What Did Jesus Eat?

 What did Jesus eat? Well, he was poor and he ate what was available. There was very little meat and no real refrigeration other than storing food in cooler places like caves.

Like everyone else, he ate what he could get and what was allowed under the Jewish definition of clean and unclean foods. Foods which were available included fish, birds, lamb, lentils, whole grains, vegetables, dates,  pomegranates, honey, olives and olive oil, grapes, wine, vinegar, figs, bread, cumin, barley, raisins, apples, almonds, pistachios, dates, dill, mint, cinnamon, cumin, and eggs. The only meat he is specifically mentioned as eating was fish, but he also ate lamb since he participated in Passover celebrations where lamb was the required meat. 

Vegetarianism and veganism are acceptable lifestyles for practicing Christians but Jesus did eat meat.

Exodus 12:8; Matthew 26:17-30; Mark 7:19; Luke 1:12, 2:41, 22:7-15, 24:41-43; John 2:13, 5:1, 21:9-14; Acts 10; Romans 14; 1 Timothy 4:1-5; Colossians 2:16-17

Breaking the Fourth Wall

 

            In film-making, there is a concept called breaking the fourth wall in which one or several characters acknowledge the existence of the viewing audience and address the viewers as if they are participants in the ongoing events.

            The first, second, and third walls are like a box around a stage set: the back wall and the two side walls. The fourth wall is the wall visible to the characters in the play but totally transparent to the people watching the events as they occur. Traditionally, the actors and narrators are assumed to be unaware that they are being watched by the audience.

            Breaking the fourth wall occurs when a character in the play or film glances at the audience or camera, makes movements like a wink or a knowing smile which betray a knowledge of the existence of the audience, or actually speaks directly to the viewers. Occasionally, the narrative itself becomes self-aware. Examples of this phenomenon occur in the films, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, the Marvel Deadpool films, and The Neverending Story, which can be seen to exhibit as many as seven levels of fourth wall breaking.  

            What does this have to do with this Christian blog? Well, this is in reference to the Bible itself. The Bible is holy, but as an object it is just a book, ink on sheets of paper, or, in our current modern days, the arrangement of millions of pixels on your cellphone screen.

            There are widely varying levels of reverence for the physical book itself, with some actually bordering on idolatry, but the physical book is just that, a book.

            Two ways of understanding the Bible are as a tool or as a weapon. Both understandings can be biblically supported.

            So, back to the subject of this post. Sitting on a shelf or lying on a desk the Bible is just a book. The thing which only Christians can understand is that once it is picked up and opened, the Bible is itself indwelled by the Holy Spirit, the same person who inhabits each of us. Just as we can use the Bible, so can he. It is one of the many ways he can speak directly to us.

            The Holy Spirit is aware as we read the biblical text and he guides us to new insights, the meat of the gospel, new levels of understanding which we as believers can gradually comprehend as we mature. How do we know this? The Bible tells us so.

            One of the activities of the Holy Spirit is the Reminding Ministry. He will guide you in the Bible to the answers or understandings which you need to further mature as a Christian.

            Isaiah 11:2; 1 Corinthians 2:12, 3:1-4, 6:19-20; Hebrews 5:12-13; John 14:17,26, 16:13; Romans 8:9; Colossians 1:27; 1 John 4:15.

A Broken Cheeseburger

The Chili’s restaurant chain has a policy of cutting their hamburger and cheeseburger patties down the middle to make sure that the meat is properly cooked.  This has a real and completely understandable purpose: to prevent poorly cooked meat which could sicken a customer due to bacterial contamination.  So what do you do when a child refuses to eat the cheeseburger because it is “broken.”  Would it change your response to learn that the child is autistic?

This link is one of many about the Broken Cheeseburger.  The incident is not specifically “religious” but points out the power of common kindness.

The Only Dream I Remember

I had a dream two nights ago and I remembered it.  This is remarkable because I have never remembered any of my dreams.  This is the only one …  ever.   I know this is not normal, but it is true.

In the dream, I was eating barbecue sandwiches with three people, an older man and two women, none of whom I knew, but who clearly knew and loved me.  They expressed their pleasure with me, told me I was on the right track, and that I should continue what I was doing.  The older man noticed that I had barbecue sauce on my cheek and reached over to wipe it off with his napkin.  For this to be the only dream I have ever remembered was puzzling.

I am definitely not a believer in occultism or “the science of dream interpretation.”  It is said that dreams speak in the language of symbols and that they may be an avenue for us to work out problems in our lives which we cannot address on a conscious level.  Many non-Christians see dreams as a place where they receive “guidance” from “somebody.”  Others see dreams as a series of archetypal human images produced when our minds are in neutral gear.   Still others feel that dreams have no meaning whatsoever.

In the Bible, God often used dreams to speak to his people (Matthew 1:20-24;  Acts 10: 1-48) and, sometimes, to those who were not his. (Genesis 40:8-19)  I have no idea if my dream was from God or not, but nothing in it is contradictory to a Christian understanding.

The archetypal symbols present in my dream are, to me, quite obvious.  While I place absolutely no credence in the “science of dream interpretation,” I thought it would be interesting to see what a dream interpretation dictionary would have to say about this dream.  I was not surprised at what I found.

The most obvious element of the dream is the presence of three people.  Three is the number of the Trinity, the number of divine perfection.

The older man is a symbol of wisdom, kindness, and forgiveness; the women, of nurturance and love.  Eating with others is taken to symbolize harmony and intimacy.  Eating or cooking meat is seen as getting to the heart of a matter. I have absolutely no idea what that matter would be.

     ______________________________________________________________________

An update on 20 July 2026: I have just this year become aware that I have a rare neurodivergent condition known as aphantasia, the complete inability to call up mental visual images. I have never been able to do this but I did not realize that it was neurodivergent. Apparently most people with aphantasia can experience visual dreams. I still cannot.

Brooke Greenberg

     Brooke Greenberg (born 1993), of Reigerstown, Maryland, is a nine month old toddler and she's been a nine month old toddler for her entire sixteen years of life.  She is about 30 inches tall and weighs 16 pounds and, consistent with her body, has the mind of a toddler.  She still has some of her baby teeth.  Her condition is so rare (she may be the only one) that it has no formal name; physicians refer to it as Syndrome X. 

     Brooke's condition has never been explained.  DNA sequencing shows no abnormalities.  It just seems that the various parts of her body function independently and not as unified whole.  Only her hair and fingernails, which are embryologically related, grow.  Her body does not know how to age.  

     We've all looked at our beautiful children and wished that they would never grow up.  In Brooke's case, she never has and we consider it a tragedy.  Her family loves her just as she is and feels that she has outlived physician's predictions (they said five years ... maybe) because God placed her here for a reason.  Her father believes she may help medical researchers better understand aging.

     We should be like children in our faith and trust in God ...

"Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 19:14.

"Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein." Mark 10:15 (also Luke 18:17).

     but, we should not be stunted in our growth, always remaining in a childlike state. 

"When I was a child, I spake as a child. I understood as child.  I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things." 1 Corinthians 13:11.

     We are counseled to grow ever more wise in our understanding of spiritual matters, not merely going around in circles repeating the same truisms over and over.

"As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby." 1 Peter 2:2

"I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able." 1 Corinthians 3:2

"For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong milk.  For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.  But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil."  Hebrews 5:12-14.