The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty … I believe … in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting
(The Apostles’ Creed)
The reality of life during COVID-19 is beginning to set in here in Australia. Most businesses are closed or running on a skeleton staff, and people are being encouraged (sometimes more forcefully) to stay at home except for a few ‘essential’ reasons. For each of us, these restrictions come with some sense of loss and grief.
Many Griefs
Some grieve the loss of employment and live with uncertainty about tomorrow; others must continue to work in health care settings with vulnerable people, stressed staff and limited resources. Some live alone and fear the coming months of loneliness and isolation; others have children home from school and are trying to balance their children’s care and education with their own need for space to continue working from home. Some have complicated home lives at the best of times plagued by abuse and fear, while others lack the basic security of a roof over their head and a place to self-isolate. Some are vulnerable to COVID-19 and are facing the reality that if they become ill they may die, while their loved ones fear having to grieve away from the support of family and friends.
As Christians, there is something else we grieve: the absence of the physical coming together of Christ’s body, the church. Currently, most congregations are working with online ‘bandaid’ solutions to keep gathering together. Please don’t misunderstand me; I am very grateful for the ways that church leaders have worked extremely hard to transition church services and bible study groups online through use of streaming, video chatting and social media. This technology is enabling us to remain connected in a way that would not have been possible even ten years ago.
But a church service of people gathered around their computer screens, from the safety of their own lounge rooms, is not the same as believers physically coming together. Scripture warns us of ‘not neglecting to meet together’ (Heb 10.25), and when conditions improve we should be eager to assemble with other believers (see Adam Ch’ng’s article too).
In the meantime, our physical distance from our church family is something we should stop and grieve over.
An Embodied Spirituality
And we are able to grieve well because as Christians we are blessed with an understanding that our bodies and souls are both important. Throughout history, various heresies have presented themselves that prioritise one over the other, and lead to impoverished understandings of the gospel and our eternal hope. Paul addresses this in 1Corinthians 6:12-20. In dealing with sexual immorality, he emphasises that ‘your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you’ (v19), so we are to ‘glorify God with your body’ (v20). God created our body and soul as a single entity, and is concerned about the eternal well-being of both.
This oneness between body and soul is also seen in the sacraments of Communion and Baptism. In instructions for the church to follow, Jesus left us with these sacraments and, in them, we are reminded of the Lord’s death and resurrection, and of our birth into new life. These are fundamental truths that we learn from the Scriptures. Yet Christ chose to teach and remind us of these in physical ways—through the breaking of bread, the drinking of wine, and the immersion in (or sprinkling of) water—so that our senses experience signs of our spiritual renewal and remembrance.
God created our body and soul as a single entity, and is concerned about the eternal well-being of both … In the death and resurrection of Christ we see the eternal significance of our bodies most clearly.
And so it is at Easter. In the death and resurrection of Christ we see the eternal significance of our bodies most clearly. The mere fact that the eternal Son of God was willing to come to earth in a human body demonstrates his love for sinners in a fallen world. This act of humility is highlighted by Paul in Philippians:
…who, though he was in the form of God,
did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,
being born in the likeness of men.
And being found in human form, he humbled himself by
becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross. (Philippians 2: 6-8)
Yet, perhaps even more wonderful than his humbling himself to take on human form, is his bodily resurrection in glory. He conquered evil and the grave and returned to his closest friends and companions on this earth, showing them the bodily scars he bore for us, before being returned to his Father in glory and seated at his right hand.
Christ is risen! And we look forward to our bodily resurrection as well at the return of Christ.
But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. (Philippians 3: 20,21)
This hope is something Christians have confessed throughout the ages in the Apostles Creed: “I believe in … the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting”. Not only will our spirits live on in eternity, but our bodies will be resurrected, renewed and perfected, to live forever in the new heavens and the new earth. What a glorious hope!
Perhaps, as we muddle through online church services this Easter, our desire to be reunited physically as a church can point us toward our eternal hope of being physically present forever with one another and with our Lord and Saviour.
