In 1 Cor. 10, it says that God gave Israel spiritual food in the wilderness just like He gives Christians spiritual food. And in John 6, Jesus says that the manna was a type of the true spiritual food which is Jesus Himself, come down from heaven. Putting this together, we ought to see this table as the fulfillment of the manna in the wilderness, but it too points us directly to Christ who is our true spiritual food. As we eat and drink here at this table in faith, looking to Christ to feed us, the Spirit ministers the body and blood of Jesus to us.
And the thing to notice is that there is no scarcity in Jesus. There is only abundance. So much sin and sorrow come from thinking of this world and this life as one of scarcity. The world tries to spin this as exciting: you only live once, and there is of course some sense in which that is true. But for fallen sinners, that frequently feels like you’re on a bus looking down at the road flying past. And the older you get, the faster it seems to go. Just when you realize you’re done changing diapers, you look up one day and there’s a young man asking to court your daughter. And then someone hands you your first grandchild, and then you start wondering why everyone has started talking so quietly but their music is so loud terrible. And it can be tempting to despair or to grasp or grab. It might feel like so many really important things are flying past you, and maybe you’re still waiting for some of them or maybe you have lost some of them very dear to you: marriage, meaningful friendship, children, family, community, fulfilling work or a job.
But God, knowing our frame, set this table in our midst, and He says to you: At my right hand are pleasures forevermore. God sets a feast in our midst, and He says, this feast is my life given for you, the fullness of joy, the abundance of life, and it never runs out. The trick, in other words, is to not look down at the ground (your life) seemingly flying by you, but instead, look up. And see Jesus Christ, and in Him, see every good thing never running out. Yes, some things fly by, but there will always be more, 30, 60, and 100 fold: further up and further in. So look up and come and welcome to Jesus Christ.
Photo by Rumman Amin on Unsplash
Valerie (Kyriosity) says
First, a complaint: It takes too long for your posts to make it to YouTube! Hence my comment on this rather elderly one because I just listened to it yesterday. I know your time is completely unlimited, and your highest priority is catering to my preferred content delivery medium, so I don’t know what the problem is. 🤷♀️😉
Second, a point of disagreement (or perhaps misunderstanding). You write, “there is no scarcity in Jesus. There is only abundance.” But I don’t think that aligns with Scripture. How could Paul learn the secret of being content in plenty or in want, i.e., in scarcity, if there’s no such thing as scarcity? I could understand, “Any scarcity we have is far outweighed by the abundance we have in Jesus, so there’s no excuse for discontentment,” but “there’s no such thing as scarcity” seems more like a denial of plain reality. Could you ‘splain more where you’re coming from with that? Thanks. 🙂
Toby says
Ha. The YouTube people have been sacked.
On the scarcity – there *is* scarcity in this world, and so we have to learn contentment in this world (like Paul said), given scarcity at various points. But I think the point stands that there is no scarcity in Jesus. At His right hand are pleasures forevermore. And somehow, the scarcity of this present world will be swallowed up by the abundance in Christ.
Valerie (Kyriosity) says
Thanks. I think I was hearing it as “There is no scarcity for those who are in Jesus,” rather than “There is no scarcity in the person of Jesus,” because the rest of the paragraph is about things that really can be scarce…even for Christians. But your further explanation helps clarify. 🙂