1 Cor. 12:12-26
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body-Jews or Greeks, slaves or free-and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.
The eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you," nor again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you." On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. (ESV)
No Greater Suffering
Conversion of St. Paul
25 January 2010
In the mysterious communion of the Head with His body, the church, the church herself shares in His suffering. We know very well what the head suffers the body also suffers. Just ask anyone with a neurological disease. The body suffers the debilitations of the head. Christ's suffering has sanctified the suffering of the saints through the once and for all sacrifice of the Lord of life upon the cross. That sacrifice was prefigured in the whole sacrificial system of the Old Testament with its priests, offerings, blood, and burned carcasses. The shadowed promise of the messianic offering was only fulfilled in Christ, so that all those offerings are meaningful only in His. His sacrifice did not look back to those antique offerings, but they looked forward to and anticipated with ancient longing the sacrifice that was to come on the cross of Calvary.
The living sacrifices of the church even now also look back to the cross of Calvary. The church's sacrifices are no different than the temple's, neither of which are in themselves propitiatory sacrifices. They have meaning only in the one propitiatory sacrifice. The sin offerings of the Old Testament cult only propitiated the wrath of God because they pointed to the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world (Jn 1:29). The Head has been both priest and victim and thus brought together Old Testament cult with New Testament suffering. By being both priest and lamb, He offered to God the perfect sacrifice, which alone paid for sin and quelled God's wrath against us sinners.
Our suffering for Him must always be seen as overshadowed by the cross. Luther said that our lives are ever lived sub cruce tectum, "sheltered and hidden under the cross." Our suffering partakes of His hiddenness, for His sacrifice hides the true intent of God under the signs of sacrifice, death, blood, and a body needing burial. The world will never know or see our sacrifice for what it is because it remains as much hidden as Christ's own. Such things are only "by faith." Neither will we ourselves ever "know" what our sacrifice means apart from His sacrifice. But in Him who is the Head, the church's sacrificial life is fully comprehended, "For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake" (Phil 1:29). There is no greater suffering.
St. Augustine
"The true Mediator, by assuming the form of a servant, became the Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Though in the form of God He received sacrifice together with the Father, with whom He is one God, yet in the form of a servant He chose rather to be than to receive a sacrifice, that not even by this instance any one might have occasion to suppose that sacrifice should be rendered to any creature. Thus He is both the Priest who offers and the Sacrifice offered. He designed that there should be a daily sign of this in the sacrifice of the Church, which, being His body, learns to offer herself through Him. Of this true sacrifice the ancient sacrifices of the saints were the various and numerous signs; and it was thus variously symbolized, just as one thing is signified by a variety of words, that there may be less weariness when we speak of it much. To this supreme and true sacrifice all false sacrifices have given place."
Prayer
Lord God, our heavenly Father, You have sent Your Son as High Priest and Victim for us. On the cross He gave Himself up for us to propitiate Your wrath and grant us redemption, which is the forgiveness of our sins. Set us ever under the shadow of His cross that we might live our lives hidden by His forgiving love and in its cooling shade allow us to offer a sacrifice of worship joined by faith to Christ our Lord. Amen.
For the delegates to the LCMS convention that they would serve the mission of the church by leading God's people into the truth of God's Word
For all those whose work is physically demanding that they might be strengthened in their bodies to bear the daily work they have taken up
For Margaret George, who is undergoing treatment for cancer, the Lord Jesus would grant her healing
For Julienne Mbuyi, who was bereaved of her son, that the Lord would grant her strength and courage
Art: MANTEGNA, Andrea Crucifixion 1457-59