More of life
Series: Welcome home | Bible text: 2 Kings 6:24–7:20
First we must live ourselves, and then help others to live. This order is illustrated to us by a story of lepers who first filled their own bellies and then shared the good news. We are invited to the table in the house of God. There we are fed with delicacies. We are then challenged to invite others.
Before each flight, you are told how to use the oxygen mask in an emergency.
- Pull the mask down towards you.
- Place the oxygen mask over your mouth and nose.
- Secure the mask with the strap behind the head and pull the mask tight with the elastic straps on both sides and continue breathing normally.
- After you have put on your own mask, you can help others who have problems using it or can’t get to their mask.
Every time I think that this is a bit selfish. Shouldn’t one first help others, especially the children, to get dressed. The idea behind it is different: First you have to live yourself, then you can help others to live. It is the same in following Jesus Christ.
Fill your belly
Welcome home. Home is the place where we eat together. Sitting together at the table and enjoying a fine meal is a fitting image for home. When the staff team sits together and takes a break, the most common topic of conversation is food. It’s probably because everyone feels so at home.
Today it is also about food. In the Old Testament, which as we know is the picture book of the New Testament, there is a wonderfully gruesome story (2 Kings 6:24–7:20). This story illustrates a spiritual truth in an impressive way. The city of Samaria is surrounded by the whole army of the king of Aram. As a result, the inhabitants are starved. This is an ancient battle tactic. If you want to force someone to surrender, you have to starve them out. For days and weeks, the inhabitants of Samaria have had nothing to eat. It is so bad that pigeon dung and donkey heads are already being traded as food for a lot of money. Even more, a mother has cooked and eaten her son together with a friend. Tragic conditions prevail.
There is another setting: outside this city there is a place where the lepers live. We would call them «lepers». The problem is that during a famine, these lepers are guaranteed not to be at the top of the list when it comes to getting food. So these people starved even more than everyone else. They were four lepers looking their certain death in the eye. But then a glorious idea flashed through their minds. They ask themselves: «Why should we wait here until we die? If we stay here, we die, and if we go back to the city where the hunger is, we die too. We might as well go and surrender to the Arameans. If they let us live, so much the better. If they kill us – well, then we die.»(2 Kings 7:3f).
No sooner said than done. Trembling and shaking, they go into the enemy camp and what they find there surpasses their wildest imagination: The camp is empty! The enemy is no longer there! Apparently they had to flee very quickly, because they left everything behind. There were treasures in abundance: Donkeys, horses, clothes, gold, drink, food. Unbelievable!
«When the four leprous men came into the camp, they went into one of the tents, ate their fill and quenched their thirst.»(2 Kings 7:8a; Hfa). First they fill their bellies. They enjoy it and really let themselves go. It’s the most normal thing in the world. «Then they gathered up all the silver, gold and clothing they could find there in the tent and hid the treasures outside the camp. They quickly hurried back, went to the next tent and also took from there all the precious things they could find to bring to their hiding place.»(8b; Hfa).
Here a good spiritual attitude is illustrated to us: Take from God what you can receive! They take everything they can! This food saved their lives. That is the story of your life and mine. If you have come to know God, then hopefully you have experienced that you can eat your fill with Jesus, that you get everything you need. It is a big problem for many Christians that they do not feed on Jesus but on other sources. «In two respects my people have acted wrongly against me: They forsake me, the fountain of living waters, and instead dig leaky wells that cannot hold the water»(Jeremiah 2:13). We go to the source of ’success» and say: If I am successful, I will be satisfied. Or to the source «reputation»: If only I have enough reputation, then I will be satisfied. Or to the source «wealth»: If I have that, then I will be full. Or to the source ’sexuality»: If I have this woman, then I will be full. And we don’t become full because these sources cannot nourish us in the end. Jesus is the source of life. Whoever comes to him will be filled.
When was the last time you fed yourself to God, really hit it? When was the last time you really spent time with Jesus, maybe on a walk, and said: «Jesus, here I am. I need nourishment for my soul. There are my needs, my wants, my frustrations. Come and nourish me!» In the house of God, we eat first! I believe that one of the main problems of us Christians is that we do not fill our bellies with Jesus.
Share the good news
But then they said to each other: «We are not doing right if we do not share the good news of this day. If we wait until tomorrow, we will be guilty. Come, let us go back and tell it in the king’s palace.» (9).
