Two Voices Calling: A Meditation on Proverbs 9 and John 6, for the 13th Sunday after Pentecost

Wisdom hath builded her house,

she hath hewn out her seven pillars:

She hath killed her beasts;

 she hath mingled her wine;

 she hath also furnished her table.

She hath sent forth her maidens:

she crieth upon the highest places of the city,

Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither:

as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him,

Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled.

Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding.

 

 He that reproveth a scorner getteth to himself shame:

and he that rebuketh a wicked man getteth himself a blot.

Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee:

rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee.

Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser:

teach a just man, and he will increase in learning.

 

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom:

and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.

 For by me thy days shall be multiplied,

and the years of thy life shall be increased.

If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself:

but if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it.

 

A foolish woman is clamorous:

she is simple, and knoweth nothing.

For she sitteth at the door of her house,

on a seat in the high places of the city,

To call passengers who go right on their ways:

Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither:

and as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him,

Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.

But he knoweth not that the dead are there;

and that her guests are in the depths of hell.

 

Solomon’s inspired wisdom anticipated and pointed forward to the words of Jesus 900 years later, when He taught His disciples and anyone who would listen, that:

 

I am the living bread which came down from heaven:

if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever:

and the bread that I will give is my flesh,

which I will give for the life of the world…

It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing:

 the words that I speak unto you,

they are spirit, and they are life.

 

What Solomon observed is that there are always two voices calling to mankind, and their respective ends are always the same.  God calls to mankind by His Wisdom through His Word, having built the house of His Kingdom in perfect enduring stability (seven pillars), prepared the feast which would nourish everyone who partakes of it, set the table for dining, and called to everyone to enter into His eternal fellowship and life.  His Word and Wisdom call those who lack wisdom and knowledge to come and learn of Him, to be fed and nourished by Him, and thus enlivened to go forth in the way of understanding, forsaking the path of the foolish.

 

Of course, this also means that there are other voices calling to mankind.  Solomon provided an example in the guise of a foolish and clamorous woman, whose lust and appetites she proclaims from the lofty parts of the city, enticing others to depart from virtue and consume her secret wares.  She also calls to the foolish and the simple, wooing others to a path of submission to their passions and vices, ending in death and destruction.  Though this voice is typified as an impure woman in contrast to the pure woman of Wisdom, the cacophony of voices calling man to destruction are really a dark symphony of vice.  All voices which call man away from God and the life He offers, are calling out from the same darkness and evil, with the same motive and end in mind for the men they call.  While God calls mankind to life, the voices of evil call mankind to slavery, death, and destruction.

 

Jesus spoke to the crowds all around Him about being the bread of life which would be given for the life of the world, and yet, many chose not to listen.  His Word went out with the power to convert every heart, but God still gives man the power to deny Him, and to turn away from life to death.  Like today, many who heard Jesus then turned back to the sultry voices of death rather than embrace the life of grace by faith and repentance He offered them.  Yet that is the curse of mankind, particularly those who think themselves wise, who ask presumptuously of the Word of God Incarnate, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?—or any number of variations on the theme of how God can grant the grace He promises.  Man still has the power to reject the King of the Universe in His offer of divine grace, but he cannot escape the King in His Law; man will either hear His voice and come to Him, forsaking foolishness that they might live, or they will follow the voices of the damned into the place of the damned, lost in the darkness forever.

 

Even so, God does not cease calling the world to Himself, nor in offering His true food and drink for the life of the world.  It is Jesus alone who could accomplish our salvation by His Cross, even when we thought it impossible—only Jesus who could call mankind out of slavery to sin, death, hell, and the devil, into the magnificence of His Kingdom through the forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and salvation offered freely by grace through faith in Him alone.  Even we simple and foolish mortals, consumed by our desires and so often lured into dark places by the siren songs of hell, are called today to the banquet of the King.  There is no hinderance placed before mankind to heed the call of His saving Wisdom, except the heart which prefers its own evil over the righteousness of Jesus Christ, and to suffer under the Law rather than to live liberated in the Gospel.  It is God’s good will that all might hear Him, repent, believe, and live, for God desires the death and destruction of no one.

 

Be of good cheer, all you who hear the voice of Wisdom in the Lord Jesus Christ:  for His house stands forever, and His banquet is never diminished!  There is no end to the mercies He pours out to you, withholding not even His own Body and Blood, that you might have food and drink indeed unto everlasting life.  Turn to Him, you who are simple of mind, who lack understanding, and as His disciples of old, He will fill you with the Words of eternal life.  Soli Deo Gloria!  Amen.

 

Food that Endures: A Meditation on John 6, for the 11th Sunday after Pentecost

Jesus answered them and said,

Verily, verily, I say unto you,

Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles,

but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled.

