Food: What’s so Theologically and Missiologically Significant About It?

John Cheong

02-06-2024

Abstract: Everyone loves to eat and opine about food. The Bible has much to say about food, yet few conversations or theological reflections have focused on how this topic might function as a central part of the Christian life and identity. This essay sets forth the beginnings of a theology of food. Genesis 1-3 will be used as a foundation and frame to explore how food is (1) central to our human life with God, (2) affected by sin, (3) addressed in the Levitical offerings, and lastly (4) finds its full consummation in Christ who is God’s meal offering, with the ultimate redemption of food found in the final feast with God.

Keywords: theology of food, communion, commensality, covenant, reconciliation, cultural, morality, missional

Introduction

Everybody needs food but also loves food. We eat it to not only live but to live it up. This thrice a day habit of eating is so natural that when Jesus teaches us how to pray to God, he makes reference to food, uttering: “Give us today our daily bread” (Matt 6:11).¹

In this article, I shall detail how food tells the story of the perfect communion and commensality we had with God in the garden that became undone at the fall when the wrong choice of food was eaten. We will also see how God, in his lovingkindness, continued to offer humanity a way back to his presence through the sacrificial meals and food offerings to atone our sins, culminating in the new covenant where Jesus offered himself as the sacrificial meal in which our consumption of him gives us kingdom life.

How food shapes our foundational view of human actions and consequence

The immediate importance of food as a key foundation of life and theology begins in the creation account with Adam and Eve. God declares, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food” (Gen 1:29). Humans were free to eat any from any tree except “from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it, you will certainly die” (Gen 2:17). God, as the loving creator and gracious provider, prepared gastronomic sustenance that was essential for them to not only live, but to prosper (i.e., to be “fruitful and increase in number” Gen 1:22). Tied to this was the imperative to also avoid eating the wrong food.

However, instead of obeying, Adam and Eve tragically chose to eat from the wrong tree. They believed in the lie that, in eating, they would not die but come to “knowing good and evil” (Gen 3:5). Consequently, God punished them with the toilsome labor of working for food (Gen 3:17)—a reversal of the life they had with God when food was prepared for them! The very first sin in the Bible and its consequences arose from eating the wrong food. They reaped a bitter harvest that sowed a sorrowful legacy of fallen people making wrong choices in the food we eat. Genesis 1-3 thus reveals to us there is real theological significance to food. In the Christian life, how food is served, the choices we consume and consequences we reap inform us theologically and help us missiologically, thereby pointing towards food as a central part of how we should live and act as believers.

How food reveals human morality and motives

If Adam and Eve’s terrible food choice were tragic, Cain’s failure to properly offer food as a sacrifice to God compounded the problem. Abel gave the best portions to God (“fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock”, Gen 4:4) but Cain did not (i.e. “some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord”, Gen 4:3).² As a result, God “looked with favor on Abel and his offering” but not on Cain (Gen 4:5).

Morality and motives over food were also on display when we see how Israel’s sins were intertwined with food; their craving for Egyptian food after their liberation from Pharoah evidenced their distrust in God’s provision for them. By preferring Egyptian food, they implicitly chose the Egyptian vision and value of life over Yahweh’s (Num 11:4-9)! Ironically, their discontent over the food God provided for them to consume led to God’s fire consuming them in judgment (Num 11:33-34). The psalmist confessed of this link between food and twisted human desires: “Do not let my heart be drawn to what is evil … do not let me eat their delicacies” (Psa 141:4), for to consort with evil was to eat with evildoers.

How food is chosen, served and consumed reveals human vision and values

An invitation to a meal with a person is often seen as an authentic measure of a growing friendship, especially in traditional societies. For example, in Asia, no host can properly welcome any visitor to their home or institution without a lavish meal, either lovingly prepared at home or from a reputable restaurant. Burgers and fries, takeout food or a bare-bones meal simply will not do—any less than the best would call into question the motives and moral standing of the host, who, if they failed in their offerings, would be seen as stingy or hardfisted. Even a simple first-time visit to a friend’s abode may kickstart a series of energetic preparations of food and service in order to welcome someone properly.

It was for this ‘hospitable’ reason that we find Martha busying herself to the extent so much that it left her little time to sit down in Jesus’ presence (Lk 10:38-42). In contrast, Mary did the culturally unacceptable act by sitting at Jesus’ feet to listen to what he had to say. Martha saw service to Jesus as fundamental to what made her morally virtuous, but Mary saw the true Jesus—the one who subverted the moral logic of Martha and her assumptions of a proper serving of food. Instead of expecting to be served (as a visitor), Jesus came to serve himself, as the food that brings life.

