Slick marketing departments of companies that want your money know something. They know how overcommitted and undernourished people are these days when it comes to life. So they offer the most popular solution: a quick fix.
You can have something that is get-it-now convenient, press-a-button easy, and door-delivery important. Oh, and it will make your life better in 30 minutes.
Campbell’s Soup just announced its newest flavor. Grilled cheese and tomato soup. For the distinguished palette too stressed out and stretched thin to warm up a pan on the stove and put a piece of cheese between two pieces of bread. Get one of the best meals in life all in a can. What is happening to us? We can’t slow down enough to make a grilled cheese sandwich?
No, you’re not sinning if you eat this soup, I actually want to try it. But it signifies a major worldview today: Life should be easy, and if it’s not easy, then it’s not good. So let me ask this. If you could not have BOTH easy and good, but only one of them, which would you choose? My dad used to teach me (I can hear his voice), “There’s the easy way or the right way”
Jesus teaches, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that [you] may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10). The get-it-now, press-a-button, door-delivery approach to the meaning of life is a thief, a destroyer, a taker. Buy into it, and you’ll lose the better life—even eternal life—and Jesus who gives it.
Jesus contrasts himself to this worldview and promises that he isn’t a taker but a giver. Jesus doesn’t take the fun out of life, he gives it. Jesus doesn’t steal your joy, he gives it. Jesus doesn’t come to condemn and curse but to save and bless. He’s not artificial flavor infused chemically into a can.
Jesus is the bread. Your Bread of Life. The manna in your wilderness. The real presence of his body and bread together in Holy Communion.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (Matthew 5:6). Filled with what? Filled with Jesus.
“Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 10:39). Believe in Jesus and you are not the victim of a life filled with regret. Believe in Jesus and live a victorious life filled with him.
PRAYER: Teach me, Lord, to discern the danger of quick fixes that do not deliver what they promise. Fill me, Jesus, as the Giver in my life, and not the taker. Pour more of you into me, so that I can pour you out to others. Amen.
EVANGELISM ACTION: Make lunch for a friend. Campbell’s grilled cheese and tomato soup. Explain, “This soup is the opposite of Jesus.”
