Wednesday, February 1, 2023
Unsearchable
Season 1: Episode 1 | I Hope You’re Hungry
Introduction
Fried Chicken. Brioche French Toast. Blueberry Lemmon Tarts and Filet Mignon. Our world today is full of amazing foods. There are books, YouTube channels and TV shows devoted to learning how to make it and make it well. There are shows where we even watch people eat food and enjoy it and we have no idea what’s in it or what it tastes like. I don’t know about you, but I’m a foodie. I love to eat good food and make it at home. Some people eat to live and some people live to eat. I’m probably a little more of the latter. So what does the Bible say about food? It’s maybe a question you’ve never asked. Is food simply for nourishment? Are there limitations on what we can or should eat? When is food more than food? What’s the significance in the Bible of sharing a meal? And finally, what’s the deal with bacon? I hope you’re hungry. Join me today as I dive into the topic of food to search out the things that seem unsearchable in the Word of God. Welcome to Unsearchable.
Music Bumper
Transition
When it comes to searching for things in the Bible, some topics are hard because you won’t find the specific word used in the Bible. Other topics are hard because they’re somewhat broad and just not your regular preaching or Bible study material. This is one of those topics.
If you do a basic Bible search for the word food, you’re going to find close to 300 instances where the word is used. I found 293 in the ESV translation… verses like, “Serve the food.” (Genesis 43:31) and “This food stinks” (Numbers 21:5)… ok that last one is a paraphrase… but the Israelites really didn’t like the manna in the wilderness.
But I want to go deeper… much deeper into the topic of food.
Food Memories
There are countless shows on tv where a bunch of people cook against each other in a competition. One of my favorites was Top Chef Masters from 2009. I liked it so much that I actually went to a restaurant owned by each of the top three finalists. But one of the things that really stood out to me was what they did in the final episode. They asked all of the chefs to create their autobiography in the form of a meal. First they had to create a dish based on their first food memory, then a dish based on an experience that made them become a chef, then a dish representing the opening of their first restaurant, and finally a dish representing where they were heading in the future. I thought the idea was brilliant and I was captivated by the whole episode.
What really stood out to me was the idea that food could be connected to a memory, a story and emotions. I did the math and at the time of this recording I’ve probably eaten almost 40,000 meals in my lifetime. That sound like so much! But how is it that I can recall in detail the specifics of a meal I had almost ten years ago?
Let me tell you about a burger I had back in Knoxville, Tennessee. I was there in the summer of 2014. It had all locally sourced ingredients, amazing beef, blue cheese, bacon, jalapeños, and blackberry jam, all on a homemade bun. It was the best burger I’ve ever had. I don’t remember the name of the place, but I remember the taste, the ingredients and who I was with. That’s kind of amazing when you think about it.
I tried thinking to see if I could recall my first food memory. The first one I remember is from a little roadside place in Hollister, California called Casa de Fruta. The meal? Chicken nuggets dipped in honey… because I don’t think they had BBQ sauce. It was actually delicious for a kids pallet.
But if you ask my family, they will tell you about a restaurant we went to when I was a toddler. Apparently I didn’t like anything so they brought me out a bowl of maraschino cherries. I’ve been addicted ever since.
Food memories… it’s an interesting idea. And it’s actually at the very center of Christianity. Jesus himself gave his disciples a meal they would never forget. And he gave us a meal to remember him by. More on that later. But what’s your first food memory?
I actually think in some ways, you can tell the story of the Bible through food.
The Necessity of Food
In the beginning God put Adam in a garden to work it. He was given a beautiful paradise full of amazing foods. And God told him he could eat of every tree except one. But as you know, Adam and Eve ate from that tree, sin entered the world, and the rest is history.
Clearly God gave them food to meet their needs, but I wonder what the food tasted like? I bet every apple, peach and pear in the beginning was the best tasting fruit you could ever imagine. Notice there was no mention of meat. At this time, Adam and Eve were vegetarians… maybe even fruititarians (if that’s a word). And the implication is that the work to maintain the garden was enjoyable.
You see as a result of the fall God told Adam in Genesis 3:17, “cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life.” Because of sin, the ground was effected, our work was harder, and I imagine that our food is just not as good.
And then in verse 18 God says, "thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field.” So now we have the introduction of plants as food, but with risk and inconvenience.
And finally in verse 19 God says, “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread.” Making bread would be hard work. And if you’ve ever tried baking for the first time, you know what I’m talking about. But I did make a pretty good dutch oven bread during the pandemic. Anybody else get on that craze?
So when did people start eating meat?
Well the first moment recorded comes about 1600 years later after Noah and his family are saved from the world wide flood. Genesis 9:3 says, “Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.” So finally, steak was on the menu.
Fast forward to Genesis 27. We read about Isaac when he was old and he sends out his son Esau to hunt for meat and he says to him, “prepare for me delicious food, such as I love, and bring it to me so that I may eat, that my soul may bless you before I die.”
