{"id":4822,"date":"2025-08-18T08:31:28","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T12:31:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=4822"},"modified":"2025-08-18T08:31:28","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T12:31:28","slug":"meta-dine-with-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/18\/meta-dine-with-me\/","title":{"rendered":"META: Dine “With” Me"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n


\u00a0Each weekday in the month of August, we will pursue \u201cprepositional truth\u201d by zeroing in on a single Greek preposition in a single verse, noting the theological richness so often embedded in the humble words we so often overlook.\u00a0<\/em>

In one of the Bible\u2019s most celebrated verses, the door usually gets all of the attention.

Maybe we should pay more attention to the meal.

Jesus says, in Revelation 3:20, \u201cHere I am! I stand at the door\u00a0and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door,\u00a0I will come in\u00a0and eat with that person, and they with me.\u201d

The Christian art market has long been flooded with pictures of a hopeful Jesus gently rapping on a very American-looking door (usually depicted as having no outside handle), waiting for a response.

It\u2019s an opportunity like no other. Will the resident of this home open the door and make room for one more dinner guest \u2013 a guest who has the power to change all of their tomorrows?

The spotlight shines on a preposition we met earlier this month. \u201cI will come in and eat with<\/u><\/strong><\/em> (META<\/strong>) that person, and they with<\/u><\/strong><\/em> (META<\/strong>) me.\u201d

It\u2019s hard to overstate the power of \u201cwith\u201d in the New Testament. Jesus comes into the world as Immanuel, which means \u201cGod with<\/u><\/strong><\/em> (META<\/strong>) us\u201d (Matthew 1:23). At the end of the Great Commission, Jesus promises that he will be with<\/u><\/strong><\/em> (META<\/strong>) his disciples until the end of the age (Matthew 28:18). And the repentant thief on the cross will be with<\/u><\/strong><\/em> (META<\/strong>) Jesus that very day in Paradise (Luke 23:43).

In Revelation 3:20, \u201cwith Jesus\u201d takes on extra meaning.

Scottish Bible scholar William Barclay noted that first-century Greeks typically ate three meals a day.\u00a0Breakfast was a humble affair \u2013 perhaps nothing more than a dry crust of bread dipped into wine.\u00a0Lunch was a picnic snack eaten on the run \u2013 a few morsels consumed at a worksite or by the side of the pavement or at a public square.\u00a0

The word for the evening meal was deipnon<\/em>, and it was the only sit-down eating experience of the entire day \u2013 and the only one enjoyed at home.\u00a0

When Jesus says, \u201cI will come in and eat with that person,\u201d he uses the Greek verbal form deipnein<\/em>.\u00a0In other words, he\u2019s inviting himself to dinner.\u00a0He\u2019s interested in joining each of us at the place in our lives that is most personal and most intimate.

Note the double emphasis on \u201cwith.\u201d Jesus will be with<\/u><\/strong><\/em> us. And we will be with<\/u><\/strong><\/em> him. In the Middle East and the classic Mediterranean world, this connotes intense, reciprocal, personal engagement. We see, then, that Jesus is always with his followers \u2013 every day in this world and even when \u201ctoday\u201d takes us into Paradise.

Who is the world wouldn\u2019t open that door and accept his offer of a lifetime?

It appears the folks who originally received this invitation were having a hard time making up their minds.

The Bible\u2019s last book begins with seven correspondences to young congregations in the western part of what is now Turkey. The final letter is to Laodicea, an affluent community in the Lycus River valley. Laodicea was blessed with thriving commercial banking and textile operations.\u00a0What it didn\u2019t have, however, was a reliable source of clean water.\u00a0

The proposed remedy came from a pair of aqueducts.\u00a0One of them was built downhill from Hierapolis, a small town perched on a rise a few miles to the north.\u00a0Hierapolis was famous for its steaming mineral baths.\u00a0Water pipes, like the ones pictured above, brought hot water to Laodicea.

Colossae, which was 11 miles to the south, had a generous supply of cold water generated by snow melt from nearby mountains.\u00a0Laodicean engineers built water pipes to that town as well.\u00a0

The community now had two excellent sources of water.\u00a0And the temperatures were a major bonus.\u00a0Mineral hot springs were valued for their soothing and healing properties, and ice-cold alpine water was simply refreshing.\u00a0

There was just one problem.\u00a0By the time the water from Hierapolis had sloshed its way down miles of pipelines, the hot was no longer hot.\u00a0And the cool water coming 11 miles from Colossae was no longer cool.\u00a0

Laodicea became notorious for its tepid water.\u00a0It was neither soothing nor refreshing.\u00a0It was lukewarm<\/em>.\u00a0

That\u2019s Jesus\u2019 characterization of the Laodicean church. In Revelation 3:15 he says, \u201cI know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot.\u00a0I wish you were either one or the other!\u201d\u00a0Either hot or cold would have been welcome. Middling temperatures were nauseating.

And the consequences? Jesus cuts to the chase in the next verse: \u201cBecause you are lukewarm \u2013 neither hot nor cold \u2013 I am about to spit you out of my mouth.\u201d\u00a0This is, thankfully enough, the only time in Scripture where someone\u2019s spiritual temperature makes the Son of God want to hurl. \u00a0\u00a0

There\u2019s nothing in this text to make us conclude that Jesus favors extremism \u2013 that he applauds, for instance, bravado on the Far Left or Far Right.\u00a0This is a spiritual checkup, not an assessment of political posture or relational energy or social ideology.\u00a0

The Laodiceans are faltering in their discipleship. It\u2019s half-hearted and half-baked.\u00a0 \u00a0

Jesus continues, \u201cYou say, \u2018I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.\u2019\u00a0But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked\u201d (3:17).\u00a0 \u00a0

Is there any hope?\u00a0

Of course there is. But it requires a decision that a many of us are unwilling to make. Will we or will we not choose to go all-in for Christ?<\/em>

The late philosopher and theologian Dallas Willard, contemplating the chaos and disorder of so many congregations, once observed that virtually all the turbulence would be swept away if the members of those churches simply made up their minds to follow Jesus.

Will Jesus be the main course of your life? Or just a side dish concerning which you\u2019ll always want to retain the freedom to say, \u201cNo thanks, I\u2019m trying to cut back\u201d?

God\u2019s own Son is eager to dine with<\/u><\/strong><\/em> you, and for you to dine with<\/u><\/strong><\/em> him.

Open the door<\/em>.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here \u00a0Each weekday in the month of August, we will pursue \u201cprepositional truth\u201d by zeroing in on a single Greek preposition in a single verse, noting the theological richness so often embedded in the humble words we so often overlook.\u00a0 In one of the Bible\u2019s most celebrated verses, the door usually gets… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4823,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[753,473],"class_list":["post-4822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-intimacy","tag-prepositions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4822"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4824,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4822\/revisions\/4824"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}