When We Weep, Jesus Weeps With Us — One Body, Many Members

The fourth evening at Le Pertre. Paul gives the church its anatomy — and Le takes it up to the Head.

And Paul set it up for exactly that. In verse 12 he does not say so also is the church. He says: "so also is Christ." The body IS Christ. So when verse 26 says one member suffer, all the members suffer with it — the Head is not exempt. He suffers with.

And the Greek carries it. 1 Corinthians 12:26 — sympaschei, suffer-with. Hebrews 4:15 — touched with the feeling of our infirmities — sympathēsai. The same root. The word for members suffering together is the word for Christ feeling what we feel.

And Le is right that the incarnation is the ground of it. He did not observe grief from a distance. He wept at a grave — Jesus wept — knowing He was about to empty it. He wept anyway. A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. Exhausted at a well. Rejected in His own town. Sorrowful unto death in a garden.

So the sympathy is not divine politeness. It is memory. He knows it from the inside.

"So also is Christ." Ainsi en est-il de Christ. Not "so also is the church." Paul could have written that — and didn't. The body he is describing is Christ Himself.

That one phrase is what makes Le's insight true. If the body is Christ, and one member suffers, then the suffering reaches all the way up.

"By one Spirit... into one body." Dans un seul Esprit, pour former un seul corps. The unity is not organized. It is given. One Spirit did the joining. Nobody voted.

Nobody put the foot out. The foot disqualified itself. And Paul's answer is simply: it doesn't work. Say it all you like — you are still of the body.

Le has said, more than once: I am not a scholar. I am not a theologian. True — and still of the body. The foot is not a failed hand. It is a foot, and the body needs to walk.

"God hath set the members... as it hath pleased him." Comme il a voulu. Kathōs ēthelēsen. The placement is His. Not earned, not chosen, not competed for. He was pleased to put each one exactly where it is.

"If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing?" Uniformity would be disability. A body of one organ cannot live.

"I have no need of thee." Je n'ai pas besoin de toi. Verse 15 was the member disqualifying itself. Verse 21 is the member disqualifying someone else. Paul shuts both doors.

"The more feeble are necessary." Sont nécessaires. Anankaia — not tolerated. Necessary. The body cannot do without them. And God Himself gave the greater honour to the part that lacked it. He evens the scales from His own side.

"No schism in the body." Pas de division dans le corps. Schisma — the same word as chapter 1. The division theme closes here, and the cure is surprising: not everyone being the same. Every part knowing it is needed.

"All the members suffer with it." Tous les membres souffrent avec lui. Romans 12:15, eleven days ago: rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep. Same instruction — now with the reason attached. We weep together because we are one body. It is not sympathy. It is anatomy.

And Le carries it home: when we weep, Jesus weeps with us. Sympaschei in Paul; sympathēsai in Hebrews 4:15. The same root. The Head feels what the members feel — because He wore this body first.

Le has arrived at a verse she already knew by heart.

"Covet earnestly the best gifts." Aspirez aux dons les meilleurs. Zēloute. Le said it on July 31: I have to pursue love and desire spiritual gifts. It is up to me to pursue. And again on September 2: Paul says to desire the things of the Spirit — greater, higher gifts. Twice from memory. Tonight, in its home.

And look what Paul does the instant he says it: "and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way." Une voie par excellence. He points past the gifts. All of chapter 13 is that sentence's answer.

Desire the best gifts — and then let me show you something better than any of them.

Le reached that conclusion two weeks before she read it: the greatest gift is His presence. 🙏