Here we see that food could be delicious and loved and we see the concept of a last meal. Isaac wants to enjoy one last meal of his choosing before he dies. Ever thought about what your last meal would be?
So already in the Bible we see that food started to have more meaning than just providing nutrition. Here it had an emotional significance.
In Exodus we read about God describing the pleasing aroma of food offered as a sacrifice to him. I can think about moments where I walked into a house or a restaurant and smelled an amazing aroma that set the tone for the meal to follow.
The Bible paints a picture of food in which it is necessary, good and even memorable.
Passover & Food Laws
In the Old Testament, there’s a moment in which food and memory get intertwined like never before… at the passover.
As God rescued the Israelites from Egypt he gave them a meal to help them remember the salvation he provided them.
From that day on when they ate the Passover lamb it was a reminder that death itself had passed them over because they were covered by the blood of the lamb.
I remember the first time I went to a Passover celebration at a synagogue. It was quite an experience! I was friends with a local rabbi who invited me and a friend to join them for Passover. That night I was exposed to all kinds of Jewish foods. Many of them are not from the Biblical account… they are modern creations, but they point to the Biblical story.
One of my favorites is a dish called Charoset (spelled Charoset). It’s an apple dish with cinnamon, sugar, grape juice, and walnuts. They use it as a reminder of the bricks the Israelites made in Egypt without straw. It is both symbolic and delicious! I’ve made it at home several times.
It was also through the Passover that unleavened bread became a thing. The Israelites had to get out of Dodge in a hurry, and that meant they couldn’t wait for the bread to rise. So if you enjoy saltine crackers you can probably credit the book of Exodus.
So at the point in the story God had rescued his people and now he calls them to be different from the nations around them. And a big part of what would make them different would revolve around food laws.
It’s been interesting to see how over the last twenty years there seems to be more and more people on special diets because of food allergies or for weight loss. So many people have dietary restrictions, but imagine what it was like for ancient Israel. No bacon… no shrimp… no bacon wrapped shrimp, or bacon wrapped anything!
In summary they couldn’t eat shellfish or fish without fins and scales. So no catfish. They couldn’t eat horse (thankfully) or pork of any kind, certain birds and certain insects. What was the point of all that?
Well some animals were considered unclean for various reasons. And if you ate an unclean animal you would be considered unclean. Now this was largely symbolic. And we’re not talking about a physical uncleanness, even though we often picture pigs rolling around in the mud. The Israelite laws largely revolved around these concepts of clean and unclean in a spiritual sense. It paints a picture of the separation that exists between us and God. God is clean. We are not. And we need God to make us clean.
So most of their laws were there to show the nations around them why they were different and tell them something about the God they worshiped. God is holy and pure and perfect and he called his people to be holy as well.
Now I’ve met many people today who are Christians who think that we should still follow these food laws. Some think it’s a more healthy diet and some just think those laws still apply today.
Do they? Well the answer is no.
Jesus makes food clean. Peter receives a vision.
Jesus said this in Mark 7:18-19…
“Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.)
Mark 7:18-19So Jesus makes an important distinction about what he is looking for. He’s not so much concerned with what we eat. He’s concerned about the state of our heart. The people in his time still had to follow the food law, but it wasn’t about just checking a box. He wanted hearts that longed to please and honor God.
And so Mark makes the note here that Jesus declares all food clean.
I don’t know if you’ve ever done the so called “clean diet” but I think I like Jesus’ version better.
Later on in the book of Acts Peter gets confirmation that they can eat anything. Because of what Jesus did through his death and resurrection, the good news of salvation was for everyone… Jews and gentiles. So therefore, if you were a gentile and became a Christian you didn’t have to start following the food laws. And if you were Jewish and became a Christian you no longer had to follow the food laws.
Here’s the account of how Peter came to understand this.
And he became hungry and wanted something to eat, but while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance and saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth. In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. And there came a voice to him: “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” But Peter said, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.” And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call common.”
Acts 10:10-15So really the inclusion of new foods (like bacon for example) also symbolized the inclusion of gentiles (the rest of the world) into the people of God.
So every time you eat bacon just be thankful for the gift of being included in the people of God.
Exceptions
So does this mean you can eat whatever you want whenever you want it? Well not exactly. The Bible still gives some boundaries.
Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats.
Romans 14:20This gets at what I was talking about in preview episode for this podcast.
Many people back then would set food in front of an idol as a sacrifice of worship to that idol. They would then later take that food and sell it in the market. So some Christians felt that it was wrong to eat it. The reality is that the food was fine.
In the same way, some of the first Christians who grew up Jewish still felt that it was wrong for them to violate the old food laws. They still wouldn’t eat bacon.
So Paul writes that while you can eat anything, you should just be mindful that you’re not accidentally offending others by what you eat.
I think many of us are taught something similar in the idea of being a guest in someone’s home. Often we are told to try everything so that we don’t offend our host.
I remember being in a home one time in another country and there was a chicken running around table on the dirt floor and a bug crawling across the table and I was served something for lunch. For many people this would be the moment to say no thanks! But for me I wanted to honor the host who invited me into their home. The food looked different. It was cooked differently… and it was great. But more important was the relationship I was developing with this family.
