When my wife and I go out to eat at a new restaurant, we have very different approaches to the menu. I go to a new restaurant to try something new. I will look for an entree on the menu that I have never eaten before. If I steer away from the few items on my personal “nasty list” – strong cheeses, Brussels sprouts, and cream sauce – I usually have a very nice dining experience, in spite of the risk. Sandie is not a risk taker in this situation. If she likes the ambience and the wait staff and the prices, she will also want to like her meal. So, she will look for something on the menu that is familiar; a standard; predictable. If she ends up with something hard to swallow, having to pay for it will be really hard to swallow.
Looking at today’s chapter in Hebrews, I see spiritual truths described as menu items. There are the milky items and the meaty items. Like physical food, spiritual truths are palatable and digestible according to the development of the eater. Infants drink milk. The mature eat meat. It takes some growing up to be able to wield a knife and fork well, and to be able to chew and swallow something of substance. Slicing up God’s Word carefully, breaking it down and digesting it also takes some maturity. Unfortunately, many prefer not to grow up in their faith. The author writes, “though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths … all over again.” You need milk, not meat!
If you haven’t already done so, set your bib and your Peter Pan booties aside, and make a commitment to grow up. Make up your mind to master the milk and then the meal and then the meat. Each stage provides preparation and strength for the next. Knowledge leads to wisdom and discernment. Then our efforts become Kingdom-effective and truly Christ-like. Let’s look at a few truths in the text that are hard to swallow for the infant, but manageable for the mature.
The mature are able to deal gently with those whose weaknesses are showing, because they are sensitive to their own weaknesses. The immature deny their own weaknesses and have little patience for those they see as faulty. They try to mask their weakness by coming on strong with others. How far grown are you with this truth? Are you milky or meaty?
Next, the text reveals that the mature do not take for themselves the honor of leadership among God’s people; they must be called by God. Some pursue leadership in the church as a privileged position, but pride and true piety do not mix. The mature are humbled by the honor to serve God and His people, carefully administering grace as representatives of Christ. How do you fare on the maturity scale with this menu item?
Some of the harder truths to explain, and thus to swallow, are those related to Jesus, the God-man. His incarnation is a mystery at many points. How is it that He is God and yet cries out in prayer with tears? How is it that He must learn obedience through suffering? These concepts challenge well-developed minds, much more the elementary thinker. Hopefully we see in these mysteries the models for our own behavior – the need to submit with reverence to God, to channel our passions in prayer to the One who can satisfy our heart’s cry, and to understand the value of pain in the formation and steeling of our faith.
So, what’s on your menu tonight? Similac? Or steak?
Pray: Lord, help me to grow up. Help me to cooperate with you in the development of my faith. Nourish me, strengthen me. Build me up to serve You, your people and the world well, in the pattern of the perfect man, Jesus Christ. Jesus, you are my model for maturity.
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