One question that is often asked in our home has to do with food.
Whether I am making a meal, my hubby is BBQing on the grill, we are
checking out restaurants to celebrate an event or if we are bringing
a favorite dish to our loved ones, the question is always the same
What are you hungry for? What do you have a taste for?
What language are your taste buds speaking?
So when it is time for a meal, any kind of meal, inquiring minds want to know two things…
WHAT we will eat and WHEN will we be eating it.
There are multiple types of foods not to mention the varieties of ways to prepare each
type of food…the recipes are endless with millions of options.
After one identifies the what and the when about eating, there is another question to answer
Who will prepare or buy the food
Satisfying hunger is a big job and takes a lot of work! However, when we do physically eat our favorite dishes such as that delicious steak and potatoes, the yummy cheesy enchiladas, the chicken and rice that is SO good,…or my favorite, the melt in your mouth cheese cake cupcake with cream cheese frosting…
unfortunately, the satisfaction of these meals are only temporary . It goes in, it goes out, and then we start the process all over again to nourish our bodies once more.
Jesus had the same question. What are you hungry for?
During Jesus’ three year ministry food and eating where significantly present, Jesus spend time teaching, fellowshipping and eating with His disciples and His followers throughout his whole ministry. From creating food
to having Passover meal with the 12 disciples, eating food was incorporated in almost every aspect of His ministry. Jesus demonstrated and used analogies with food all the time as a way of bridging the gap of drawing others closer to the understanding and belief of who He is as Messiah to the point of receiving Him into their own heart.
Jesus the great Chef and gracious host
A chef is a skilled cook who manages the kitchen and all the additional responsibilities
thereof. Jesus’ did just that in Galilee where He fed the 5000. During the time of the Passover, Jesus’ followers had increased to a large multitude of people. After having a meeting with His disciples, Jesus assessed the situation, diagnosed the need and after instructing the disciples, immediately put into action a lunch meal in no time flat. Course He did not have to cook anything but created even more fish and barley loaves with enough leftovers for people to take a to go box container home with more food to eat later. Jesus understood hunger and He was ready to meet the people’s physical need with compassion.
Jesus is Bread
After Jesus feed the 5000, we see Jesus declaring one of his famous “I Am” statements
This was Jesus’ format of teaching throughout His ministry. He would do something miraculous, then declare Himself as the holy Messiah by declaring the truth through a “I Am” statement. Jesus knew that even though He gave them physical food to help curb their natural hunger, He knew that spiritual food was the utmost need that will last for eternity. However, they where only concerned with the natural food needs and not their spiritual school needs. Jesus says,
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes [in me] has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” [1]
Blood and Flesh for Dinner
After Jesus declared that He is the great “I AM” He challenges those who heard Him to
prove it through accountability by a change of behavior
“ So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink
his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” John 6:53-58
Are you Hungry?
Self Evaluation
What are you hungry for? Physically food, spiritual food, both?
Will you ask God for a deeper hunger for Him above and beyond all else?
Will you seek to eat his blood and flesh by practically reading the Bible daily ?
Prayer:
Dear God give me spiritual food, bread from heaven, namely your blood and flesh that I might feed upon You and have ever lasting life for eternity.
© Copyright 2013 Simone Lake. All Rights Reserved.
© Copyright 2013 Deep Roots in Christ Ministries. All Rights Reserved
