If Jesus were living today, what would he eat? Would he eat a Big Mac? How about a Coke or Pepsi? What about doughnuts? Or would he be a vegetarian?
In his day, Jesus certainly ate fish, as we see in the gospels when he was resurrected. He was also Jewish, so we would expect him to have certain restrictions on some foods.
But 1 Timothy 4:3-4 and Romans 14 shows that no food is restricted today for Christians, though you’ll find debate on this subject. That’s not my focus, though.
My point is a little different: would Jesus or anyone living during the first century even recognize the food we eat today? What would he make of snacks in a vending machine? French fries? Big Mac?
I started this blog because I learned a lot during my fight against cancer in the past two years, including that if your are not healthy, just doing normal things like going to the store can become major obstacle.
We need to take a look at what we eat today. I agree with author Michael Pollan that most of the food that’s sold today is not food! Yet America has a problem with obesity? Amazing.
I was glad to see that Saddleback Church, pastored by Rick Warren, started The Daniel Plan to try and get their members to live healthier lives. He focused on Daniel because in Daniel 1, he refused to eat the food in the king’s palace and instead only ate vegetables.
I believe God made all the food we need today, including meat. But we’ve changed everything from its “source,” so to speak. Many food today is processed and far removed from its original state.
For example, God made cows to roam in a pasture and eat grass. That’s not what they do today on their way to your kitchen table (or fastfood drive-through window). They eat corn instead and stand in stalls in conditions they were not meant to be in.
As books such as Fast Food Nation show, what we eat today is far removed from the simple way of eating God intended. (See the Food Inc preview below.) Now, companies have found ways to genetically alter food!
The question of what would Jesus eat is really a set-up! The real question is are we getting the nutrition our body needs the way God intended or have we processed our food so much, introduced so many man-made chemicals that we are not eating what are bodies need?
Worse yet, are we introducing hormones and altering our food that it is harming us? Although this blog isn’t about food, I do think that unless we start reexamining how we eat, we’ll continue to face a “Goliath” that we created ourselves.
(Part of this post appears in my book so if you like this post, you’ll love the book!)
believe me am really bless preach again and again more grace
this post brings to my mind two interesting points. The first is about Jesus eating a Big Mac. If he were here today, I don’t think he’d have enough money for a Big Mac. But I believe he’d gladly eat one because he would know he’s not gonna live past 33, (at least not in the current body)
Now as for my second thought, I do believe that eating healthy is critical to having good health, but yet at the same time we’ve all heard stories of people like George Burns who lived to be 100 years old and stated that his secret to longevity was smoking a cigar ever day and drinking.
Strictly from a Jewish perspective, a Big Mac would be problematic. 1) You can’t have meat and cheese in the same meal. 2) The meat is not kosher, meaning that it was raised inhumanely and killed inhumanely.
This is a cool post I think that bridges a bit of Jewish, Christian and Muslim thought. Food plays such an important part in the observance of all of Abraham’s descendants whether it is fasting or not eating certain things for Biblical reasons. Even though Christians (and lots of us Jews) don’t observe strict Biblical food observances, we can still observe them in a more symbolic way. Don’t eat things that are bad for our bodies. Don’t eat foods that harm the Earth. And treat animals that we mean to consume with respect. By doing this, we set ourselves apart and set a great example.
I dont have money right now to buy your book, but do hope to someday be able to read it. I have really enjoyed your testimony and articles, and they always seem to come right when iI need them. I had a gastric bypass in 2003, and within a yr &1/2 went from almost 400 lbs to 117, & only 17% bodyfat. The hernias iI had were huge, and caused me to become anorexic, and bulomic. I fought for my life in 2005… wore a pikline in my arm for 10 mths, so iI could hook iup to an iv that fed me protein. (my stepdad was battling cancer at the same time, due to vietnams agent orange)…God is what helped me pull through, but after a car wreck left me with ptsd and having to quit college, then having another baby in 2007, iI started gaining the weight back. Ive battled utis, bronchial, laryngirtus, and sinus infections ever
since as well. Sometoimes it can be so discouraging, especially now that the worlds
getting crazy and iI want to be in good health for
whatever comes. Ive gained weight back, and
really struggle to know how to overcome. You
mentioned fear in one article, and being a
Narcoleptic w/ all the bigger side effects such as
cataplexy and sleeping paralysis, when iI look at
the news and gas prices, with economy like it is, its scary, because I could one day not have the medas iI need that keep me awake, and my weight would probably make things even worse. I would sure love to know your thoughts on getting healthy, and more info on that daniel diet. Hopefully youll have my addreedss through this to respond. I have so much more iI could tell you thats happened…wish iI could write my own book someday…lol for now thougjh, id sure love to hear your thoughts….thankyou
LIbertymoon – I will send you a book free – use the “Contact” link at the top of this page and send me your mailing address.