“Siamese Twin" with Jesus

In a recent letter, my sister wrote that we had "connected" like never before, during our family grief last year. That unusual expression seemed to tie in with some current readings and sermons about our relationship with Jesus.

The Bible writers have certainly struggled to find the words to convey the meaning of this relationship. Jesus almost caused a riot saying that we had to "drink his blood" - very un-kosher (Jn.6:53-61). I think western minds can be some-what mislead by the metaphors of being "born again" (Jn.3:3-7) and being "filled with the Holy Spirit" (Eph.3:19,5:18). Our image of birth is of being "separated" from the mother, of becoming an "individual", and "infilling" has connotations of something being poured from one container into another separate container. Even the western concept of marriage seems to have lost the spiritual aspect of "becoming one" (Mt.19:5,6).

But to me, Jesus’ illustration of "the vine and the branches" (Jn.15:1-5) speaks more about this relationship as being joined, becoming one. The imagery of a body with Christ as the head is used for the Church, but seldom applied personally. That's when the illustration of "Siamese twins" came to me. We are called to be "connected" to Jesus. His "life blood" running in "our veins". Separate, but one; inter-dependent - we on Him, our "head", "heart" and life-source - and he on us, participating in His current incarnation, His hands, feet and mouth-piece in this physical world.

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