Baby John will be six months old next week! Can you have a half-birthday party? John can sit up, roll over, and eat baby food! No longer does he just drink milk; he enjoys spinach, carrots, and sweet potatoes! (he doesn’t like peas too much…)
“We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity…” Hebrews 5:11-6:1
Milk is important, but we need more. Jesus is the Son of God, born of the virgin, Mary. He lived an obedient life, He died on the cross, and God raise Him to life on the third day. The elementary teachings about Christ bring us the message of salvation. This is where we start, but where do we go next? How does a baby grow? What is the solid food?
Christ is the solid food! “I am the Bread of Life!” We never need less of Christ, so how do we get more? What could not be explained to these Hebrew Christians? Examine the preceding paragraph:
“During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek.”
Since the writer taught about Melchizedek later in the letter, perhaps the solid food has to do with the life Jesus lived on this earth. Perhaps only the mature can understand the prayer life of the Son of Man. What stirred His emotions to bring forth ‘loud cries and tears’? Did He offer up prayers for a broken world? Did He weep for the lost sheep of Israel? Did He petition the Father for me and you? Can we learn to pray as He did? Why did the writer say He was heard? Perhaps only the mature can understand submission. Jesus lived in total surrender to His Father. How easy it is to talk about the Savior, but will we let Him be Lord over every area of our lives? Will we live in ‘reverent submission’?
Perhaps only the mature can understand the mysterious ways of God. ‘He learned obedience from what He suffered.’ Is He really a perfect Father? Why does He teach in such painful ways? If God chooses suffering as a part of my journey, will I run or will I persevere? And when Jesus reached full maturity… He laid down His life. The path of maturity is not found in just hearing about this One … true life is found in following Him.
“I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” Philippians 3:10-12
Let’s press on.