Because we are the heirs of the moderns, metaphors tend to slip right by us. To be sure, we know how to recognize a metaphor. Jesus tells us that He is the door, and we puzzle for a moment trying to imagine Him with hinges. When it doesn’t add up, we conclude, “Must be a metaphor” and happily move on. We think the object of the game is to recognize the metaphor, rather than to enter into it. Paul tells us, for instance, that we are the body of Christ. Recognizing that this isn’t literally the case, we pat Paul on the head for the clever metaphor, and again, move on. We don’t stop to ask what the metaphor is seeking to tell us, what it means, for instance, that the church is the body of Christ.
We note that we, as the body of Christ certainly need to get along with each other. It doesn’t make sense for eyes and ears to be at war with each other. What we miss, however, is that it is the church by which the reality that Christ is with us always is made manifest, or visible. We miss our calling.
Years ago I was preaching through the 10 Commandments. We came to the seventh commandment, the one calling us to not commit adultery. I highlighted all the usual fallout that seems to follow adultery around. I noted the destruction of families, the broken hearts and disrupted lives of little children. I spoke on the shame it brings to the church. But I argued that the greatest problem with breaking the seventh commandment is how it breaks the third commandment. A philandering husband is not just blowing up his own family, but is lying to the whole world about who Jesus is. When Paul draws the analogy between husbands and Jesus, wives and the church in Ephesians 5, he isn’t merely saying what husbands are supposed to be like. Instead he argues that the connection is always there. Unfaithful husbands who claim the name of Christ are “showing” Jesus to be unfaithful.
The same is true more broadly speaking of the church. Just as the wife reflects the glory of her husband (I Corinthians 11) so we the church and the Christians therein are called to show forth the glory of our Husband, Jesus. We’re supposed to show each other and the watching world what and who He is. We are His apostles, His sent ones. This does not mean that we must by all means seek to put our best face forward, according to the watching world. It does mean, however, that we must always seek to show forth His glory. This will be to those who are His a pleasing aroma. To those who are moving from death to death, it will be a stench, and a rock of offense. We must not only do what Jesus would do, but must strive to be what Jesus is.
We are His body, His visible presence in the very world over which He rules. That is a tremendous responsibility, as daunting as it is exciting.