Devotion • June 4
Today’s Scripture Reading
2 Corinthians 4:13–5:10
But just as we have the same spirit of faith that is in accordance with scripture — “I believed, and so I spoke” — we also believe, and so we speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will bring us with you into his presence. Yes, everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.
For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling — if indeed, when we have taken it off we will not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan under our burden, because we wish not to be unclothed but to be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So we are always confident; even though we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord — for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we do have confidence, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. For all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive recompense for what has been done in the body, whether good or evil. (NRSV)
Reflection
This letter to a first-century church is renowned mostly for the section right before this one and the phrase that captures so well what it is to hold the gospel promise of resurrection in a human body: treasure in clay jars. The image is compelling enough that a 1990s Christian rock band took their name from it.
The bodily and the spiritual are set over against each other in the next section. Our “outer nature” is wasting away while our “inner nature” is being renewed; we groan through a “slight momentary affliction” for the sake of “an eternal weight of glory” in the heavens; the bodily is temporary and can be seen, but the spiritual is eternal and cannot be seen.
It goes so far as desiring to be done with the body altogether in favor of a spiritual “home.”
If we’re not careful, this apposition of spirit and body could lead us to denigrate the latter, which would be a mistake. After all, Jesus lived in a body — was a body, surely afflicted of runny noses and stubbed toes — so we’d best think twice, for our sake and for that of our neighbor, before turning up a spiritual nose to our temporary, fleshy lot.
The Black American theologian James Cone expresses the warning pointedly in his book A Black Theology of Liberation:
“We know all about pearly gates, golden streets, and long white robes. We have sung songs about heaven until we were hoarse, but it did not change the present state or ease the pain. To be sure, we may ‘walk in Jerusalem jus’ like John’ and ‘there may be a great camp meeting in the Promised Land,’ but we want to walk in this land — the ‘land of the free and the home of the brave.’ We want to know why Harlem cannot become Jerusalem and Chicago the Promised Land? What good are golden crowns, slippers, white robes, or even eternal life, if it means we have to turn our backs on the pain and suffering of our own children?”
Prayer
God of heaven, you have planted a yearning for eternal life deep within our hearts, and “our hearts are restless” until they rest in you. Yet you have fitted us for life here and now and have given us good gifts to share for the benefit of all. May our longing for our eternal home forbid us from forsaking our earthly one, and may we inhabit our bodies as fully as Jesus did his to listen to and love our neighbors to the fullest. Amen.
Written by Rocky Supinger, Associate Pastor for Youth Ministry and Worship
Reflection and Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church
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