Denver Seminary

Paul was arresting His followers, yet Jesus insisted with this question that Paul was attacking Him when he went after His followers. The connection could not have been stronger, or the intimacy greater. It should not surprise us, then, that Paul spoke of the church as Christ's body. Too often today, we think of our salvation gained through Christ's work on the cross on an individual level and fail to grasp that salvation also includes membership in God's family, as each believer becomes a member of Christ's body. Additionally, we tend to think of the Resurrection as a future event that does not impact our daily lives. But Paul stresses the importance of Christ's raised body in the here and now, for the church is Christ's body. Paul develops this theological metaphor in several ways in his letter to the Ephesians, declaring that the church is Christ's body (Eph. 1:23). This evocative metaphor reminds us that ecclesiology and Christology in Ephesians are inseparably intertwined. Drawing on Psalm 110:1, Paul speaks of God placing all things under Christ's feet and appointing Him head over all things, all powers and spiritual authorities (1:22). Paul expands the feet/head metaphor by declaring that God gave Christ as head to the church, His body (1:22–23). The terms body and fullness used in 1:23 elevate Christ's work in the church and God's work in establishing the salvation plan executed and established in Christ. Paul makes two claims. First, Christ as head over all things (1:22) is another way of saying that Christ will bring all things together (1:10). Second, God gave Christ to be head over all things, for the sake of the church (1:22), which parallels Paul's prayer celebrating God's great power exerted on behalf of believers (1:19). Paul explicitly links Christ as head with the church as he speaks of the latter maturing and growing in truth and love (4:15; see also Col. 2:19). Paul identifies Christ as head and Savior of the church, caring for the church which is His body (5:23, 29–30). The metaphor of church as Christ's body ties directly to Christ's exalted status as above all creatures, because He was raised from the dead. Christ is placed above all things, and as His body, the church, is ultimately triumphant over evil. But we cannot push the analogy too far. The church is not Christ, nor does the Incarnation extend to include the church. Paul clearly teaches that Christ has His own resurrected body (1:20; see also 1 Cor. 15:20). Moreover, the church is fallible, and believers all die (or "fall asleep" in the Lord). Paul describes the church as Christ's body (Eph. 1:22–23). This has at least three ramifications. First, as we saw above, Paul asserts that the church is the body of the cosmic Lord who has a name above all names. Indeed, this truth means believers are seated with Christ in the heavenly places (2:5–6). Second, Paul concludes that the Resurrection establishes a new "humanity" (2:15). Christ's broken body brought forth a new community faithful to God, made up of Jews and Gentiles united in Christ (2:14; 4:3–4). Third, as members of Christ's body, each member of the church is intimately connected with the others, and all grow together into maturity (4:12–13). THE METAPHOR OF THE BODY IN ANCIENT WRITING Paul was not unique in his emphasis on a group of people functioning as a body. The image of the body politic was familiar to Paul's audience, as it was used by philosophers and politicians to encourage people to perform their roles in the community, for the sake of the whole. This metaphor was not a call to egalitarian social order, but rather to reinforce the hierarchical status quo and justify the class and economic divisions within society. For example, the Roman historian Livy (ca. 59 B.C.–A.D. 17) offers a speech by the fifth-century-B.C. Roman consul Menenius Agrippa, who charged workers on strike to get back to work. According to him, the workers were the hands and feet, while the ruling class was the belly that needed food. Should the belly die, the hands and feet would share their fate. 1 Menenius Agrippa's speech is similar to Aesop's fable "The Belly and the Members," composed in the sixth century B.C. In this story, the body's members accuse the belly of sloth and believe themselves grossly overworked. They tell the belly to work for its own food, for they are ceasing their labor. Of course, the entire body begins to starve. In both examples, the stomach is shown to be essential, even as it holds a privileged position relative to the labor done by the hands and feet. Yet the body metaphor could also promote familial virtues. Tacitus, a Latin historian and senator of the early second century, describes a scene during Tiberius's reign wherein the emperor skirmished with the senators about his decision to pull back a bit from leading the empire. Some senators responded that the "body of the State was one, and must be directed by a single mind." 2 Their underlying assumption was that the State was a single unit and needed a single guiding figure: the emperor. But Paul stresses the importance of Christ's raised body in the here and now, for the church is Christ's body. The philosopher and moralist Plutarch (ca. A.D. 46–120), used a body metaphor to emphasize the importance of brotherly love. He noted that the ENGAGE 13 PeteWill/Getty Images 1 Livy, Ab Urbe Condita 2.32.7-11. Shakespeare includes the character Menenius in his play Coriolanus. 2 Tacitus Ann. 1.12, 13, translation from Perseus online; New York: Random House, 1942) www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0078%3Abook%3D1%3Achapter%3D12.

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