You Have Given Me a Body

"When Christ came into the world, he said to God, 'Sacrifices and offerings are not what you want, but you have given me my body.'" Hebrews 10:5

This verse quotes Psalm 40:6 which says, "Sacrifice and offering you did not desire—but my ears you have opened." The question arises as to why the writer of Hebrews translates the phrase "my ears you have opened" as "you have given me my body."

The first clue is that there were two primary translations of the Old Testament during the first century. One was a Hebrew translation and the other was Greek, called The Septuagint. The Hebrew translation was, in most cases, the older of the two. Yet, many Greek speaking Jews used the Septuagint. Here, it is the Hebrew version that refers to ears being opened and the Greek version which says "you have given me my body."

Without getting into the technicalities of translation, there is an interesting explanation for this. First of all, the phrase "my ears you have opened" literally means, "you have dug out my ears." A servant, giving himself over for a lifetime to his master, would have his ears pierced with a wooden dowel to signify his dedication.

The symbolism is evident, having "dug out" our ears, we are more ready to hear and to obey what the Master asks. That is the intent in the Psalm as the writer reminds himself that God is less interested in sacrifices than He is in actually hearing and obey what God desires.

How then, do we get from "pierced ears" to "a body". At this point it is only supposition. But I can see the process happening something like this. In the first place, the original translation, "you have dug out my ears" is an example of "metonymy", a literary devise where the part represents the whole.

The Psalmist was not saying, "I will obey with my ears". He was inferring that, upon hearing, he, himself, his entire self, would obey. When the Jews translated this into Greek, there was no practice in the Greek world of piercing a slaves ears. But they did understand, however crude it sounds, buying "a body". It is quite possible the translators took the liberty of paraphrasing so that the Greek-speaking readers would understand the intent.

So, when this is applied to Jesus, it tells us two things. First of all it reminds us that God Himself took the form of humanity. The most blessed teaching of Christianity is that God became man. He was born of a virgin, lived as a helpless babe, grew up as a child and matured to an adult. God, through Christ, knows, understands and identifies with all the experiences of mankind.

But secondly, and more to the writer of Hebrews' point, Jesus came to obey. The sacrifices and offerings of animals that preceded Jesus' death on the cross were absolutely useless in dealing with mankind's sin. Not only did they not take away sin, but they also reminded the worshiper of sin every time the offerings were given again. Over and over the guilt was felt by those who needed forgiveness.

Jesus, coming to obey, coming to give His life fully on the cross, does what the animal sacrifices could never do. He takes away the sins of all who believe in Him, once and for all. And, because they are fully forgiven, there is no need for further sacrifice. We are not reminded of sin time and time again.

In fact, the one "sacrifice" that is remembered regularly by believers is at the Table of the Lord, or communion. But here, we are not reminded of our sin, we are reminded that Jesus took all our sins. We are invited to the place where we "remember" what Jesus did once and for all...forever.

Just a side note on these thoughts about Jesus coming into the world, loving us enough to become human, loving ALL of us enough to die for us. How in the world can we, as believers, talk smack about any other person on the face of this earth. I don't care if it is someone who personally we dislike, a politician with whom we disagree, whatever. If Jesus died for all...loved all that much...how can we call ourselves His followers and do any less.

Let us, also, say to God...here is my body, prepared for You use. Use me now, in Your kingdom, the kingdom founded on the very love of Christ.