Lesson 3: This is My Body

Jesus took on flesh so that we could really know and experience Him. The incarnation was a gift to humanity in that it made God approachable and accessible. Prior to God “taking on flesh and dwelling among us” humanity was reduced to communing with God via a mediator. Priests and animal sacrifices were essential for atoning for sins. Sin created a barrier between God and humanity that felt precarious at best and insurmountable at worst.

artwork by Jayd, Eleventh Grade

In the person of Jesus we witness a God-man who enjoyed teaching crowds, fishing with friends, standing up for outcasts, touching diseased people, holding children, crying with the grieving, healing the dying, and raising the dead. We find a Savior who like us grew weary and slept through storms, and yet unlike us, had the power to rebuke and calm them. As a man He was both finite and limited - just as we are. He was tempted like us and yet unlike us never succumbed to those temptations (Hebrews 4:15). He prevailed where we falter. He submitted to His heavenly Father where we rebel. He stood up with courage in the places where we wilt and hide. In other words, Christ lived the life that we never could. And He died the death that we deserve (Romans 3:23 and 6:23).

Advent reminds us of the glory and the necessity of Jesus coming to earth as a baby. He loved us enough to make Himself vulnerable, dwell among us, and finally to die for us. The “good news” of the Gospel glows in grandeur and magnificence when we contrast it with the “bad news” that all of us deserve death and eternal punishment due to our sin and rebellion. To the degree that we understand the bad news of our present condition is to the same degree that we can embrace the good news of the incarnation, death and resurrection of Jesus. Before Jesus died, He gifted us with a way to “taste and see” His goodness.

We are told that the night before Jesus was crucified He celebrated the Passover with His disciples. He took bread and broke it and passed around a cup of wine for them to share and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me,” and “This cup is the new covenant of my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it in remembrance of me” (I Corinthians 11:24 and 25, ESV).

When we celebrate communion we are gifted with an opportunity to both “taste” and “see” the goodness of Jesus. Through the broken bread and the bitter wine we experience and celebrate through our physical senses that He died to give us life.