March 21, 2019
For full passage click: 1 Corinthians 10:1-5 …“and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ.” vss. 2-4
Paul was frustrated with the folks at Corinth. They’d been baptized into Christ and were feasting on Christ’s body and blood, but their behavior was abysmal. Paul reprimands them by reminding them of Israel’s wilderness experiences under Moses. In doing so he explodes our understanding of the Christ. We’re accustomed to connecting Jesus with the Christ–it’s almost as though Jesus’ last name was Christ. But that’s not how Paul sees it. For him the Christ is universal and timeless. In fact, he says, the Christ was present with the Israelites in the wilderness some 1500 years before. If we were to use the imagery of the prologue to the gospel of John, we could even say that Christ was in the beginning and that through Christ all things have come into existence. And the amazing truth is that this same Christ, present in creation, in the wilderness, and in Jesus, is now present in us. We are the Body of Christ! And more than that; through us, through the Christ, what was begun in the beginning is being brought to completion. Paul wondered why such knowledge didn’t make any difference in the people’s behavior, and he had a point!
Thought for the Day: Why doesn’t knowledge of who we are change the way we act?
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