Christmas with St Matthew 7

14.
Something I never understood about him in those days was how he could give when he was empty. Like the time his cousin died, killed by that fox Herod, and he took the news quietly, went to be by himself in his grief, and yet, when the crowds followed and invaded his silence he could still turn around with compassion and teach them, and when the crowds growled with hunger he could turn to us with that all-knowing look and say – as though it were the easiest thing to do – “You give them something to eat.” And out of the emptiness – fullness!

15.
And then, when our fingers were still greasy from that feast and the Pharisees’ fingers pointed at our unclean hands, what did he do but turn the finger back on them. Everyone was welcome to his feast, even the dog licking up crumbs, but not the self-righteous who thought they’d earned their place with the cleanness of their hands. His feast was moving on swiftly and you had to be following him to catch the next one, hearts being washed by your every moment with him.

16.
Even then we were so slow to understand – afraid even when we forgot bread, as though the last two miracle feasts weren’t enough. Were we really any better than the Pharisees with their demands for a sign? We had all the signs we needed, yet didn’t quite get it. He had come to serve, not to trample. He had come to die, the bread of life, filled with the new yeast of heaven, ready, waiting to be broken.