2023/07/24

101. "The Great Supper of God", part 3

In this article, I will examine "the flesh of all men, ... both small and great" (Revelation 19:18) at the end of the angel's words. As before, in the light of the "scene of the Crucifixion," the flesh of these belonged to the many women watching this scene from afar. They were "women there, looking on from afar, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him; among whom were Mary Mag'dalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zeb'edee" (Matthew 27:55-56). It can be said that the seed sown in the disciples, who had followed and ministered to Jesus in this way, "fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty" (Matthew 13:8). 

The reason for the disparity in the harvest from the seeds sown in this parable is that there are individual differences in "hearing the word and understanding it," as Jesus himself explained: "As for what was sown on good soil, this is he who hears the word and understands it; he indeed bears fruit, and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty" (Matthew 13:23). Such individual differences even among the disciples, to whom "it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 13:11), are not due to their abilities or qualities, but because they leave all the lusts that arise within them, which are created from human knowledge and experience, as they are. These desires, both small and great, are the "flesh" that the angel commanded the "birds" to "devour." Once these are eaten by the birds, they will be able to see better what truth they pursue, and their desire for "hearing the word and understanding it" will be amplified. This desire reaches its highest degree when the Father draws them close to Jesus. 

The Father does so because there were constraints on what Jesus, who was human as well as divine, could do, as he said, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him" (John 6:44). Among the women in the scene of the Crucifixion were those whom the Father drew close to the cross of Jesus, together with his mother and "the disciple whom he loved" (John 19:26) (cf. John 19:25). 

On the cross, Jesus waited for them to come. Now, we can see a temporal connection between the last words of Jesus, depicted by each of the four Gospels. Amidst his suffering, Jesus' desire awaiting their arrival becomes a cry to the Father: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34). But then it is replaced, like Jesus' prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, by the words "Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit!" (Luke 23:46). Eventually, in the presence of those whom the Father had drawn near the cross, he breathed his last, saying, "It is finished" (John 19:30). These people became witnesses to the new covenant in the blood of Jesus. And some women among them became the first witnesses of the Lord's resurrection.　 

To be continued.

Maria K. M.