“You are enough.” It’s the motto of the moment. We’ve had this messaging drilled into us from every angle. Even Christian bookstore aisles are lined with versions of this message. This message should provoke in you the same sort of response you’d have to the terms cannibalism, bio-hazardous waste, raw sewage.
Scripture calls this self-care messaging another name: vanity. Vanity spreads a table, but it feasts on itself. It holds up a mirror to itself, like Narcissus, in the hopes that basking in one’s own glory will satisfy the deep yearning within for joy. This vain-glory of self-help thinks that you are what God alone is: self-kindled & self-fed. So, it gnaws away at itself, until it leaves nothing but a skeleton. It tells you you are enough, but every time you feed on yourself you’re filled with more self-loathing, knowing that deep down you do not & cannot satisfy yourself.
As R.M. M’Cheyne once said, “for every look at self, take ten looks at Christ.” The cure for your vanity is not the mirror of self help, but rather the telescope of Christ’s Gospel. Here is that telescope. This meals brings the resplendent glory of Christ near to us, in signs we can touch, and taste, and see, and savor. The Gospel is embodied here. His life, laid down for you. His dead body, raised up for you, a miserable sinner.
Here’s all you need. Not more of yourself, but finding yourself hidden with Christ in God. The joy of the Lord is strength. The joy of narcissism is a black hole. The bread we break is the eternal Word which gave all creation being. The wine we drink is the eternal Logos which gave all creation meaning. So forsake yourself, forsake the table of vanity…
So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ…