Theology Tuesday: Why Do Bodies Break?
Length: • 4 mins
Annotated by Amber
From the beginning, we were made to live in relationship with God and experience life on earth, community with others, work, and rest inside of a physical body. This was always God's plan and He called it very good. And yet, along with all of creation, our bodies bear the weight of the fall– of the separation from God and His good design that sin introduced into God's world. The effects of the fall on our bodies are deep and wide. From sickness, chronic pain, and even physical death to insecurity, envy, and vanity, our bodies and our thoughts about them are impacted both by our individual sin and by the reality of living in a sinful world.
In God's very-good world, Adam and Eve worked and walked with God in a world free from sin, shame, and the separation both can cause. Within this context of flourishing, God gave them one command–“You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Gen. 2:16, ESV). You may remember what happened from there. Satan deceived Eve, and she ate from the tree and gave some of the fruit to her husband. Sin and shame were introduced to Adam and Eve's relationships with God and with one another. Pain, toil, and death would be the consequences of their disobedience. If you look at the curse in Genesis 3, you'll see that it would impact their spiritual state, but also their physical bodies– pain in childbearing, pain in work, toil, and ultimately death and dust. Today, we see and experience these same effects in our world and ourselves– physical, mental, and emotional suffering, sickness, violence, shame about how our bodies look, limit us, or fail us, and the deaths of those we love.
Is our physical struggle with disability, insecurity, or pain a result of our sin? It's important to note that when we say that our bodies and our thoughts about them are impacted by sin, we are not saying that your suffering is always a direct result of your sin. Sometimes we wrestle with our own sin when it comes to our bodies. Other times we struggle with the broader effects of the fall, which includes every kind of brokenness.
In a culture that bends toward both striving and shame, we have to be careful not to assume that physical suffering is the result of personal sin. Jesus' interaction with a blind man in John 9 provides both a warning against this kind of thinking and a lens through which to view even the brokenness of our bodies with hope. As Jesus and his disciples pass a man blind from birth, the disciples ask him– “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (Jn. 9:1). Do you hear the implication here? The disciples assume that the man's blindness is a result of someone's sin, either his or his parents. Essentially, they've asked Jesus– “Who's fault is it that he's blind? Listen carefully to how Jesus responds. “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him” (Jn. 9:3). While this man's blindness is a result of living in a world that isn't as it should be, the purpose isn't punishment for a specific sin. Jesus redeems and reorients this man's suffering as a place where God's work will be put on full display. He stoops down to make mud from the ground and anoints the man's eyes, restoring his sight. This man now has the opportunity to testify to Jesus' power in front of his family, his neighbors, and even the Pharisees– “Though I was blind, now I see” (Jn. 9:25).
Jesus doesn't minimize the suffering this man has endured as a result of being blind– which would have had significant social, emotional, and practical implications for his life– but he does make it clear that even this kind of brokenness, introduced by the fall, would be used for God's glory. In this act of healing, Jesus points back to the hope introduced alongside the curse in Genesis 3 where God promises that while Satan will bruise man's heel, man will ultimately crush his head (Gen. 3:15). At the same time, he points toward a future, secured for us in Christ, where death, mourning, crying, and pain will be no more (Rev. 21:4).
Whether we experience healing on earth or anticipate with hope the healing of Heaven, our places of physical struggle can serve as a place where the works of God might be displayed (Jn. 9:3). With God's help, we can face the brokenness of our bodies and our thoughts about them with the confidence that God will ultimately crush the serpent's head, destroying every kind of sin, struggle, sickness, and pain along with him. We can set our eyes toward eternity, knowing that “our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself (Phil. 3:20-21).
Erin Quillen
Erin is a follower of Jesus, a Pennsylvania native, an executive assistant, and an iced americano enthusiast. Her ideal Saturday is one spent hiking, visiting friends, or sitting at the counter of a local café with a book and a pastry. In writing, discipleship, and local church ministry, her desire is for women to understand the gospel's implications for the whole of life, to know the hope of Christ, and to find Him sufficient in every season. Erin has an M.A. in Biblical Studies from Lancaster Bible College. You can find her at erinquillen.com and on Instagram @erinquillen.
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