Ephesians 1:23a – Heavenly Math

… which is his body,

Summary: God’s math is a bit different than our math. To understand spiritual things, we have to be willing to accept that spiritual matters don’t have to follow the same rules we have in the physical world.

The Book of Numbers, chapter thirteen, recounts the survey party that was sent out by Moses to explore the Promised Land. (This was the first approach to Canaan, before the Israelites were punished by God with forty years of wandering in the desert.)

Jacob, Abraham’s grandson, had twelve sons by four wives. Each of these sons became the patriarch of a tribe, or clan, in Israel. The number twelve echoes throughout the Bible, ending up being the number of gates in the walls of the new Jerusalem God creates in the new heaven and earth (Revelation 21:1-2, 12). Likewise, there were twelve members of the survey party that explored Canaan.

The interesting thing about this is that when God brought Israel out of Egypt, he set the tribe of Levi apart from the rest of the people (Exodus 32:29). This tribe would not receive an inheritance in Canaan (Deuteronomy 10:9), so they were not represented in the survey party, yet there were still twelve members who explored the new land! Why?

When Jacob was very old, after he and all his family had moved to Egypt under the protection of Joseph, his eleventh son; Jacob blessed his grandsons and said to Joseph, “your two sons born to you in Egypt before I came to you here will be reckoned as mine.” (Genesis 48:9) Because of this, there are always “twelve tribes” in Israel, whether you count Levi as a tribe or not. God does something similar with Jesus’ body.

Jesus, of course, had a physical body while he was here on earth. He also has a spiritual body that he was given after his resurrection. When he was on earth, before his crucifixion, he taught his disciples several things about his “body.”

In John 2:18-22, Jesus equates his body with the temple of God. Later, Jesus taught the people that his “body” was actually food for all who believe in him (John 6:35). When Jesus ate the last Passover meal with his disciples before his betrayal by Judas,* he tells them that the Passover bread is his body and the wine is his blood (Luke 22:19-20).

So far, Jesus’ body is a temple, food for believers, and wine and bread. Is there a pattern here? Now Paul is telling us that the church is Jesus’ body and Jesus is the “head.”

When Jesus discusses these matters with Nicodemus, he says, “I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?” (John 3:12) Nicodemus is not alone in being confused by “heavenly things.” It is difficult for all of us. How can we, mere mortals, wrap our brains around what is immortal?

The short answer is that we can’t. The best we can do is to follow in faith, try to make out the pattern of truth in Jesus’ teachings, and do our best to live in a way that honors him.

Application: It is better to try and wrap our heads around God’s math than to try and force God’s math into something that makes sense in our heads.

Food for Thought: In 1 Peter 2, Peter compares us to “living stones” being built into a spiritual “house” (1 Peter 2:4-5). How is a house similar to a body?

*Judas is another example of God’s numbering system. Judas was one of twelve disciples, but he betrayed Jesus, and so was no longer counted as a disciple. Instead, Matthias was added as an apostle after Jesus’ death (Acts 1:26). This meant there were twelve apostles again, except later Jesus himself chose Saul (aka Paul) to become an apostle as well (1 Corinthians 15: 3-11). So the numbering of apostles echoes the numbering of the patriarchs.