Jesus had a body – a flesh and blood, physical body with a heart, two lungs, kidneys… the works. He had teeth and a tongue, a digestive tract and all that goes with it. He ate. He drank. He slept. He worked with His hands and He walked on His feet. He sweated. He bathed. He blew His nose. He sniffed and He scratched and He spat on the ground.
I hope I’m not weirding you out, am I?
Jesus was a man with a body, and it’s high time we take His physical presence seriously, because if a body was good enough for Jesus, it ought to be good enough for us.
The very first heresy the Early Church encountered wasn’t that Jesus was only a human and not God. The first heretical development was called docetism, and docetists believe that because Jesus was God, He couldn’t really be human. They believed that matter – the stuff your body is made of – is inherently evil. But the writers of the New Testament want to make it clear that “the Word became flesh.” (Jn 1.14) That’s an affirmation of matter. “Jesus grew in wisdom and stature.” (Lk 2.52) He grew up in a body, hit puberty, His voice probably broke. He grew hair in all the appropriate places.
Let’s not shy away from this. Let’s celebrate this. The Son of God didn’t just create the physical world. (Col 1.16) He became part of it. There’s no stronger affirmation of matter than that. There is no room for some kind of over-spiritualised notion that this physical world doesn’t matter, none of that nonsense about ‘spiritual’ things being prioritised over mere ‘physical’ things. God made matter and called it good, no less than seven times in the very first chapter of the Bible. If matter is good enough for Him, then (whether we acknowledge it or not) it is plenty good for us, too.
Has matter been corrupted? You better believe it has! But despite how cosmic the ramifications of the Fall are, they are not enough to eradicate the inherent goodness of God’s creation. Besides, God’s plan is to eventually redeem it all, to restore creation to its original, pristine state.
This is my Father’s world –
O let me ne’er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the Ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world!
The battle is not done;
Jesus who died shall be satisfied.
And earth and heav’n be one. *
Let’s not disparage God’s physical creation with all its physical inhabitants of various physiques. Let’s cultivate it and enjoy it properly, giving thanks to the Father, from whom all of these good gifts come!
Prayer
God of all creation, You have embedded me in a physical existence on a planet perfectly fine-tuned for life that orbits just the right kind of star in just the right kind of galaxy. But more extraordinary than all the wonders of the hundreds of billions of galaxies with their hundreds of billions of stars is the human body. We are fearfully and wonderfully made, a marvel of Your handiwork. I thank You for the mysteries of human existence and the ability You have given me in Christ to present to You the members of my body as instruments of righteousness. And though in this life I am subject to the conditions of the curse, I know I can anticipate resurrected life in a body that will be conformed to the Body of the glorious resurrected Christ. May I use the opportunities You have given me in this life to accomplish what will endure in the next.
In Jesus’s name, Amen
*’This is my Father’s world’ Maltbie D. Babcock
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