Jesus' body was significant to His mission. Kim shares three lessons we learn about our body from Jesus' body.
As a chiropractor, I work with people and their bodies, helping them restore normal brain/body function through the spine and nervous system. This kind of treatment requires my physical presence to examine, diagnose, and treat a problem hands-on. A relationship is formed as I hear my patient’s history and discover their dysfunction.
By finding the origin of their problem in their past medical history, I can pave a path through the present problem to provide treatment and promote proper function going forward.
In a way, that is what God did by sending His Son Jesus – fully human and fully God. Jesus was tangible, real, and relatable. He used all five senses. He could be touched. He felt the nearness of others. He looked into the eyes of the people who surrounded Him. He got hungry and ate. He had conversations and heard the stories of His people. He listened to others and spoke wisdom and love. He thought and reasoned with his brain.
I marvel at God’s wonderful plan to love us back to our original wholeness as He created us in the Garden. Jesus reversed the sin that Adam brought by living as a true human – following God’s will and wisdom, then dying as an innocent Lamb on our behalf. By His righteousness, we are made righteous with God and others.
Just as doctors take time to help patients know what the problem is and gain trust for treatment to restore health to “good” again, Jesus came to help us know God, trust him, and restore us to our original design – body, mind (soul), and spirit.
Here are three lessons Jesus teaches us about our body:
1. Jesus Helps Us Know God
Jesus came to point our eyes, hearts, minds, and bodies back to God, the Original Designer, by demonstrating truth and love lived out. Because He was fully God in a human body, we could personally experience God’s sacrificial love and ultimate kindness as He modeled a perfect life on earth.
Jesus cared for the weak and sick. He showed compassion and gentleness to the woman at the well. He stood firm on the Word of God when tempted by the devil and used it to deflect the lies of evil. He saw weakness and called out God-given strengths in those He encountered.
In humility, He submitted himself to the design of his body as he lived a human life. He showed us how to live with each other as he ate, rested, walked, laughed, and prayed. He brought honor to God through his earthly life. In everything he did, he represented the truth and grace of God in a human body. He demonstrated honor and obedience to the Father while he displayed the love of the Father.
Prayer: Jesus, help me honor my body as your wonderful and amazing creation. Show me the Father’s image from your earthly life, and help me live as you lived. Show me more of you so that my life honors you in all I do.
Journaling Question: What story of Jesus’ life helps you to know God more?
2. Jesus Shows Us How to Trust God
Jesus’ earthly life was a picture of complete trust in the Father. Jesus, knowing God’s character and his love, could put complete trust in Him for his life on earth. We can do this as well when we know God’s loving-kindness.
Jesus demonstrated how to walk and talk with God. He modeled trust in God’s truth when tempted. He battled against lies using the Word of God. He walked this earth in light and life by the power of the Holy Spirit. He always gave thanks to his heavenly Father,
He prayed and connected with the Father continually for loving relationship and right perspective. He trusted the wisdom of the Father’s perfect will with eternal hope in mind.
He displayed obedience and trust even when faced with bodily death. He aligned his will with God’s plan. All this to pave the path for humankind. He wanted us to be fully restored to wholeness.
Journaling Question: How can Jesus’s life help you to trust the Father with your life?
Breath Prayer: Today, redirect your anxious thought or worry with this breath prayer.
Inhale: God you know best.
Exhale: I trust in You.
3. Jesus Restores Us to Our Original Design
Jesus’ bodily resurrection achieves restoration for us both now and upon His return.
Now, as believers, we are spiritually restored to our original design because we are filled with God’s Spirit.
Jesus saved us from death and also gave us the gift of the Holy Spirit to live within us and empower us through our new life in Him. In Him, God sees us as new creations perfected in Christ.
Relying on the power of the Holy Spirit strengthens us for each moment of the day. By the Spirit, we can overcome temptation, stay free from sin, and do what Jesus did when He walked on earth.
When Jesus returns, we will be physically restored to our original design when our bodies are resurrected like Jesus’. We have the same hope of bodily resurrection and life everlasting because He now lives in a glorified body. He perfected the path for our completeness.
Jesus continually relied on His relationship with the Father and the power of the Holy Spirit filling him as he walked this earth fully human. He lived as a man to show us the way and bring us through to restoration and new life.
All we need to do is believe and follow Him.
Prayer: Jesus, thank you for coming to earth in a human body. Thank you for your life, death, and bodily resurrection that gives us wholeness and hope. Thank you for your example of knowing God, trusting in His goodness, and the gift of the Holy Spirit and hope of eternal life!
Movement: Standing tall, stretch your arms up high with your palms open. Inhale deeply for 4 counts, then exhale for 4 counts. Imagine the Holy Spirit filling the dry and dusty places in your heart, mind, and body with new life and hope. Let your arms come down slowly. Move into your day with the light and life of Jesus!
A Benediction
Jesus goes before you in everything to restore and transform your heart, mind, and your wonderfully created body.
So, go forth to know God, trust God, and live a restored life by the power of the Holy Spirit in you!
Kim Anderson is a Revelation Wellness Instructor (Platoon 22) and resides with her husband, Pete, and dog, Opie, in SE Wisconsin. She is a mother of 4 married kids, a grandmother of 7, and has practiced chiropractic for 40 years.
