Forever Incarnated-Advent 5 (2015)

Strange, isn’t it, to think that Jesus still has a body? Once incarnated, He would have a body forever. No return to being some sort of spirit minus a body like the Father or the Holy Spirit. No return to being uncontained, as it were.

My first thought as I was pondering this was a song by the Talking Heads titled “And She Was”—a rock tune written by David Byrne. In talking about his inspiration for this song, he wrote, “I used to know a blissed-out hippie-chick in Baltimore…She once told me that she used to do acid (the drug, not music) and lay down on the field by the Yoo-hoo chocolate soda factory. Flying out of her body, etc., etc. It seemed like such a tacky kind of transcendence… but it was real! A new kind of religion being born out of heaps of rusted cars and fast food joints. And this girl was flying above it all, but in it too.”

Okay, that’s pretty weird.

Jesus didn’t have an out-of-body or rather in-the-body experience as some sort of drug-induced trip from which He’d return to reality. Nope. For Him, He existed before all time and then, in God’s perfect timing, He added full humanity to His full divinity and it would be a forever thing.

The Infinite would gain—through the Son’s Incarnation—the experience of being finite. (Aw go ahead and say, “Whoaaaaa”)

The experience of death. (Whoaaaa.) The experience of knowing what created beings feel and know…even if Jesus was never created.

Jesus was Incarnated—in part—to experience full humanity. (Whoaaaa…)

Thought for the day: Once Jesus was Incarnated, He would be the Word made Flesh. There would be no Flesh going back and returning as simply the Word.

Questions for reflection:

1. When Jesus returns, what does the Bible say? Read Luke 21: 27 At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28 When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” Will Jesus have a body?
2. Read Luke 24:13-31 about Jesus walking with the two men on the road to Emmaus. Did Jesus have a body? Was it a regular human body? In what ways was it different?
3. Why is it important that Jesus’ resurrection wasn’t just His spirit but also His body? What if His body was still in the tomb…what could anyone prove?
4. Does Jesus’ body still serve some function, and if yes, what functions does His humanity serve? For thinking about “in Him”, read 2 Corinthians 5:21 “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (Consider also Eph 1:4-14, Eph 2:21, Eph 3:12, Eph 4:21, and Col 2:6-7)

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Incarnation (2015 Advent Devotional Series) began November 29th.  By way of reminder, if you haven’t signed up yet, you can receive these devotional studies in your email throughout Advent 2015 by entering your email address on the SeminaryGal.com home page in the space provided in the sidebar.  Or “Like” the SeminaryGal Facebook page to access them there.  If you like these devotionals, I’d really appreciate your letting others know so I can continue to spread the Good News far and wide.  Blessings to you, in Christ always, Barbara <><