We are not doing right if we do not share the good news of this day! The four lepers have discovered something great. Then they realise that it is not right that they eat and eat and eat, when at the same time a whole city is starving. A lot of Christians fill their bellies with Jesus and it’s always about them. Salvation selfishness. It’s not right if we just eat and eat and eat. There is a city that is starving. There are people who are starving. It is written about the prodigal son who abandoned his father: «The young man was so hungry that he would have liked to eat the pods he fed to the pigs himself. But no one gave him anything»(Luke 15:16). Every person who is not with the Father is starving. For some it is obvious, for others, it is more hidden. But deep in the heart, at night, when it is very quiet, a hopelessness ultimately makes itself felt. Blaise Pascal speaks of the god-shaped vacuum within us. Hunger! And us? We know the good news and hopefully we do not keep it to ourselves. We are not doing right if we do not share the good news of this day. Today is a day of joy!
We have a fantastic message for the people of the city. Jesus says: «I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never hunger again. Whoever believes in me will never thirst again» (John 6:35). Our message is: When you come to Jesus, your thirst is quenched. You no longer have to quench it in career, prestige or appearance! Jesus came to give us abundant life. (John 10:10b). David also experienced this. That is why he can say in Psalm 23:1: «The Lord is my shepherd, I have everything I need.»
Why is the Gospel actually good news? Our standard statements go in the following direction: «You are a sinner. Jesus died for you. You get eternal life». This chain of reasoning is comprehensible for a prisoner in a correctional institution. But is it also for the successful professional woman with good character and high ethical standards? Do people have to feel bad first in order for us to score points for the gospel? And then once you live as a Christian, you have to meet a whole catalogue of standards and regulations. To be honest, I too find that unattractive.
No, the Gospel is also good news for rock solid and successful people. The problem is the term sin. Some more religious people understand it to mean the transgression of the law and areligious people the small pleasures of everyday life. Unilevel caused a stir a few years ago with the new variants of its «Magnum» ice cream brand. The varieties were named after the seven deadly sins, for example «lust», «revenge», «envy» and «greed». People in the Orient understand sin less as a moral failure than as something that disturbs the covenant community with the heavenly Father. Sin means not being at home with God. The two sons have both drifted away from their father, leading to hunger in the younger son and discontent in the elder. Jesus defines sin: «The sin of the world is that it does not believe in me»(John 16:9). Living in sin means not being connected to Jesus and thus not having a home with God. This independence from God is sin and leads to wrongdoing.
The Gospel is good news because it adds tremendous value. It is not uncommon for people to ask the question as they grow older: «Was that all?«One can live a good life without God. But it is unbelievable and most regrettable what someone does without. Jesus Christ gives us a hope that endures through the ups and downs of our earthly life and beyond. You can have a good marriage – even outside the house of God. But the common faith is the best resource there is. People with high resilience can overcome barren times. But it is quite another thing to take refuge in such situations in the heavenly Father, who is our rock.
Our message to the people is: Don’t settle for so little, Jesus is more! This thought becomes most radical and clear in the face of death. At the latest then the question inevitably arises: «Was that all?»
Invite home
Come home and eat your fill! As a congregation, we want to represent this God’s way of hospitality on earth. For Paul declares that the church is the house of God (1Timothy 3:15). The house rules and culture of God’s house should be experienced by people in the local church. We want to represent the house of God in this world and open our arms as wide to people as the father of the two sons did in the parable.
Therefore, it is a great way to invite hungry people of the city to an event and bring them the good news indirectly. Maybe now you are thinking about the failures you have already had. Our mission is to proclaim the good news, but we are not responsible for its success. That we must not be discouraged by this is taught to us by a host who had to accept many cancellations. He simply carries on and orders his employee: «Go out on the country roads and behind the hedges and ask everyone you find to come so that the house will be full.»(Luke 14:23).
We have worked hard in recent years to ensure that guests can feel comfortable at every service. Nevertheless, there are also special events geared towards this, such as the seetal chile Talk or the next 19h service followed by a barbecue on a balmy summer evening. Glow Youth, glow Ameisli, glow Kids and glow Next also design their programmes to be very visitor-friendly. What do people get when they come to worship with us? They get a brilliant message. They get hope and a perspective that goes beyond death. They get joy because they get to know Jesus personally. The many positive echoes from new people should make us brave to invite our friends too. It’s coming good!
We are not doing right if we do not share the good news of this day. Have you ever eaten your fill of Jesus? Who could you share the good news with? Who could you invite to an event in the church?
Possible questions for the small groups
Read the Bible text: 2 Kings 6:24–7:20
- What does the Gospel contain? Explain it in the group!
- Did you fill your belly with Jesus? What do you mean by that?
- Is the matter of Jesus such good news for you that you can tell it to others with conviction?
- Who could you invite to a community event? Why don’t you make a concrete plan?
A little exercise: Tell someone the good news or invite someone to an event in the church!
