It's Dinner Time!

Jesus is continuing to outline the commandments of the Kingdom of God, harkening back to Moses and the giving of the Ten Commandments.

Jesus is on a hill, and Moses was on a mountain. 

Mountains are places where you have to look up and acknowledge the height and glory of God.  The psalmist says, 

"I lift up my eyes to the hills—
from where will my help come?
My help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.

He will not let your foot be moved;
he who keeps you will not slumber.
He who keeps Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.

The Lord is your keeper;
the Lord is your shade at your right hand.
The sun shall not strike you by day
nor the moon by night.

The Lord will keep you from all evil;
he will keep your life.
The Lord will keep
your going out and your coming in
from this time on and forevermore." (Psalm 121)

Moses' time on the mountain provoked fear in the people below; God was making sure that they had no doubt of the power and might of the God of Israel, who put "paid" to the account of the Egyptian gods. So, His display of thunder and lightning had its intended effect: The children of Israel were now in the loving possession of the Creator of the universe, and not the Pharaoh and his pantheon of stone monuments and they knew it. 

But, here on this mountain was the gentle Jesus.  No thunder.  No lightning.  Just the spoken word by the incarnate Word. God's very words came from the mouth of this man, for He was the Word:

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.  All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it." (John 1: 1-5)

He is the gentle Guide, the Voice who whispers to our hearts: 

"And when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left, your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’" (Isaiah 30:21)

He is taking our heart of stone and turning it into flesh, and writing His law there:

 
"This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them..." (Heb. 10:16).

So, here sits the very Word, with His words bringing new life and a slow, gentle chiseling away of the stony hearts of His listeners. 

What makes our hearts stony? Life itself: disappointments, pain, suffering, rejection, trauma, fear, anger, sin, defeat, abuse, loneliness... I am sure we could construct a list a mile long. 

Why do tidal pool animals have shells?  They are immersed in the ocean's water or exposed to the hot sun.  A shell is a very reasonable response to such conditions.  Our conditions are no less chaotic and ever-changing. 

But then we cry, "There's got to be more!  Is this all there is?" 

Jesus is saying, "No!" and offers a way to seek the Kingdom:  hunger. 

We all know how hunger narrows our focus down to a search for satiation. The Cambridge Dictionary defines "satiation" as: "the act of completely  satisfying yourself or a need, especially with food or pleasure."   But food and pleasure have a temporary satiation effect; after a while, you are on a search once more.  Why?  Because satiation without God leads to a deeper hunger, one that gnaws at us and makes us wonder what is happening--why the world no longer satisfies. 

Blaise Pascal put it well:

"What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself."

We are adopted by the world, as it were, and we are always seeking our Source, our true Parent. 

So, Jesus addresses this search for meaning and connection to His heavenly Father by saying: 

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled." (Matthew 5:6).  In order words, when we crave, to the very depths of our being, a right-standing with God, longing to be in His embrace, forgiven and set free, that will be true satiation, for that is why we were created in the first place: to walk in the Garden with God.

Jesus promises a place at the table.  He is telling His audience: I know you are hungry.  Life has left you that way.  I am here to show you that your search is not in vain. God is waiting. This is His kingdom, one where you live in fellowship with Him.  But there is one detail that I will share with you later:  The gates of the Kingdom will have My blood smeared over the lintel and on the sides.  I am the Passover Lamb: fragrant and sweet to the taste, but I must die so you may be satisfied.  My Father must be satisfied, too, for that is wage of your sin: death.

But have no fear:  I have, and I will, overcome the world.  

"Taste and see that the Lord is good;

blessed is the one who takes refuge in him." (Psalm 34:8)

Amen.