The Body of Christ

[Brad Fox]

Dr. Paul Brand was a world-renowned orthopedic surgeon who spent most of his life reconstructing the bodies and rehabilitating the minds of leprosy patients in Vellore, India and Carville, Louisiana.  In the mid-20th century, this was dangerous, difficult, and confusing work.  Ultimately, Dr. Brand discovered the cause and progressive effects of the disease which led to a cure for this ancient dreaded disease. 

 

Dr. Brand wrote two books entitled Fearfully and Wonderfully Made and its sequel, In His Image. He was assisted in the writing by Philip Yancey, a leading Christian writer.  Brand’s perspective of the human body was one of wonder and awe.  As a crowning achievement of God, he held the body in great reverence.  These books discuss the anatomy and physiology, the structure and function, of various tissues, organs, and systems of the body.  Dr. Brand and Yancey wrote the chapters in these books with the intention of proclaiming the artistry and scientific genius of our Creator.  They also use the body to propose a model for how humans can conduct their own lives. 

 

It has long been my desire to share with you the beauty of these books, and to relate them to the teachings of the apostle Paul, the great Christian theologian.  Paul once made a profound statement in his letter to the believers in Corinth about the role of individual believers in the life of the church.  He wrote, “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it (1 Corinthians 12:27).”  This was written about 1500 years before Vesalius started refined dissections of the human body, and before the microscope was invented by the Janssens brothers.  There is no way Paul could have understood how perfect his choice of the human body as a symbol of the Church was.  People of his time had no knowledge of cells, tissues, organs or other internal body structures.  But the analogy Paul used is quite profound and appropriate.  As a Christian biologist I am dumbfounded by the essential, exquisite truth implied in this verse.

 

Dr. Brand started Fearfully and Wonderfully Made with a consideration of the basic building block of all living creatures, the cell.  He wrote, “I have come to realize that every patient of mine, every newborn baby, in every cell of its body, has a basic knowledge of how to survive and how to heal, that exceeds anything that I shall ever know.  That knowledge is the gift of God, who has made our bodies more perfectly than we could ever have devised.”  He contended that a “likeness exists between the human body and spiritual Body (the Church), a likeness that derived from their common source.”

 

Brand related to Yancey that he had begun his studies of biology with observations of an amoeba, a free-living cell that scavenges for its food among decaying matter. 

 

He was amazed by the existence of such a primitive creature that somehow was more than the sum and total of all the non-living atoms that comprised it.  He marveled at the fact that the amoeba contained all the basic life functions of all living organisms that are millions of times bigger than its own size.   Brand remarked that the amoeba acts autonomously and has a strong drive to survive, a drive for self-preservation.  Brand contrasted this with his study of another amoeboid-like organism, the white blood cells (WBC’s) of our own body. 

 

 

 

Like the amoeba, the WBC moves itself by extending and oozing its “body” forward and attaching itself to a new position, then pulling itself forward by that attachment point.

 

Brand was struck by the contrast in life styles of the two types of cells, each a “mirror image of the other.”  He described the amoeba as a free-living, self-determined organism  that only depended on other cells for food.  A cell in the human body, though, is restricted by the hierarchy of rule imposed on all cells in a multicellular organism.  All such cells must sacrifice their own well-being for the well-being of the whole.  The life of an individual cell is insignificant when compared to the survival and success of the entire organism.  The individual is expendable.  But through that discipline of self-sacrifice, individual cells allow their community of diverse cell types to live and flourish. 

 

Unlike the amoeba, the WBC lives a far more regimented, restricted life.  It roams through the body tissues, squeezing through layers of tissues, themselves composed of other cell types.  It acts much like a corporal FBI agent, crossing state lines and areas of jurisdiction to enforce a higher level of order imposed by the Creator.  It seems to have unfettered access to go anywhere it needs to in order to maintain internal body balance. 

