O Jesus Lord, when present at Thy table

The ultimate focus of the Bible is the Triune God being the processed, all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit. This Spirit is marvelous, excellent, wonderful, practical, and real. He is like the air that we breathe (John 20:22). In its existence, the air, the firmament, is great in quantity and extent, but in its application for our enjoyment, it is small enough to breathe and available at no cost. Today the Triune God is the spiritual air. Based on the greatness of the Triune God, using the melody of a famous hymn, I wrote Hymns, #17, which proclaims, "How great Thou art!" Based on the fact that the Triune God as the Spirit can be eaten by us, a brother among us wrote Hymns, #1110, which declares, "How small Thou art!" testifying that the Lord, through incarnation, death, and resurrection, made Himself small enough for us to eat. If God had not become small, we would not be able to eat Him. God became convenient and available for us to eat, drink, and breathe.

Most Christians, including ourselves, always think of our Lord as someone great. But in John 6 the Lord Jesus does not want to be great. He wants to remain small enough to eat. There is a song that says, "How Great Thou Art," but we have a sweeter song which praises the Lord for His smallness. If the Lord were only great, we could never touch Him. Praise Him that He has become so small! Perhaps you have been a Christian for many years and yet have failed to realize how small the Lord is. To think of the Lord as a great prophet is merely a religious thought. If the Lord only became a great prophet and was enthroned as a great king, He never could have been a little piece of bread. He never could have been our food supply. Before He could become our food, He first had to become small. Thus, He was symbolized by five small barley loaves and two small fishes brought by one small boy. We need to be impressed with the smallness as well as with the greatness of the Lord. He was even born in a small manger, brought up in a small town, and raised in a lowly family. He did not come to be a religious giant. He was a little Nazarene, having nothing to do with greatness or bigness. Oh, He is so small!

Barley loaves and fish are small items, signifying Christ's smallness, through which He can be the life supply to us. Those who sought miracles considered Him the promised Prophet and would have forced Him to be King ([John 6:]14-15), but He would not seek to be a giant in religion; rather, He preferred to be small loaves and little fish that people might eat Him.

The second thing that the people of Israel enjoyed in the wilderness was the manna (Exo. 16:13-15). Manna had at least nine characteristics (v. 31; Num. 11:7-9). first, manna was fine (Exo. 16:14), indicating that Christ is even and balanced and that He became small enough for us to eat. Have You ever considered how fine and small the Lord Jesus is? He is truly small. People often praise the Lord for His being great, and a line in a well-known hymn says, "How great Thou art!" But if Christ were not small, how could we enjoy Him? Manna is a type of Christ being our daily food, and as such, Christ is very small, as small as fine frost. In northern China during October or November, before it snows, often early in the morning there is a kind of frost that is very small. This fine frost is a picture of Christ. Therefore, in addition to praising the Lord for His greatness, we need to praise the Lord for how small He is to us. Because He is so small, He is available and easy to take in. The easiest food to eat is food that has been prepared in small pieces. Christ as our daily food is truly small. The infinite God has become small, like fine frost, in order to nourish us.

Some criticize us, saying that it is wrong for us to say, "The Lord is small and we are great." Such people have very limited knowledge and take things out of context. It is based on John 6 that we say that the Lord is small and we are great. The people came and wanted to make Him King, yet the Lord said that He was not a king but "the bread that came down out of heaven" (v. 41). A king comes to rule over people, whereas bread is to be eaten by people. Therefore, the Lord said, "He who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me" (v. 57). Are the people who eat the bread greater, or is the bread greater? There is a very good hymn in Christianity on how great the Lord is. I really enjoyed the tune of that hymn, so I used the same tune to write another hymn on how small the Lord is (Hymns, #1110). The Lord is so small that He became our food. This means that His intention is for us to receive Him as our life. If Christ is not smaller than us, how can He be our food? Christ is not only smaller than we are; He also made Himself smaller than those who arrested Him and those who crucified Him. If those who arrested Him were not greater than He, how could they have arrested Him? If those who crucified Him were not greater than He, how could they have crucified Him? The book of Hebrews tells us that He was made a little inferior to the angels (2:9); actually, He made Himself smaller than all men. He was made smaller than men temporarily that He might become their food to give life to them and save them. Hence, it is irrefutable for us to say that Christ is small. Only those who have not studied the Word deeply would say that we are wrong.