Dear Cornerstone Family,
“At forty years old, the wheels started falling off.” About ten years ago, I heard a good (older) friend make this statement. It sounded like an exaggeration at the time. I know better now.
At 40, I was in an airport standing next to someone who was reading a sign at the other end of the concourse. I thought to myself, “He can see that? He must have amazing eyes!” Turns out his eyes weren’t amazing. He just had glasses. Apparently, I’ll be joining the glasses wearing club before long.
I slightly twisted my ankle last week. It was no big deal. Except for the fact I’m still sore, and it’s taken twice as long as it should to get better. I’m shocked at how easily (and often!) I hurt myself now, and how long it takes to heal up. When I mentioned this concern to a doctor friend, he responded, “Well, you are over forty.” Sigh.
As I get older, I think about my body more. I am more cautious about what I do with it. I’m more attentive about what I put into it (well, some of the time). I’m more aware of its limits and the consequences for not respecting those limits. In short, I’m learning, albeit slowly, to respect my body for what it is and needs—ultimately, redemption.
Because of sin, our fearfully and wonderfully made bodies (Psalm 139:13-14) are plagued with infirmity and doomed to decay (Romans 8:20). Our bones break. Our joints ache. Our skin sags. Our mind slows. Our bodies fail. The older we get, the more we cry, “Who shall deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24).
Answer? The embodied Jesus Christ.
The body of Jesus Christ is essential to the salvation he came to bring. If he wasn’t really a human being in every way, then he wouldn’t be an adequate representative and substitute for real humans. Further, if he didn’t come in a body, he couldn’t save bodies. As Gregory of Nazianzus taught many centuries ago, “The unassumed is the unhealed.” Meaning, if Jesus didn’t take to himself a true body, he can’t save our bodies. He only saves that which he is. Thankfully, the Scripture tells us clearly that Jesus was made like us in every way, “yet without sin” (see Hebrews 4:25), bearing our sins (1 Peter 2:24), thus ensuring “the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 9:23).
That, my friends, is good news.
Sam Allberry says it right: “The only hope for us is the body of Jesus, broken fully and finally for us. And by looking to his broken body we find true hope for our own. In Christ, our bodies are no longer identified by what we do with them, or by what others do to them, but by what Jesus has done for them.”
Your servant,