So we can eat anything as long as we are careful not to give offense. Can we eat as much as we want? Proverbs 23:20-21 says
Be not among drunkards
or among gluttonous eaters of meat,
for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty,
and slumber will clothe them with rags.
Proverbs 23:20-21So the Bible does speak out against gluttony. So we do need be careful to not overindulge in things. The interesting line in that proverb is that the glutton will come to poverty. Part of the implication there is that a glutton will be so obsessed with food that they waste their money on it. So part of being a good steward of our resources is taking care that we do not simply waste money on food to overindulge ourselves.
Years ago there was a murder mystery show on TV called Nero Wolfe. And the main character was part of a food loving group which I believe was called the epicurean club…
In Acts 17 Paul is in Athens and the Bible says, “some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers conversed with him.”
Who were the epicureans?
The epicureans were Greek philosophers and students of a man named Epicurus. His basic premise was that worldly pleasure is the ultimate goal. It’s the idea that we should eat, drink and be merry. There’s a focus on finding purpose and fulfillment in the material things of this world… including food.
This idea was definitely prevalent in the Greek world and you can see the influence as people overindulged even in the early Christian church.
Now here’s the ironic thing. Where were Christians overindulging? Well it was in a particular meal that we know today as communion.
And communion is not about feeding ourselves. In fact it’s not about us at all. It’s about Jesus and what he did for us because of who he is.
Communion
Now when it comes to communion I’ve had it many different ways. I’ve been on a church camping trip when we used potato chips and soda. I’ve used regular bread, unleavened bread, a cracker, a wafer. I’ve had grape juice, real wine, dipped the bread in the juice, drank the juice, shared a cup, had individual cups, taken it corporately, individually, weekly, monthly or quarterly.
It seems like there are as many ways to take it as there are churches in the world. But the reason there is so much variation boils down to two words. Form and substance.
Substance refers to what you actually use as the elements. Most people agree that the substance used is not the thing of primary importance. This issue has come up more recently as people have request gluten free bread.
I actually saw a comic strip where Jesus was feeding the 5000 and someone in the crowd asked, “is this gluten free?”
Now for most churches, the amount of bread or cracker used in communion is so small that the question of gluten makes me want to role my eyes, but it does brink up the point. Does it matter what kind of bread we use?
Well based on how Jesus and the NT talks about food in general, it seems the the more important thing is the heart, not the food. So it’s not about substance… it’s about form. It’s the formulation… the words and the symbolism. It’s about what communion represents.
You see Jesus was sharing in the passover meal with his disciples when he instituted communion. He himself was about to become the sacrificial lamb. And it was by his blood that they would be saved.
And so Jesus took the bread representing his body and the cup representing his blood and told them to take them as a way of remembering him. This has been our tradition ever since. We remember his body given for us and his blood shed on the cross for our forgiveness.
When I went to the modern passover celebration at the synagogue there is a moment when there is unleavened bread which is hidden and then found. And this is a great picture of Christ, not only was he dead and buried, but then he came back to life.
But for the disciples on that night with Jesus, it was definitely one of the most significant and memorable meals of their lifetime. And I think there really is something to the way that food, a meal can help solidify a memory.
Sharing A Meal
There were a lot of amazing meals with Jesus.
The Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.
Luke 5:30-31Jesus spent time around the table with people who needed him. Imagine what it was like to be someone in their culture who was marginalized and suddenly to be invited to eat with Jesus.
Jesus miraculously fed 5,000 men, plus women and children (the only miracle recorded in all four Gospels)
Jesus made sure people had what they needed and then he pointed to how much more they actually needed him. He said that he is the bread of life.
And at least when I was growing up the biggest part of the food pyramid was bread… so for most of history bread was seen as pretty important.
Breakfast on the Beach
After Jesus was resurrected there’s a great story about breakfast.
When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place, with fish laid out on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish.
John 21:9-13I’ve never had fish for breakfast, but I sure would have loved to sit on the beach with Jesus for breakfast just to enjoy his presence.
You see, that’s what a meal is really about. The food can be delicious, beautiful and meaningful, but it pales in comparison to the experience of community.
A meal is about being together. And more than anything Jesus wants to share a meal with you. He prayed to God about us before going to the cross and said, “Father, I want them to be with me where I am.”
Jesus wants us to be with him… to enjoy his presence, and together we are going to enjoy a meal.
In the book of Revelation the Apostle John receives and a vision of the future and in it he says,
And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.”
Revelation 19:9You’ve been invited to sit at the King’s table and enjoy a meal with him.
So what does the Bible say about food? As it turns out, a whole lot! And we just scratched the surface. I’ll probably be coming back to this in a future episode. But for now just remember this.
God gave it to us to enjoy, to remember, to be thankful and to share.
Thanks for searching the scriptures with me.
Join me next time as we look at another topic that really does seem unsearchable.