Week 42—Sunday Matthew 8:16-17
Matthew 8:16-17
CAN THE FLESH BE REDEEMED?
We have been looking at the healing of the soul by surrender and appropriation and obedience. What about the body? If the “flesh” is an instrument of this redemption does it partake of that redemption?
Plato said, “If the head and the body are to be well you must begin by curing the soul.” We have emphasized the curing of the soul. But the healing must be passed on to the body if it is to be the Word become flesh.
Physical healing is not the central emphasis of the gospel. If you make healing central that leaves you at the center—God serves you, keeps you well. And anything that leaves you central is off-center. God is the center, and reconciliation to God is the central emphasis of the gospel. But reconciled to God you are reconciled with yourself, with your body, with your brother and sister, with nature, with life. This reconciliation brings health.
I have often imagined a convention of bodies talking about the people who inhabit them. A body stands up and says, “Oh my, the man who inhabits me doesn’t know how to live. He is full of fears, resentments, self-centeredness, and guilts. He ties me in knots, and then doses me with all sorts of medicines which have no relationship with what is wrong with me. There is nothing wrong with me. He upsets my functioning. I wish he knew how to live.” Another body stands up and says, “It’s wonderful to live with the woman I live with. She is rhythmical, harmonious, and adjusted. We get along famously together, and I do prodigious things for her. It’s a joy to do it.” Suppose your body would stand up, would you enjoy it? At least 75 percent of all diseases are homegrown ills, the doctors tell us. And the patients will never be well unless they change their attitudes toward life. The life climate is wrong for health.
O Jesus, I would let your health and healing into every pore of my being, so that I may live by your health. For my body is made by you, for you, and when I live in you I live in my homeland. I thank you. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: My body, included in redemption, will realize its inclusion to the full.