The Body of Christ - Weep with those who Weep
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31 He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. 32 He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
33 But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
The Way of the Cross
34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save their life[b] will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? 37 Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? 38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”
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Deny yourself, take up the cross and follow me.
Context
In Romans 12-16 Paul goes into detail of what it means to be a fellowship. He uses the image of a body - the body of Christ (Christ as the head) to illustrate his teaching. It may surprise you that no other writer in the New Testament uses the body as an illustration. There are said to be over 90 different illustrations of Christian fellowship - a Bride, City of God, Light on a hill, Salt of the Earth, Temple, Family... but only Paul uses the metaphor of a body.
Explore this in three ways,
Reality of the Body
Hospitality of the Body
Empathy of the Body
Reality of the Body
We find in Rom 12 ‘reality of the body’ (also 1 Cor 12). It may be a metaphor - Paul teaches that it is reality
It could be that this goes back to Paul's very first encounter with the risen Christ when he was knocked off his horse by the light of Christ who said to him “why are you persecuting me, Paul?” In other words, persecuting Christians was persecuting Christ himself. This tells us that this new fellowship was not an organisation as such it was a real living, growing, breathing body of the risen Christ - Christ is the head…
“‘Just as each of us has one body many parts so in Christ we who are many form one body each member belongs to the other.’ .”
Romans 12:4
There it is; the Reality of the Body - we belong to each other, we need each other. Wherever you go in the world we find the body of Christ and we realise that we are part of that. Daughter, Ellie moved to London & finds the body of Christ there where she worships each week.
Also, KB arriving at Alpine Road, FEChurch in 1980.
What does the body look like? Rom 12:3 teaches us it's the humility of not thinking highly of yourself but that you are part of the body. Think of the entire body. Central to this thinking is humility.
NB. We all have different functions & gifts but it's one body belonging to each other. Devoted to one another with KIN affection (v10). Rom 12:10. Honour one another above yourselves. Only Christ in us can do this. It's about being proud of them instead of being proud of yourself. Instead of Being pleased with what you've done, you're pleased for what they've done that's the body of Christ in action. One body ... One head LJC. With Rom12:9 Love must be sincere….This is a love that has a Christ-likeness about it.
Hospitality of the Body
The standout phrase at the end of this section on the Christ-likeness of the Body is Rom 12:13 ‘Share with God's people who are in need - Practise hospitality.’ Two words ‘Practice Hospitality’- N.B. here Paul is talking about the body of Christ. Practise hospitality - share with fellow Christians who are in need.
That is something we can all do - who me? eg I heard about an Island church that rallies around members to run a ‘meal train’ for people in need or couples with a newborn baby. A meal every day for 3 weeks. That’s Practising Hospitality. Anna Chaplains visit older people….
Being welcoming, being together, needing each other. Imagine a stranger coming into your fellowship – no one speaks to them, and they leave saying that was not a friendly church. Now imagine you go up to that stranger and say hello… they leave saying it is a friendly church - the person didn’t tell me all about themselves, were actually interested in ME -hospitality.
As a young man (of 24) studying for ACA at Old Park Hotel in St Lawrence on a cold October Sunday morning, slipped into the back of the Free Evangelical Church on Alpine Rd Ventnor. A man shuffled his 3 boys along the back row to make room for me and I felt welcomed. Three cheeky nosy boys asking about my legs and about my funny accent and a welcoming mum & dad. That was hospitality. They didn't know I had spent the last 9 months in Hospital - I was a stranger to them but part of the body.
Question, how do you think the Head of the body felt about that welcome?
