“Life from Jesus for Body and Soul”
7Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature (Genesis 2)
1In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat, [Jesus] called his disciples to him and said to them, 2“I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. 3And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away.” (Mark 8)
How often do you think about your body?
You’re hungry. You’re thirsty. Something is sore. Something hurts. You’re tired. You’re sick. Something about your body that is not working as it should or as it used to and perhaps it effects everything you do and think about.
We are bodies. We have eyes, ears, noses, skins, muscles, bones and other organs and members.
It can become obvious when there is something wrong because our daily life and interactions happen through our bodies
And often, very often, we listen to what’s wrong with our bodies and we try and fix it. We eat, we drink, we sleep, we wear glasses and hearing aids, we take medicine, we go to the doctor, we have procedures and surgeries and we do exercises. We often listen to our bodies.
And we don’t always know what’s best for our bodies and we might often seek outside help from those who know better than us about our body.
We think about our bodies and in our readings today we get a marvelous reminder that Jesus thinks about our bodies, too.
In fact, He gave us our bodies. He made our bodies. Genesis 2 says, He formed our bodies. The picture her is that of a potter carefully crafting and sculpting and forming his masterpiece with amazing precision and through. The same word that is used of Adam is used to describe us in Psalm 139 and of Jeremiah in chapter of his book. The Lord formed our bodies
And our Gospel reading has Jesus thinking about and preserving the bodies of the crowds. Jesus has compassion on the crowds because their bodies needed food, having been with Him for 3 days, lest they faint on the way home, for some had come from far away.
God made you, gave you your body, and still preserves your body, Luther says in the Small Catechism.
And, God gave you a soul.
God breathed the breath of life into you after He formed you. The picture here is that after the potter makes and crafts and forms his masterpiece, he puts it in the fire to complete his work.
Without God’s breath of life, without Him giving you your soul, you wouldn’t be finished or complete. You wouldn’t even feel anything with your body. You are not finished, without life without your soul.
You’d have eyes, but couldn’t see. Ears, but couldn’t hear. A tongue and couldn’t speak or taste. Skin and nerves and muscles and bones, but couldn’t feel. A brain, but couldn’t reason. Stomachs, but couldn’t be hungry
You are a body and you are a soul, and you are called to give thanks to God for both.
And you are called to answer this question, “How often do I think about my soul?”
That part of me that has emotion and desires – desires that are both good and bad, holy and sinful. You when you feel guilt and shame, loneliness and anger, anxiety and depression, pride and despair – as well as love and hope and joy and peace and comfort and happiness.
If you don’t already, you need to start thinking about, or you need to be reminded to continually think about that you’re doing here is having your soul cared for.
You’re being corrected and exercised and stretched and formed again to have your emotion and desires to line up to serve the One who made you and still preserves you.
You’re being reminded who you truly are as body and soul, where you came from and where you’re going.
You’re being fed and healed here.
You’re receiving rest and refreshment here.
You’re having a surgery done to you by God through His Word that is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword.
Your soul is not fully alive until God breathes life into you.
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
And then that refreshed soul serves in righteousness leading to sanctification, and its end eternal life through the members of your body.
Your eyes truly begin to see, and your ears truly begin to hear, and tongue truly begins to speak about God and your neighbor.
Because the God who breathed life into your body to give you and soul is here to breathe His life into you again.
He is your Maker and Preserve so He knows.
And even more than that, the Son of God, knows because He Himself took on body and soul to redeem and save your soul and promise you a resurrected, immortal, imperishable body on the Last Day.
Our bodies are dying from the day we are conceived, but His body that He took on didn’t have to. He chose to die, to breath His last, to be hungry in the wilderness being tempted by the devil and to cry out “I thirst,” on the cross, He chose to feel the pain of whip and nail and wood.
With His eyes and ears and tongue and skin and nerves and bones and muscles and sense of smell, He suffered in His body and soul the wrath of God and loneliness of forsakenness we deserved, out of compassion for your temporal body now – because God’s preservation of your body is a gift of His grace won by the cross of Christ –
and out of compassion for your eternal soul.
The crowd was with Jesus for three days, seemingly unconcerned about their hunger, because they were with Jesus in that desolate place. And soon, you won’t care at all about what is hurting or not working or when you’re hungry and tired because you won’t be in this desolate place anymore.
While we wait, we thank God the body and soul of the Son of is here with us, giving bodies and souls and still taking care of them.
For that, it is our duty to thank, praise, serve and obey Him in body and soul. This is most certainly true.