I believe that God’s taking on a human body in the form of Jesus Christ, God’s own beloved child, sends a resounding, world-changing message: that God deeply and beautifully values our humanity and our physical bodies.
The body matters. Why else would Jesus have defeated death and the grave by coming back to life? He had his wounds to show his disciples that he was the person they knew. He wasn’t a ghost or a figment of their collective imagination. He had truly, physically returned to them. He ate a lot of meals to prove this, using his physical self to bear witness to who he really was and is—fully human and fully divine.
This helps me to be grateful for my body. Studying how Jesus lived, died, and resurrected as a human being shows me that God values my physical self. That my body, as imperfect as it is, matters.
This message is excerpted from “What the Bible says about body image” by Jenna Pulkowski in the June 2021 Cafe online magazine. Today we commemorate Justin, martyr at Rome, c. 165.
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