Becoming You: Mark 4:24-25

You are what you eat.  This phrase may have started with a dietary understanding, but it has developed a more generalized truth in our culture.  You become the things or ideas in your life you pursue with the most effort.  If you spend most of your time being angry, you become an angry person.  If you hang out with people who are kind, you become kind.  If you spend a lot of time gardening, you become a person who appreciates nature in general.  It isn’t an ironclad guarantee, but it very much acts like a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Jesus tells His disciples to mind the measure they use.  He says we are measured by the same measure we employ with others.  If we interact with people through a perspective of love and grace, then we usually get love and grace back from others and God.  On the other hand, if we treat others as stepping stools on our path of selfish advancement, we can expect to be treated the same.

I have no issue with this interpretation of the passage.  Yet, I think there is an often-overlooked clue here.  Jesus tells His disciples to pay attention to what they hear.  Jesus is continuing to talk to His disciples about discipleship.  Jesus is teaching the idea that the more they lean into Him, the more they learn.  Suppose the disciples come to Jesus and ask question after question after question.  That is akin to coming to Jesus with a big measure.  In return, Jesus is going to have frequent opportunities to help them grow and develop as people.  The come to Jesus with a big measure and get a big measure back. 

Jesus even teaches that a bigger measure will be returned than what we employed in the first place.  This is always true for me.  When I give God an opening, the amount of truth He provides measures far more than the query I initially brought Him.

Jesus then teaches that the one who has will get even more while the one who doesn’t have will find themselves stripped of whatever they think they do have.  We often think of this verse in terms of the eternal.  That is, people who have a deep relationship with God will find eternal life a deeply satisfying experience while those who have no relationship with God will find what life they do have stripped away in the end.

I have no issue with this interpretation, either.  At the same time, I think this idea is rooted in the discipleship process.  How does one develop a deep relationship with God in the first place?  Deep relationships with God are developed by returning time and time again.  Deep relationships with God are made by digging into God’s ways with a big measure.  The more relationship I have with God, the more I can expect my relationship with God to grow.

After all, you are what you eat.