Jesus resisted the spirit of carnal religion. He rebuffed the first relic-worshipper he met, when a woman interrupted his teaching with shouts of praise for certain of his mother’s body parts:
Luke 11
27. It came to pass that as he was saying these things, a certain woman in the crowd lifted up her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts which you nursed!”
28. But he said, “Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God, and obey it!”
There is nothing holy about anybody’s body parts, not even the fleshly body in which the Son of God lived while he was here. Every fleshly body is nothing but corruptible flesh, as Isaiah said, “All flesh is grass, and all its comeliness is like a flower of the field. . . . The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever” (Isa. 40:6b, 8). Knowing that all flesh will decay, Paul said, “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither does corruption inherit incorruption” (1Cor. 15:50).
We do not worship the living God with dead things, but “in Spirit and in truth.” Dead bodies should be buried or burned up, not revered and bowed down to.
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