 

 

But another more profound difference exists.  Whereas an amoeba will move away from danger or uncomfortable circumstances, Brand notes, the WBC will move directly toward toxic hostile intruders with the singular goal of eating them.  Then in a final act of selflessness, the WBC dies with the neutralized digested enemy within its disintegrating body.  Brand makes a valuable observation at this point.  He says that cells are designed by God to either “live for themselves, or help form and sustain a larger organism.”

 

 

 

We humans, although ourselves composed of obedient cells, have a choice of how we will live.  Will we live outside of a church body, a family of believers, subject only to our own needs and plans?  From whom will we seek help if our plans go awry?  Or will we join the discipline, structure, and altruistic culture of a church family?  Many people have chosen to follow their own desires for life, and have had to suffer the consequences of a self-centered existence.  Others of us have chosen a more sacrificial approach, giving of ourselves for the betterment of the entire church body or society in general.

 

Could you be a “WBC” of the church?  What would that look like? 

• Being other-centered, not self-centered
• Not spreading gossip (gossip=false or even true facts that would hurt others)
• Lacking judgementalism and offering abundant grace
• Accepting others for who and what they currently are, but seeing the potential in them that God sees.
• Being good listener.  Really being present when others share their lives with you.
• Being the best reflection of the person Jesus modeled for us, in our thoughts, words, and actions.
• Lifting up high ideals as desirable personal goals, but offering abundant grace when other people don't reach those goals as well as we do
• Giving up our own goals so God can help others reach theirs.
• Not being critical of others but not being afraid to speak the truth in love.
• Being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong.
• Sacrificing personal time, treasure and talent

 

In his brilliant treatise on the Body of Christ started in 1 Corinthians 12:12, the apostle Paul writes:  

 

 

“Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.  For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.  Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.”  I suggest Paul is talking about humans acting as cells here.

 

Paul Brand goes on to finish the analogy and update it with new information in the light of modern day medical science:

 

“The body is one unit, though it is made up of many cells, and though all its cells are many, they form one body…If the white cell should say, because I am  not a brain cell, I do not belong to the body, it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body.  And if the muscle cell should say to the optic nerve cell, because I am not an optic nerve cell, because I am  not an optic nerve, I do not belong to the body, it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body.  If the whole body were an optic nerve cell, where would be the ability to walk?  If the whole body were an auditory nerve, where would be the sense of sight?   But in fact God has arranged the cells in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.  If all cells were the same, where would the body be?  As it is, there are many cells, but one body. (Yancey, P., 2004)

 

One final idea: 

  

Dr. Brand noted that there was one possible alternative to the free-living or body-centered forms of life.  This was a quite impressive perspective, actually.  He wrote that a cell “can be part of the body as a loyalist, or it can cling to its own life.  Some cells do choose to live in the body, sharing its benefits while maintaining complete independence-they become parasites or cancer cells.” 

 Cancerous:  wow!  I think its pretty easy to recognize the free-living, independent people in our lives who have no dependency on Christ or His Body of believers.  But Brand is saying here that it’s possible that some of us in the Body are not truly committed to the lordship of Jesus and the integrity of the body.  Quite an indictment for a professing Christian.  Perhaps we need to continually examine our motivations for being a part of the Body, in light of this statement. 

 

So the white blood cells serve as a living inspiration for us, their vulnerable, dependent hosts.  Technically, they are called macrophages, or cells that “eat” large particles.  They are sacrificial soldiers that back up the primary defenses and neutralize noxious invaders. 

 

Would you consider being a macrophage for the Body of Christ?

 

Questions to consider:

·         Do you have a memory of a negative event in the life of the church that you wish you could have neutralized?

·         What course of action could you have taken?

·         How can you recognize unhealthy intrusions into the life of the Body of Christ?

·         What personal costs will you incur if you decide to become “macrophagic”?

 

 

Revenge perpetuates evil.

Justice punishes it.

Evil is overcome by good only if the injured party absorbs it, refusing to let it go further.

Philip Yancey

 

Reference

 

Yancey, Philip, 2004.  In the Likeness of God.  Grand Rapids, MI, Zondervan Press.