Body and Soul

Recently I asked some friends a theological riddle: "What does God value more, the body or the soul?"

This provocative question arose amid a discussion about cannibalism, of all things. Some in the group said that if someone dies, eating their flesh, if all other means of survival have been tried, posed no moral quandry.

Inherent in this discussion was something of a utilitarian mindset--that something's chief value rested in whether or not it was useful. "What a shame to waste that meat!"

I come from a practical mold: utility is high on my list of priorities. But reduced to mere usefulness, the body and, by extension, our lives, become meaningless.

When my riddle was giving rise to thoughts such as, "Well, the soul, obviously, because sin comes from our bodies," and "When we die, our bodies disintegrate, but our soul lives on," I asked what I thought was a clarifying question: "Jesus rose from the dead with a real body, didn't he?"

There was disagreement. "It wasn't a REAL body, was it?" After all, his body didn't have any wounds in it any longer--did it? I suggested that Jesus Himself said to Thomas, "Put your hands in the prints of the nails, here, Thomas."

Others thought since faith is more important than sight, the soul, naturally, is more important to God than the body.

I decided to redirect: "Okay, what about this: which is more sinful, the soul or the body?" Someone answered: "Good question...sin often comes from the mind, doesn't it?"

The conversation ended there, but it has lingered on in my mind, and especially since I was reading this morning in the book of Exodus (chapter 24) this amazing passage:

9 Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, 10 and they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. 11 And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank.

Here, the soul (heaven, the worship of God, beholding God, fellowship or common life with God) and the body (eating and drinking) are not separate activities, but one.

Likewise, Jesus in His resurrected body eats charcoal-grilled fish. His flesh remains FLESH and his body a BODY.

Yet, by some physiological miracle, he no longer requires nutrients to survive, so the eating of the fish both dignifies the body with the kind of transcendent mystery usually reserved by modern western Christians for the soul.

When was the last time you heard an average American Christian talk with hushed tones about a sacred and worshipful family meal like he or she might talk about a quiet time?