"Don't Eat the Cheesecake!" Again . . . (Mark 2:10; Ez. 24:13; Jn. 5:6--and the whole OT)

 Scripture echoes from Old to New, resounding the truth of God across the ages of man. The more I read and reread and reread and ingest and study and chew on Scripture, the more I see these echoes, and they serve to increase my faith, assuage any doubts that try to rise up, and fill me with hope.

As our congregation has moved in our corporate reading of the Bible this year from Old into New Testament Scriptures, the gospels pick up the loud echo. Christ’s words speak the same words spoken to God’s chosen people centuries earlier. Christ says Moses wrote of Him; indeed, the whole Old Testament conceals (and yet still points out clearly in retrospect) the Christ that the New Testament reveals. 

Two echoes resounded today. 

One of them is a question Jesus asks that I constantly chew on as I encounter in people and in myself sin that begs to be dealt with: “Do you want to be made well?” (NKJV). It is a question I come to over and over again (and feel quite sure I have written of in different contexts.) It seems such an illogical question at first glance—after all, who wouldn’t want to be whole if it were actually within their capacity or grasp to do so? Yet the reality with leaving sin alone, letting it be, is much like the reality of having a cheesecake in my refrigerator and knowing it is there and being in the house wit it all day. My awareness of the cheesecake’s proximity and availability leads to a fixation which leads to a longing which turns into a craving that sight contributes to every single time I open the fridge. After the constant seeing that comes with the necessity of living (one must eat and drink after all), the confirming that it is within reach, just walking by the refrigerator soon makes me want a piece of the luscious cheesecake in it to the point I can almost taste it. Then at some point, the hunger within me will chip away at my somewhat weakened resolve to abstain from eating it right then. I know within me that I should only have so much cheesecake in my life, yet I want more cheesecake. Eventually, I eat the cheesecake and keep battling, losing, and eating the cheesecake that is within reach day after day until it is gone. “It’s just food!” you might say, but in reality it is my spirit’s longing for it and my giving in to eating it repeatedly that makes me struggle with my weight as an adult. 

Sin is not easy, even when it is a longing for a cheesecake living in my refrigerator. (Rest assured, there is no cheesecake there today.) Now translate this to even bigger issues in life, struggles that seem insurmountable. Battle them daily. The law—“Don’t eat cheesecake every day!”—makes me want cheesecake even more. I far too often give in to the temptations of food, the lust of the flesh I struggle with. And honestly, I tire of it. I know my body is a temple of the Spirit, Christ living in me, so why do I still struggle? I know the truth (eating the wrong foods in the wrong quantities or just too much food and not enough burning of calories will make me gain weight), want to be made well, but often, I don’t want to do my part to be whole. 

Maybe you’ve never thought about Jesus asking His question and put it in any other context than a sick man wanting to walk again, but I find more and more uses for this scripture in every single area of my life the more I live, walk, and learn about the nature of God and the words He has left behind containing everything I need for life (including cheesecake’s temptations) and godliness (including all those pesky little habits I avoid labeling as sin that exist in my life).

For example, I confess that often I have been a judgmental person. I understand this about myself; it has been a lifelong struggle for me. If I tell myself not to judge (lest I be judged in the same way I am judging), it does little good, for eventually I will forget and be judgmental. However, I am finding that if I am entirely focused on loving a person, on serving them, the struggle not only diminishes but also disappears. If I just look at the law intently (“Don not judge!”), I fail. If I look at my neighbor and love him/her, Christ in me prevails. The constancy of this war is fatiguing. It makes me long for heaven and diminishes my fear of the transition between earth and heaven much like being nine months pregnant made me no longer fear giving birth. I long for it (and know ever more clearly with each passing year what grace it is that covers my detestable sin that should keep me from the presence of God—but Christ in me, my hope of glory!) Much like Jesus seeing the active faith that sprung up in the people who wanted their friend to be well and dropped him through the roof to get to Him . . . I want Jesus to see my active faith that springs up in me from a confidence in Him and moves Him to forgive my sins because of His compassion, His goodness, His power and ability to overcome the darkness within me with the light that He is. I cannot fathom standing before Him one day and Him telling me as God told Judah, “I would have cleansed you, yet you were not [willing to be] cleansed (Ez. 24:13b, AMP). God help me want always to be made well!

The second echo I could write pages on (but I won’t today since I’ve taxed my word limit) is a phrase in Mark 2:10 that caught my ear today: “so that you may know” is a phrase the Old Testament repeats over and over again as God acts in varied ways to draw His people’s attention to His mighty power and authority. Usually this phrase involves judgment or discipline God brought on His people (and nations who abused them) and reveals His desire for them to turn back to Him, to truly see who He is and worship Him alone. The echoes of the Old are everywhere in the New. The Pharisees, scribes, and Sadducees, the ones who should've been most ready and eager to see Jesus, failed miserably and relied on what they "knew" rather than the truth of what God placed before them. I am so grateful for the echoes that are in the word, but at the same time, they are very sobering when I consider how many missed the truth of Messiah when He came to walk this earth and be the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

Lord, help me to know, to truly know You, to want to be made whole, well, by You, and to see Your hand of discipline on my life when it is needed for what it is and respond whole-heartedly (with Your softened heart, not a hard one) to the love and compassion You are willing to extend.