants”. That’s the Creator of the universe talking. He wants you and he wants me to be his own. This is grace. This is his love. This is his heart’s desire. And you and I are in the middle of it. Jesus wants you. He’s arranged for all of us to be here together in this moment as His body for the city of Los Fresnos because this is his desire. He wants you and I to be this for Him so He is at work in us to make it happen. He loves you so much and one of the way we see that love is precisely what happened yesterday, what happens every Sunday. Every Sunday this is “Just. As. He. Wanted.” He was thinking about you and me at the cross. He’s thinking about you and me when he forgives us and makes us new people and gives us these gifts. This is all “Just. As. He. Wanted.”

Why would he want me? I’m a sinner. I deserve anything but grace. Why would he want someone like me who is way too self-focused, and self-reliant? If I’m God and I’m looking at Chad Bresson, I’m saying “no way on my own green earth do I want THAT”. And yet, here we are His body and he wants us and he wants me anyway. That’s grace. That’s love. That’s forgiveness. God has arranged each one of the parts in the body… Just. As. He. Wanted. And it was on full display for all of us to see yesterday.

Let’s Pray.