The Second Body Series

Most of us could tell true stories of our forgetfulness that allowed us to put a

book, a casserole, or some other object on the top of our car, and then get in

and drive off. Some of these stories will have sadder endings than others, but it

is not likely any of our stories could match that of Paula Horowitz of Amherst,

Mass. The object she absentmindedly placed on the top of her car was a

$31,000 violin that was thirty years older than the United States of America.

The Springfield Symphony Orchestra had loaned this valuable instrument

to her son Jason, who was the concert master for the local youth symphony.

She put it on the top of her car and drove off, and where the violin landed

nobody knows. Police say witnesses reported seeing and empty violin case by

the road, but no violin. The woman said, "In one minute's carelessness I feel

like my life has been destroyed." She groaned in grief for her loss.

That is rare to bear such a burden because of the loss of a musical

instrument, but all of us at sometime will have to groan in grief because of the

loss of the instrument called the body. The body is a wonderful thing, but it

can also be a pain and a burden. There are those who teach that Christians

should not have bodily pains and problems, but should always be in a state of

ideal health. All of us could wish this was true, but the facts are, and the Bible

makes it abundantly clear, our bodies are a part of a fallen world, and they

lead to groaning.

Paul in verse 2 and 4 says we groan in this present body. The Greek word

he uses here twice is stenazo. This is the primary New Testament word for

groaning and sighing because of life's burdens. Someone said, "the optimist

says this is the best of all possible worlds, and the pessimist believes it. "Paul

was one of the greatest optimist of history, but he never believed this was the

best of all possible worlds. It is a lost and fallen world, and in Rom. 8:22-26

Paul uses the word groan three times. In verse 22 he writes, "We know that the

whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of child birth...." In verse 23

he writes, "Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit,

groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of

our bodies."

Paul is making it clear that we live in a fallen world and our bodies are

subject to all sorts of sufferings. The only was to escape is to get out of this

body into a new body which is not subject to all the burdens of a fallen world.

Anyone who promises you a life in this earthly body without burdens is

offering you something that God has never offered. In verse 26 of Romans 8

Paul even says that the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with groans that words

cannot express. Even God enters into the burdens of this fallen world.

We see it especially in the groans of Jesus. It was a messed up world that

Jesus came to. That is why He came. It is the sick who need the doctor, and

this is a sick world. But Jesus also got sick of the folly of man, and he sighed

under the burden of it. In Mark 8, right after Jesus fed the 4,000, one of His

greatest miracles, the Pharisees came to Him and asked Him for a sign from

heaven. There blindness was more than He could tolerate. Jesus knew what

frustration was all about, and in verse 12 it says, "He sighed deeply and said,

why does this generation ask for a miraculous sign? I tell you the truth, no

sign will be given it." And Jesus left there. Don't let anybody tell you that a

good Christian should never be frustrated with this fallen world. If it was a

pain and a burden to Jesus, it is folly to expect to live without groaning.

We also see a positive side of His groaning. It is usually a negative response

to the negatives of a fallen world. But it can be a sympathetic sighing. We see

this in Mark 7:34. A man who was deaf and who could hardly talk was

brought to Jesus. It was a sad sight to see a man made in the image of God in so

pathetic body. It was not the work of art He created. It was totally defective

and flawed. Jesus was moved with compassion, and verse 34 says, "He looked

up to heaven and with a deep sigh (this is the same Greek word stenazo) He