In today’s lingo, I’m sure Jesus was buzzing, Rejoicing with those rejoicing (Rom 12:15a)
Empathy of the Body
“Weep with those who weep?” Romans 12:15b
Finally, what about Romans 12:15b ‘weep with those who weep?’ there are echoes here of the 5th Beatitude ‘Blessed are the merciful’. The Aramaic, Elee(a)mon means ‘our reaction when we see pain and distress and the misery that sin can cause.’ To weep with those who weep, to empathise, to see things with their eyes, think with their mind, feel their feelings’. I am sure there have been times when you have listened to a Christian friend speak about their hardship and you felt the moisture come to your eyes, that’s weeping with those who weep. The Holy Spirit is doing that in you, and it is beautiful and a privilege to share in that way. As lead hospital chaplain at St Marys – time and time again I saw chaplains drawing alongside a person, going the extra mile, sitting with, hand holding, tender-hearted, tending & caring for people. Weeping with those who weep.
But I want to go deeper here, Let’s go back to that opening encounter Paul had with the Risen Christ. ‘Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ Acts 4:9. Notice that hurting Christians is hurting Christ himself. The head is not separate from the body. Pain & suffering in the body is a personal affront to the head. So when he says to ‘weep with those who weep, that divine command is not given by a distant ‘him up there’ God. When he says weep with those who weep he is present and active (I believe) weeping What I am saying is that God is there too… present in the face of our suffering.
We read in Psalm 56:8 ‘You keep track of my misery. Put my tears in your leather container.Are they not recorded in your scroll?’(but that is a thing for some people)
My experience is of a much greater tear container let me tell you a little bit of my testimony .... join the story after I had prayed angry prayers to the Lord, such as, ‘Lord you are not a personal God, you do not know how hard this is, you do not see my tears, my brokenness, you are far away. What happened after this changed my perception of God forever.’ The Lord took me in a dream to Gethsemane and Jesus saying ‘not my will but your’s be done’ - Jesus went to the cross for me. The reality of this broke me into weeping tears of repentance and gratitude. He showed me a lake of tears - a measure of all the tears he has held for me and you. Not one tear is lost or ignored or wept over.
I'm not saying there is a literal lake of tears ‘up there’ but that’s the vision that I received. Isaiah 40:12 says he measures the oceans in the hollow of his hand. That’s a picture of the greatness of God, beyond our comprehension and the Lake of Tears is a similar staggering glimpse that God is an all-knowing, all-participating ever-present God. Tears of the body are ours and his.
When the bible refers to tears and weeping, it is not for wallowing in the misery of it but for the triumph and the Christ-like fragrance that exudes when we cling to God in the word and in prayer, in praise and in worship. 2 Corinthians 2:14 says ‘he causes us to triumph and through us diffuses the fragrance of his knowledge in every place.’ Imagine underneath each of our seats is a little bottle of scent with those reed diffusers. the aroma in this place would be beautiful.
Think of that alongside Romans 8:37 where Paul says, ‘In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loves us.’ Throughout the bible brokenness and tears are the raw materials of flourishing and fruitfulness and the fragrance of Christ.
Remember Jesus understands tears. Even before the cross in the Garden of Gethsemane, he said, ‘My soul is sorrowful even unto death’ Matthew 26:38 – he says this sorrow is so great it may kill me before I get to the cross.
Friends, this is our God – he shed tears, remember Gethsemane and what rejoicing by believers on the third day when he rose again.
Praise his Name.
How do we stand firm in Christ despite our circumstances? Firstly, continue to be faithful in reading the word of God. In prayer and praise and worship too. Psalm 139:12 ‘Hear my prayer oh Lord, listen to my cry for help, be not deaf to my weeping’. These are good prayers, gutsy heartfelt prayers. Friends, come to the Lord Jesus who knows pain, sorrow, isolation, abandonment. Isaiah 53:3 prophesied ‘he is a man of sorrows acquainted with grief.’ He knows your trials.
God I look to You
I won't be overwhelmed
Give me vision to see things like You do
God I look to You
You're where my help comes from
Give me wisdom, You know just what to do
And I will love You Lord my strength
And I will love You Lord my shield
And I will love You Lord my rock
Forever all my days I will love You God
Songwriters: Jenn Louise Johnson / Ian Bruce Mcintosh
