2 Corinthians 5:1-10
Our Earthly Tent
1 Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. 2 Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, 3 because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. 4 For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
6 Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. 7 We live by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
2 Peter 1:12-21
Our Earthly Tent
12 So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have. 13 I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, 14 because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. 15 And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things.
16 We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17 For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” 18 We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.
19 And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. 20 Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. 21 For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
St. Paul and St. Peter talk about our bodies as being only temporary earthly tents...St. Peter tells us in his second epistle that Jesus told him, he would soon be leaving the tent of his body...He knew he would be soon putting his tent aside and dying...Our changing and aging physical body is for earth...And our Holy Spirit is more heavenly...When we prefer to be in this body, we prefer to live on earth...When we prefer to live in the Spirit and in the energy of our everlasting soul, we are away from our earthly bodies and are with and will be with the LORD...St. Peter was comforted by the LORD, on the night of His arrest, and told Peter and the other disciples that He would soon be going away and preparing a place, a room for them in heaven (John 14:1-4)...So St. Peter knew once His Teacher and Master left the earth, he would have a room near Him...
The Great Saints knew our bodies were and are temporary...Tents wear out, and our bodies age, wear down and eventually return to the earth...The bodies we currently live in will not live forever...They can live only for a specific amount of time (or so it currently seems)...The older body, as we reach our latest of years (for the most part) become more fragile, weaker, and wear down...
One of the lessons of the cross, is about the body...We see a real body and Man go to the cross...The tent of His body is tortured and destroyed to the very point of death...Jesus suffers and then His body dies on the cross for us...When His body physically dies on the cross, we can say that His tent was also was just a body...His body followed the laws of nature and dies, just like ours does and will...(Although I think it might be unfair to use the word "just" or "just a body" in describing anything about Jesus)...
Dying on the cross for us helps us understand the meaning of our tent...His death and resurrection proves that the body is only this temporary earthly tent as described by the Saints...By Him giving up His earthly body for us, His earthly tent eternally ties His Father and Him to humanity...His body died on the cross for mankind...God could have used another way to save us from our sins than Jesus physical body...God could have given Jesus blindness, or another disorder, but He chose the body on the cross as the way for mankind to save us from our sins...It was Jesus' real tortured body that died on the cross for us...
To say that Jesus had "just a body" and to say that He "just died on the cross" maybe the greatest understatement, I have ever written...The death of His body on the cross for man is one of the greatest statements I can make, in knowing and showing the eternal love God has for us...