Last month, I introduced a new series called “ways of walking” where we are going to investigate our daily living in light of Jesus’ life and what we believe to be true of God. It’s my hope to sprinkle questions throughout these essays because there is far more to think about than we can cover here and sometimes our answers may be different. Don’t feel like you need to answer all the questions. Pick one or two that stand out the most. Discuss them with friends. Mull over them for a while. See what happens. We are going to start with food, only for the reason that we deal with food all the time.1 We have to eat and eat often and, even with the conveniences available, feeding ourselves and those we are responsible for takes up a lot of time and effort.
I took “Food, Famine, and Feasting in the Old Testament” in the spring quarter and I was fascinated by how little attention I paid to food when I read the Bible. Food is everywhere in Scripture and the ramifications of food decisions were broader than I supposed. Those lavish feasts held by kings took an extraordinary amount of effort to hold. They were displays of wealth and abundance because food was often scraped together in a day-by-day manner. In a darker turn that I had never considered, some people probably went hungry because of those feasts.
Food is a gift from God. In the very opening chapter of the Bible, God sets aside some of his creation to be food for both humans and animals (Genesis 1:29-30). God made us embodied creatures, humans with flesh and bone and saliva and stomachs. He designed us to need food and to need it regularly.
-What can the variety and deliciousness of food teach us about God?
-Are we grateful for food?
-How do we partake in God’s goodness as we eat?
Unfortunately, humanity chose to reject unhindered access to God’s good gifts when they refused the wisdom God offered them to rule the world well. As God clothed them and put them out of the garden, He cursed the ground. Thorns grow. Food is gotten from the earth with sweat and difficulty. Food is still a gift from God but with a severed relationship with God, the gift is mixed with burden. Getting the food needed for each day has been the major work of all people every day throughout history. It’s easy to forget this when Instacart will bring my Aldi order to my front porch.
-How is our relationship with food complicated?
-How can we see God in difficulty?
Providing for there to be food for others is participating in the work of God. I wrote an entire paper on how prophets meditated the gift of life, sometimes through food, for God and the people. Provision for food and life, instead of death, was a sign of the presence and power of God. Because we had discussed the food limitations of one of my kids, my professor wrote “and parents” in the margin of this section where I discussed this work of the prophets. It is a labor of love to provide food for the people around us whether we are related to them or not. It is participation in the work of God.
-How does this change your mindset about the work of food?
-When have you seen God’s presence in food?
Jesus knit together relationships over food. Food even captures some of the last stories we have about Jesus before His ascension. After Peter had betrayed Jesus and Jesus had risen from the dead, the disciples, led by Peter, return to fishing. After a night of fruitless work, Jesus was on the beach and provided so many fish that they couldn’t draw in the nets. John recognized Jesus but it was Peter that leaped into the water and swam to shore. Jesus fed them fish and bread.2 In Luke’s account of Jesus’ life, two disappointed disciples are trudging back to Emmaus from Jerusalem when Jesus intercepts them. They don’t know who He is but He teaches them and is only revealed over the breaking of bread.3 I’ve found that some of my closest relationships have been nurtured over shared meals, grabbed coffee, snacks dropped off at doorsteps. Something about food and sharing food binds us together.
-What relationships in your life have been nurtured by shared food?
-Have you incorporated food into your discipleship of others?
-What prevents you from sharing meals with others?4
Jesus ate with people who it was taboo to eat with. The Jews had rules about who it was ok to eat with. Gentiles were out. Sinners were out. The rules for dining together were strict and well-followed or one found themselves out of the “right” circles. Nevertheless, Jesus was always breaking the rules. He ate with the wrong people. Welcomed the wrong people into other people’s houses. Refused to apologize for breaking down these barriers and admitting the “wrong” people to the kingdom of God. This is one part that convicts me because you know who I like to eat with? My best and closest people. Jesus challenges me to do otherwise.
-How often do you eat with people who aren’t like you or you aren’t close with?
-What prevents you from doing that?
There will be food and feasting in our eternal life with God. God’s good gift of food is eternal. Revelation 22 chronicles the tree of life with twelve kinds of fruit and healing leaves. The meeting of Christ and his church is described as a “marriage supper” (Revelation 22:9). Isaiah 65 gives a vision of the new heavens and the new earth where people plant vineyards and eat their fruit (65:21). Food is not leaving us, but the difficulties surrounding food will.
-How can our food remind us of the hope before us?
Food is a shared gift of humanity. One of the realities of modern life is that the vast blessings of small portions of the globe contribute to/cause the lack of others. Perhaps, as next steps, we might slowly learn how to feed ourselves well while caring for our shared resources. At our house, we are slowly, slowly making progress toward that goal. I do find it to be a practical way that our faith is lived out in community.
The more I wrote on this topic the more I realized how broad it is. We did not touch on fasting and feasting, the eucharist or Lord’s Supper, eating disorders, food restrictions, among others. But this is an email, not a book. I did read large chunks of Food and Faith by Norman Wirzba for class and promptly added it to my wishlist. If you want to dig in further, it could be a starting point.
How does faith shape your view of food? How has food shaped your faith?
Also, I really love food.
Read the story in John 21.
See Luke 24 for more.
Of course there are times in life where this is impossible. You are the expert on your life. We are skimming the top and if something doesn’t apply to you, leave it behind. Follow the Spirit. He is active in you.
I am acutely aware of how much food is in Scripture. I can't eat or drink by mouth. I have a feeding tube and I receive my nutrition by running formula through my tube into my small intestine (my stomach is partially paralyzed). Sometimes I wonder why God took the gift of food away from me, but I remind myself that those who seek Him will never hunger or thirst, and that man does not live on bread alone - and that one day He will make for us a feast of rich food and of well-aged wine where all peoples can participate.