Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Jesus in Food

When you sit to eat, what do you think about as you taste your food? Is the "partaking of the bread of the Lord," (ie. the Lord's supper) only something you do once a month or whenever arbitrarily decided? "Lord, thank you for this bread [normally just a cracker!] which represents the body of Christ." Yes, bread represents Jesus. So does every other food.

The rich healthy brocoli represents the verdent life of Jesus. The spicy tang of Indian food represents the fire of passion and holiness in the eyes of Jesus. The freshly baked pizza with a thousand toppings represents the rich complexities of the Person of Jesus.

But that's not all.

When you bite or cut any food before you eat it, assuming that the food represents Jesus, are you not "breaking the bread" as well? Does this action not represent the "crushing of Jesus" (Isa 53:5,11)? And when the food is pulverised in your mouth and then sent down your esophagus and into the acidic enzymatic liquid of your stomach fluid, does this not all represent the torturous hell Christ bore on the cross?

But this food does not merely die (in that sense) in your mouth and stomach and pass through the other end, leaving you nothing but mashed up food. NO! Christ did not merely die on the cross, suffering the wrath of God for the sins of the elect.

The rich nutrients in the food itself go to your body to replenish it, and vivify it, and give it the power it needs to live. No man can live long without nutrients. In this sense, food symbolizes Christ, the life giver.

So let us not constrain our minds to only see the body of Jesus in one little tidbit we eat once a month, but rather in all the food we eat - and especially what we share with other believers. He can be seen everywhere in everything, and many more patterns and types of Jesus can be seen in all things than any man can think of. And one day we will see this great Archetype and Perfect Prototype (in the sense that all else is copied from Him), the Real McCoy and the Original Omega.

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