Eph. 2:16a

2:16a And in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross.

The one body is Jesus, of course. This takes me into a zone of thinking that I can scarcely understand. Why should one body be even thought about when considering the topic of unity? I need a new way of thinking and perceiving at this point.

My first thought is that to get peace we should recognize the fact that we came from the same mother. Being born of the same mother would surely help, I suppose. But, then, as I reflect, I see that this is not what Paul is getting at. Being born of the same mother guarantees nothing as far as unity is concerned. In fact siblings sometimes become the worst of enemies. A common mother is not the answer and it is not what Paul has in mind, either.

Paul does not use the picture of being born by Jesus. He never appeals to the motherhood of Jesus, in that sense, at all. No, we are not “one” because we are born out of the body of Christ as a child is born from the mother. We are “one” because (and this comes as a surprise) because we are crucified with him in his death. In the body of Christ I died! In the body of Christ my brothers and sisters in Christ have died! Our unity is not the unity of siblings from the same mother, but our unity is the unity of those who have died in Christ!

I never thought about that but the more I think about it, it is undoubtedly the truth, a most compelling truth. My spiritual siblings are not similarly born but similarly crucified! We are all dead to self – alive to God. We are sons and daughters by death and resurrection! We become truly reconciled to one another as we experience death to self in the body of Jesus. This way of looking at the Cross of Calvary opens a way that makes it possible for us to be reconciled to every person who has experienced death to self in Christ Jesus. As Jesus died to self on the Cross (remember his words, “Not my will but yours be done,”) so we lay down our rights to ourselves and die to them in Christ Jesus, just like he did.

I note that Paul insists that all true Christian unity is built on the foundation of the fact that we have died and have been reconciled to God. In other words, it all begins with getting reconciled to God. If I seek reconciliation with a person simply in order to be more fully human, true spiritual unity will escape me because any peace made outside the Cross is good but temporary and temporal. Peace in Jesus is eternal.

I am consoled by the fact that I am at peace with God because I am a forgiven sinner. That is where peace begins. Then, another person has a similar experience of death to self in Jesus, and God places us in proximity to one another. We are duty bound to reach out to one another, in the name of Jesus, as true eternal siblings, adopted into the family of God. This unity is heaven-made and still startles the world.