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[a] 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.
When I got home from school that day my dad’s coworkers were at the house working on the basement. My sister, in the living room watching Oprah, specifically instructed me during one of the commercial breaks not to go near the basement steps because it was dangerous. I trotted off, oblivious to her instructions, and went straight to the basement door.
My dad’s buddy was standing there literally with the staircase in his hands, as he finished ripping them down from the wall. “Whoa!” I thought, “A door that leads to no where!” I quickly sat down in the door frame and dangled my legs down from the edge that used to lead to stairs. I was excited and fascinated by the work they were doing. Legs swinging, chatting away, I didn’t even notice the nails sticking out from the bottom of the door frame. Not even seconds later, I noticed my leg felt kind of funny. Blood dripping down to my ankle, I snuck to the bathroom, wet down a washcloth, and looked at the back of my leg: not good.
There was a hole in my leg, presumably from one of the nails sticking out of the door frame. “Aaaapppprrriiiiil?!” I called her, worried about what her reaction was going to be. After the initial panic, she and my dad took action. Squished into the sawdust covered seat of my dad’s truck, my dad gripped the steering wheel and my sister held my hand as we rushed to the emergency room where I proceeded to get stitched up for the third time in my life. Crisis adverted.
Quick action, lots of love, and a trip to the doctors, allowed me to be home in just a few short hours. That day, my family operated as one body. My injured leg took precedence because my well being affects everyone else in the house. I Corinthians 12:12-26 reminds us that, with Christ, we are one body with many parts. All the parts are essential and depend on each other to fully function. This thought began to haunt me soon after seeing the movie Waiting for Superman. The movie’s narrator shares his shift of thinking from only worrying about his children and their education, to worrying education and well being of all children. It is the body of Christ.
If this were a logic problem, we would say if my leg is bleeding, then so is my family because we operate as one body. So, as if we were one body, we took care of the wound. Therefore, when Christ says “we are one body”; when schools, cities, my neighbors, etc. are bleeding from injustice, poverty, etc., then I too am bleeding and should be driven by the suffering coming from my body. “If one part suffers, every part suffers” (v. 26). Until, something changes…until I make changes…the body cannot function at its fullest capacity.
At fullest capacity, the body soars, knowing that God created us for this.
“My piece of bread only belongs to me when I know that everyone else has a share, and that no one starves while I eat.” ~Leo Tolstoy
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