His Body Or Yours

This Is My Body: Ownership and Community at Two Opposite Tables

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INTRODUCTION — THE SAME WORDS, TWO OPPOSITE RELIGIONS

There are phrases in Scripture that glow with such sacred light that you almost whisper them when you read them. Words so holy that the church has carried them for two thousand years and never grown tired of them. One of those phrases is this:

“This is My body.”

Jesus spoke it in an upper room, with bread in His hands, a cross in His path, and love in His heart. It was not a slogan, not a creed, not a cultural statement. It was the announcement of salvation. The Son of God holding out bread as if to say, “What you see here is what you will see on Calvary — My life offered, My body surrendered, My love poured out.”

But there is another voice in our world that speaks the same words.

Not in the language of surrender, but in the language of sovereignty.

Not in the spirit of sacrifice, but in the spirit of self-possession.

Our modern world has its own communion, its own table, its own gospel.

And at its table, people say the same words Jesus said, but with the exact opposite meaning:

“This is my body… and I answer to no one for what I do with it.”

Two religions.

Two tables.

Two opposite meanings.

Same words.

One voice says: “My body for your salvation.”

The other says: “My body for my pleasure.”

And between these two voices stands every believer, every church, every generation—asked to choose which table they will sit at, and which voice they will follow.

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OWNERSHIP — TWO CLAIMS, TWO LORDS

Let’s begin with the first word: ownership.

Because every theology, every worldview, every practice of worship starts with one core question:

Who owns me?

If you begin in the wrong place—if you begin with the assumption that I own me—then the gospel will never make sense, holiness will always feel like a burden, and surrender will always feel like loss.

But if you begin with God—if you begin with His ownership—then obedience becomes worship, sacrifice becomes joy, and surrender becomes freedom.

The Modern Declaration: “My Body Is Mine.”

For the modern world, the ultimate creed is simple:

“This is my body. I own it. I define it. I control it. I answer to no one for it.”

It is the creed of self-rule.

The religion of autonomy.

The doctrine of personal sovereignty.

The world tells us the highest virtue is self-possession.

The greatest authority is the self.

The truest worship is the worship of desire.

You hear it in the slogans of culture…

You hear it in politics…

You hear it in entertainment…

You hear it in the way people talk about identity, sexuality, pleasure, and even death.

It is the modern “communion,” and the confession at that table is always the same:

“My body is my own.”

But the end result is always the same:

People feel more free but become more enslaved.

People claim autonomy but lose peace.

People celebrate self-ownership yet live with unhealed wounds, unmet longings, and unending confusion.

A body kept for the self becomes a prison, not a home.

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CHRIST’S DECLARATION: “This Is My Body… Given for You.”

Now listen to the other voice. The voice that broke bread.

The voice that broke Himself.

“This is My body… given for you.”

Christ’s claim of ownership is the opposite of humanity’s claim.

Humanity says:

“My body is mine so I may keep it.”

Christ says:

“My body is mine so I may give it.”

Humanity uses ownership to justify self-protection, self-definition, self-fulfillment.

Christ uses ownership to express self-sacrifice, self-surrender, self-giving love.

He does not say, “This is My body, and no one will touch it.”

He says, “This is My body, and I will offer it so that you may be healed.”

He does not say, “This is My body, and I will control it to secure My comfort.”

He says, “This is My body, and I will lay it down so you can live.”

And this is where the gospel begins—not with our claim over our bodies, but with His claim over His.

He is the only One who ever said,

“No one takes My life from Me; I lay it down Myself.”

Jesus did not lose His life.

He gave it.

He handed it over freely.

He surrendered His body as the place where sin would be defeated, death overturned, and the new creation born.

And notice this:

He did not give His ideas, or His teachings, or His philosophy, or His sentiments for our salvation.

He gave His body.

The gospel is not merely a message of forgiveness.

It is the offering of a body—a real, physical body—broken, pierced, crucified, and resurrected for us.