God made flesh
In our church, someone shares a reflection on communion each week, before we take it. This was my reflection on Sunday:
This Christmas I have been contemplating the unexpectedness of the incarnation – the idea of God made flesh. It is such a crazy idea, that the God who made the universe could become a few cells in the body of a peasant woman, utterly helpless and dependent. That the Word of God could become a baby who couldn’t speak. That the One who knows everything could become a toddler who would have to learn to walk and use the toilet. That the all-powerful one could become a man who got thirsty, tired and footsore.
It’s easy for us to think that our bodies, our physical beings, don’t matter to God. That he is really only interested in our minds and our spirits. But this is not what Christianity teaches. God made our bodies, and said that they were good. God became a man, with body, soul and spirit. Jesus died in his frail earthly body, and was resurrected in his perfected body, promising that that is what is ahead too, for us who believe. He didn’t just die to save our spirits, but all of us.
If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through His Spirit that dwells in you (Romans 8:11).
The Bible doesn’t tell us too much about what our resurrected bodies will be like, but it points us to Jesus, and the way that his body was transformed in his resurrection. We can trust him that it will be good.
So what has this got to do with communion? Have you ever thought how weird communion must seem to someone who has never seen it before? A whole lot of people gathered together, solemnly eating a scrap of bread and a drop of wine or juice?
Jesus could have asked us to remember him in any way he liked. He could have commanded complex, expensive rituals or costly sacrifices. But instead, he took the most common of foods, and asked us simply to do something that we do many times a day. To eat. And in the eating, to remember that he came to us as a person just like us, as God made flesh.
As the bread is broken in our mouths, we remember the terrible suffering that he endured in his body for our sake. As we swallow the juice, we remember the blood that was poured out so that we can be forgiven. As the food we eat nourishes our bodies, we remember that through his death and resurrection we can be made new: body, soul and spirit; and that his Holy Spirit has come to live in us.
Before you take communion, I invite you to take a moment to really look at the elements, the bread and the juice. These simple foods are a gift from the God of the universe who became a baby for you. They help us to remember that we have a God who cares about every aspect of our lives, and who can use even the most mundane things to bless us.
Hi, I'm Chris!
I'm an Australian Christian author, blogger and speaker who has published one book - Diamonds from the King - which is a book of stories from my life of ways that God has worked to bring precious diamonds from suffering, disappointment and confusion.
I'm a mum, granny and wife and I love spending time with my grown kids and my four and counting grandkids, but my greatest passion is to get to know God better, and to share his wonder with the world.
