When you really think about it, the body is a marvelous thing. Consider the human brain. Your brain is like a super computer, even better than a supercomputer. The human brain with its billions of cells and trillions of connectors is a self programing system that carries out about one thousand trillion logical operations per second. Or how about the human heart. Though a woman’s heart beats slightly faster than a man’s, each day the average heart will beat about 115,000 times and pump 2,000 gallons of blood throughout the body via the circulatory system, supplying oxygen and nutrients to the tissues and removing carbon dioxide and other wastes. Think about your bowels (I bet that’s a statement you never thought you would hear in a sermon). But your bowels are amazing! Your intestines take up a whole lot of square footage inside you. "The surface area of the intestines if laid out flat would cover two tennis courts,"[1]. The small intestine alone is about 20 feet long, and the large intestine about 5 feet long. These intestines take in nutrients and eliminate waste as they digest the foods you eat by means of a wave-like pattern of muscular action. Protecting all these systems are your bones. Your body has 206 bones and once for ounce your bones are stronger than steel. A cubic inch of bone can bear a load of 19,000 lbs. It is of course possible to break your bones. However, when broken, bones have the ability to heal themselves. Think about the muscles that move these bones. There are over 600 muscles in your body. Muscles are a fibrous material that adjust size and strength depending on the demands placed upon them. There are voluntary muscles movements like the raising of your hand, but what fascinates me most is the involuntary movements like shivering to stay warm. Finally, let me draw your attention to skin. Your skin keeps infection and bacteria out, and fluids in - unless your body starts to overheat and then it sweats to facilitate the cooling evaporation process. As the protective outer layer your skin takes a beating. But don’t worry, your skin has the ability to heal any tears it even renews itself every 28 days.[2]
I could keep talking about how marvelous the body is, but instead I think I’ll let saint Paul take over. You see Saint Paul shares my fascination with the body. In his letter to the Corinthians, saint Paul invites us to marvel with him as we consider what it means to be part of the body of Christ.
The first thing that causes us to marvel is the fact that we are part of the body of CHRIST. In verse 12 Saint Paul writes, “12 The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ.” Paul invites us to imagine the Christian church as the body of Christ. As we think about the body of Christ, the first thing that occurs to us is what a miracle of mercy it is that people such as us should be counted among the members of the body of Christ. As sinful people who do sinful things, we clearly do not deserve to be part of this body. To play off Paul’s illustration, by nature we would be accurately represented by cancer, rot, infection, virus, and disease. None of us would choose to have cancer, rot, infection, virus, and disease as part of our body. Such things are not good for the body, they damage the body, they can even kill the body. As a result, we go out of our way to avoid such things. When infected by them, we go to great lengths to purge them from our bodies.
Jesus, on the other hand, allowed Himself to be exposed to us. He willingly lived among us, and though He was personally free of our sinful disease, He lovingly chose to be infected by us and that choice killed Him. He was nailed to a cross, but the cause of death was sin; your sin, my sin, the sin of the whole world. But death was not a permanent condition for Him. I know typically it is, death is not something a body tends to recover from. But Jesus’ body did. He had a miraculous recovery, literally. He rose from the dead and in so doing cured us from our disease, cleansed us from our infection, and connected us to His body. Isn’t that marvelous! You are no longer accurately represented by cancer, rot, infection, virus, and disease. By a miracle of mercy God has made you a part of the body of CHRIST.
In verses 14-19, Paul invites us to marvel at the individual parts that make up this body. In verse 14 Paul writes, “14 Now the body is not made up of one part but of many.” Paul imagines us as individual parts of the body and in so doing he highlights our differences. Paul sees these differences as a good thing, but he knows that is not how we always see it. Sometimes we see our differences as something that divides us or isolates us from each other. Paul illustrates this view in verses 15-16 where he imagines a foot feeling like it doesn’t belong because it is not a hand and an ear feeling like it doesn’t belong because it is not an eye.
Maybe from time to time you find yourself feeling like the foot or the ear in Paul’s illustration. Or maybe you have an even lower opinion of yourself. Maybe when you think about your place in the body of Christ you imagine yourself to be redundant like a kidney, disposable like the appendix, or a nuisance like nostril hair. Maybe you wonder if you are needed or wanted here. Maybe you wonder if you were transplanted, appendected[3], or plucked from the body if anyone would even notice, and if they did, would they care if you were gone? Maybe from time to time you find yourself feeling like the foot or the ear in Paul’s illustration wondering where you belong.
If you feel that way, then I am sorry. As your pastor I am sorry for anything that I have done or not done to make you feel like you don’t belong to this body. I assure you that I and the other members of this body want you here. But better than that, Saint Paul assures you that God wants you here. In verse 18 Paul writes, “God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.” In the body of Christ there is no such thing as a useless body part. You are who you are because that is who God wants you to be. You see, when God put the body of Christ together, He had a specific plan. He “arranged” you. That means God is fully aware of your strengths and weakness, your abilities and limitations and He assigned you a particular task, role, or function in the body of Christ in keeping with those strengths and weakness, abilities and limitations. And your place in the body of Christ is “just as He wanted” it to be. God does not want you to be like anyone else. He wants you to be like you. As Paul illustrates, “17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?” God wants you to be different. Your differences are intended to complement and coordinate with the other parts of the body. You see, your differences do not divide or isolate you from the body, it is because of your differences that you have a place in the body. Is that not also marvelous?! You are a PART of the body of Christ.
Finally, in verses 20-26 Paul invites us to marvel at the body as a whole. In verses 21-22 Paul writes, “21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable.” There is a temptation, in the body of Christ, for the individual parts to forget that we are part of a body. Though we would never say it, sometimes we imagine ourselves as more important than others; thinking that our contributions are greater and the part we play more essential to the functions of the body. Such thoughts lead us to conclude that there are parts of this body that are not pulling their own weight and therefore are not needed.
Paul warns us not to think of our fellow members that way. Not only are such thoughts sinful arrogance they are blatant ignorance. You may not see it, you may not understand it or appreciate it, but the so-called weaker parts of the body are indispensable. Consider the eyelash. They may appear frail and useless, seemingly good for nothing beyond batting at a lover. But the eyelash is the eye’s first line of defense. The eye lash keeps dust debris from blinding the body. Before you judge your fellow members useless, consider the possibility that they are an eyelash. Maybe you don’t see the part that they play but consider the possibility that they are acting as our first line of defense as they sit at home praying for you and the other parts of the body.
Every one of us has a part to play in this body. Not a single one of us is more important than the other. In fact, as members of the body of Christ we are so closely connected to each other and we depend on each other so much that Paul tells us is verse 26, “26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.” When your pinky toe is broken the mobility of your entire body is compromised. When least of us is hurting we all feel the pain. Conversely, when someone says you have a nice smile your face becomes flush and your heart races. When any one of us finds success, we all have reason to celebrate. Take a look at the brothers and sisters in faith that have been gathered around you and marvel that you are part of the BODY of Christ.
In verse 27 Paul concludes, “27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.” The body is a marvelous thing. By the grace of God, you are PART of the body of Christ, by the grace of God, you are part of the BODY of Christ, by the grace of God, you are part of the body of CHRIST. Amen
[1] Colby Zaph, a professor of immunology in the department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Melbourne's Monash University
[2] Much of the information in this paragraph was obtained at www.mentalfloss.com and www.healthline.com
[3] Not a real word but Dr. Olson said I could use it.