The Broken Body

Colossians 3:1 If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. 5 Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, 7 in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. 8 But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, 10 and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, 11 where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.

When Jesus met with His disciples in the upper room, following the Passover supper He took the bread and He held it before them. He then blessed the bread, broke it and gave it to the disciples while saying, “Take, eat; this is My body.”

What exactly did He mean by that – and why did He say it?

Of course we know, looking back over the centuries to the events that transpired after Jesus said what He said. We know the very next day Jesus’ body was indeed broken. We know His description of the bread matched what would take place in His life.

Spiritually, Jesus was foretelling the price required to pay for my sin. (The wages of sin is death. (Rom 6:23))

Isn’t it fascinating the price to pay for my broken body is His broken body? You see, when I sin, I break something. I don’t just break the natural law or the spiritual law, or break my conscience, I literally break my body. The adage is: “Sin kills,” and there is a reason for it: Sin does literally kill. Me. Eventually.

If I keep sinning, parts of me will die, and parts of those in my vicinity will die, and eventually I will die eternally – damned by my own sin. I have no one else to blame.

This is why Jesus’ message was a message of repentance. From the first time He spoke publicly to the end of His ministry Jesus preached repentance. Strictly put, to repent means to “turn around.” I was going one way, (a way of death,) and Christ urges me to turn around and head in the way of life. Only His way is the way to eternal life. His broken body palpably demonstrates the cost of the direction I am presently headed. I need to put that off, and put that away. Now.

-  Pastor Bill