 Labour not for the meat which perisheth,

but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life,

 which the Son of man shall give unto you:

for him hath God the Father sealed.

 

In John 6, the crowd followed Jesus in pursuit of the miraculous bread He provided at the feeding of the 5,000.  While physical nourishment is necessary to sustain life in this world, and the working poor would have a reasonable desire for free bread, Jesus wanted to teach them something of much greater significance than a full belly.  While the food a person would eat today would leave them hungry tomorrow, the nourishment Jesus was offering didn’t work that way.  Instead, what Jesus wanted to give the crowd was greater than feeding the hungry, healing the sick, or even raising the dead:  it was eternal life.  Only Jesus could offer them nourishment for their souls, that even when they suffered or died in this world, their lives would be kept forever in Him.  Jesus knew that every material miracle and gift He provided to the people would eventually fade, and that no matter how many diseases He cured or bellies He filled, the greater need for mankind was to overcome death itself.  In this way Jesus would be for them the Bread of Heaven—that which nourished their souls with faith and repentance unto everlasting life, all for the sake of His sacrifice yet to come on the Cross.

 

Of course, the people then as the people today, often misunderstood Jesus.  While it is good to help people in their physical needs, and Jesus did this many times, His miracles were intended to point people toward faith in Him.  Across the thousands of years of the Church’s history, there have been countless miracles of all types and sorts, from healings of diseases, to rescues from foes, to victories in battle, to resurrections, and countless others in between.  Yet all the authentic miracles of the Church are not intended to shine light upon the Church or particular Christians, but rather to point people to Jesus.  When the Church celebrates the miracles of St. Peter and St. Paul recorded in the Book of Acts, or the miracles of Moses recorded in Exodus, or the miracles of Elijah and Elisha recorded in the Books of the Kings, none of those miracles are for the glory of the saints through whom they were conducted, but solely to guide people back to the saving God who sent them.  God’s perspective is eternal, while people tend to fixate on the moment—and in our fallen state, people tend to prefer the gifts that perish with the using, rather than the gifts which endure forever.

 

Take, for example, a person’s priority of physical food over spiritual food.  If I am hungry, I seek nourishment, and often something tasty that satisfies both my hunger and my desire for succulence.  And not only once do I do this, but multiple times a day, allowing my appetites and desires to make me gluttonous in my eating and drinking, and my waistline to show the results.  Even if I supposed myself to be in athletic training, my eating is disciplined toward a goal of performance and recovery, feeding my body with excesses to ensure strong muscles and bones.  But how often do I pursue the food that endures not to the next meal or the next competition, but unto eternal life?  How often do I feed my soul on the Word of Jesus, that I might be nourished in my inner self and prepared to see a life far beyond the few decades I will spend in this world?  In truth, I think it would hard to find any people who spend more time imbibing the Word of God, properly meditating upon it, seeking understanding from it, and resolving to let that Word conform the totality of daily life, than they do in pursuing physical food and drink.  But this is the condition of our fall—seeking to keep that which we cannot by means that will always fail us, while holding in low regard the eternal things which abide forever, and are given to us freely by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone.

 

But the Good News is that Jesus knows what we need, and provides it for us anyway.  Jesus knew what the crowd around Him needed as they clamored for more bread, even as He knows what we need as we clamor for whatever our appetites impudently demand today.  Jesus’ resolute march to Calvary secured for us the forgiveness of our sins which satisfied the justice and wrath of our holy, omnipotent God.  His sacrifice in our place transferred our deadly punishment to Him, that He might give to us His eternal life reconciled to our Maker.  No longer exiled rebels destined for incarceration in the eternal fires of hell, we rise by grace through faith in Jesus with a life that can never be taken from us, in a kingdom that can never fade away.  Jesus is indeed the Bread which came down from Heaven that feeds His people, nourishes them, and sustains them every moment of every day, unto ages of ages without end.  The Word of the Lord endures forever, as do those who abide in it by faith.  All these good gifts Jesus won for us while we were yet sinners, still rebels and enemies of God in our blasphemy and disbelief, so that His Word and Spirit might transform and enliven us forever.  Even when we prefer tacos and tequila, He still brings us His Body and His Blood, that even though we die, we will live.

 

Let go your gratuitous appetites which war against your soul and clutter your mind, so that it may be filled with the good things of God’s grace in Jesus Christ.  Listen to Him by hearing and abiding in His Word, learning of Him, and following Him as the Holy Spirit takes hold of your soul and begins to transform it into a reflection of His glory.  God knows what we have need of in this mortal life, and He provides for our needs out of His good and gracious care, even using His people to care for the physical needs of their neighbors.  Yet the true Bread, the true riches, the most profound gifts of grace and mercy and life come only by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ.  May the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, and nourish you in His grace forever.  Soli Deo Gloria—amen.