Here’s a post on the eating and drinking habits of Jesus. It’s in response to Matthew 11, where Jesus points out that people are never happy with his behaviour. John the Baptist was considered crazy because he avoided alcohol and good food. Jesus enjoyed parties so much he was labelled a drunkard and a glutton.
You people are like children sitting in the market and shouting to each other, “We played the flute, but you would not dance! We sang a funeral song, but you would not mourn!” John the Baptist did not go around eating and drinking, and you said, “That man has a demon in him!” But the Son of Man goes around eating and drinking, and you say, “That man eats and drinks too much! He is even a friend of tax collectors and sinners.” Yet Wisdom is shown to be right by what it does.
Matthew 11:16-19 Contemporary English Version
I was speaking at a suburban church yesterday morning. And someone walked out five minutes into the message. I’m not sure if he was offended by the use of the Cat Herders ad in church. Or the use of Hirsch and Frost diagram showing that most churches are competing for the same ten percent of white middle class family-values church goers. Or the encouragement of young adults as the people who will be taking the church into the next era, either in their present denomination or in some new configuration of the church. He may have had to pee. Or forgotten to turn the stove off at home.
Anyway, having people agitated goes with provocative communication. You can’t please all the people all the time, even if you wanted to.
Jesus would have had a hard time in most Evangelical churches. He ate and drank too much alcohol for the comfort of the religious leaders of his time. Makes me wonder where people get the inspiration for the book, What Would Jesus Eat?” Mind you he probably did enough walking to keep himself in shape.
We’re seeing a more relaxed approach to alcohol and Christianity here in Queensland. At one of our recent Uniting Church synods we allowed local churches to decide for themselves whether they would allow alcohol on their premises or during the programs. Some people left the Uniting Church over that decision but others were just relieved to be able to walk out of a bottle store without wearing a disguise. I know one guy who was a minister in a Uniting church known for a conservative Evangelical framework for doctrine and lifestyle. He was from a Dutch background and didn’t buy into the total abstinence approach of the Methodists. When challenged about the wine and beer he had in the manse fridge, he explained that the alcohol was on the Presbyterian side of the fridge!
Jesus clearly did not base his life on trying to meet the expectations of others. He had a number of walkouts, the most significant being the mass exodus after his provocative message following the feeding of the five thousand.
The phrase “Yet Wisdom is shown to be right by what it does” is fascinating. Eugene Petersen in his paraphrase, The Message, gives us the words, “Opinions don’t count for much, do they? The proof of the pudding is in the eating.”
It’s easy to pull someone down for not living their lives the way we would, or communicating the way we would. A better test of integrity is to discover the agenda of the other person, and discern with them how they put it into practice. Jesus what is your priority here? And how are you putting it into practice? Jesus’ priority here, it seems, is to connect with people at an earthy level, relaxing and enjoying the party atmosphere with them.
The Books
So where do we get the inspiration for books like “What would Jesus eat?“, by Don Colbert. Subtitled, “The Ultimate Program for Eating Well, Feeling Great”, this book outlines the secrets of eating less, exercising more. Only problem is that Jesus didn’t have his own kitchen. He ate whatever was on the table in the places where he stayed. It would have been a Mediterranean diet with lots of bread, fish and wine. It’s true Jesus wouldn’t have been threatened with being overweight due to excess sugar and fat in a fast food diet.
Looking at me you wouldn’t know I have diet issues but I’ve been on doctor’s orders for a while to cut down on LDL cholesterol. Which means an end to food cooked in fat. An end to butter and full cream milk. An end to full cream icecream. An end to cream. An end to cheesecake. An end to a diet of pies, KFC, greasy burgers, bacon and liver. Diet’s going OK but I’ve been putting off getting the next cholesterol test. I know I have to ‘up the exercise factor’.