When it comes to food, everyone also believes that food brings people together. The belief that food is essential for any kind of good church gathering (whether for its own people or to invite outsiders) is captured in the common refrain of “food, fun, fellowship.” What can be problematic is if we assume that the food we choose to serve will always be self-evidentially inviting to anyone. We may be unwittingly setting ourselves (and our guests) up for disappointment. I know of an incident during Christmas when a blissfully ignorant Christian gifted a Muslim family some ham as a token of blessing (but not knowing ham is haram or religiously unclean food for Muslims). This example is not limited to Muslims. To serve beef to Hindus would evoke the same offense. For Buddhists, the more someone avoids meat, the more virtuous and spiritual merits they obtain.

On the flip side, how one consumes food also reveals a culture’s values and vision as to what is morally acceptable. Among the Aguaruna Jivaro of Peru, to eat meat first is shameful—it shows one is too opportunistic towards luxurious food. In addition, to eat too much is a glutton—a sin in a society where meat is scarce. On the other hand, for the Chinese, a visitor that eats too little of the hosts’ servings communicates insult, implying dislike of the host’s food and hospitality.³

In the New Testament, one way that sin related to food was if a stronger believer stumbled a weaker one by eating food sacrificed to idols (1 Cor 8:7-13). While the issue was not a straightforward matter of whether one could eat it or not,⁴ it highlights how food choice and its consumption convey different human vision and values over what the moral good means when it comes to food. For this reason, Paul points us to higher priorities: “the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom 14:17).

How food is offered reveals God’s way of forgiveness and reconciliation

In the Ancient Near East and in many traditional religions and cultures of the world, food is offered to appease or please the gods so that the latter may bless and increase harvest. For this reason, fertility gods are always among the most important deities that must be honored. In contrast to the Ancient Near East, Israel’s Levitical code, the peace offering (which involved food) was done—not to induce or bribe God to bless their land or bounty—but to ensure that sins were atoned for so that the worshiper enjoyed a peaceful relationship with the Lord (Lev 3; 7:11-21). Allen Ross remarks that this peace offering to God was also

a meal to be eaten by the congregation in the sanctuary as a celebration of the Lord’s provisions for them in his blessings. But it was not simply a communal meal – it was a holy meal. No one could eat it if defiled or in sin. It was a meal that brought people together who shared one thing—peace with God.⁵

Thus, when God consumed the meal, it signified that he accepted it and was at peace with the one who offered it. Because food is an ideal vehicle or means to invite people to know one another, Christian groups that have included food as part of a ministry outreach and witness most often appeal well even to unbelievers to come and join Christian company and community.

How food is consequential in God’s redemptive plan and the kingdom life

God uses food to unfold his plan to redeem and reconcile humanity. As discussed above, in the Old Testament, food offerings serve to broker peace between God and the people. In the New Testament, food is specifically used by Jesus as a way to break socio-cultural barriers and to initiate a new covenant-making meal.⁶

Food and the breaking of socio-economic barriers

In the Gospels, Jesus used food to break significant socio-religious boundaries that existed during his time. We see this when he:

ate with tax collectors and social outcasts (Lk 5:27-32).
fed the 5000 and identified with the lowly masses (Lk 9:7-20).
asked the Samaritan woman for a drink and breached a religious and gender gap that separated Jews from the Samaritans and men from woman (Jn 4:4-26).

Food, in Luke’s Gospel, was not simply a material substance to put into one’s mouth in order to quench or satisfy one’s appetite. Rather, it was a vehicle and a symbol in which Jesus enacted the upside-down values of God’s kingdom. Here indeed is real food for thought: if Jesus crossed socio-cultural, class, gender or economic barriers to touch others with God’s love, Christians must surmount similar barriers as part of our witness. Doing so means that we may need to overcome some gastronomic offerings (its look, odor or taste) that may repel us. If God calls us to love and to know others for his sake, we must learn to sample their offerings, no matter how distasteful they may seem to us! This may in fact be a key sign of our willingness to engage another culture.

Food as a covenant meal

When Jesus tied his mission to food, he linked its consumption to reconciliation and participation in the life of God:

“Whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst.” (Jn 4:14)
“I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry.” (Jn 6:35)
“… unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them … so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.” (Jn 6:53-57)

By offering himself as the meal and saying “take, eat” and “drink” in the holy communion (1 Cor 11:24-25), we “consume” Christ and thereby participate in his divine life. In this way, Jesus is the both the host who provides the experience and the food who is the experience in this co-participation of God and us.

When Jesus brought together social undesirables (Matthew the tax collector), a devout Jew (Nathaniel), a political zealot (Judas Iscariot), common fishermen (Peter and James) and the other disciples to eat with him, he initiated a new type of peace meal offering that became the central space and heart of how God’s presence and vision of kingdom reconciliation would be seen.

This drinking and eating of Christ constitute what is called participation theology.⁷ Indeed, Scripture likens communing with God in the language of eating and drinking: “Taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psa 34:8). Simon Chan states: “Holy things make holy people. We become part of Christ because we eat him, partake in him. We are what we eat!”⁸

“Before the fall, food was the way we expressed our obedience and trust in God. We obeyed God by eating from any tree except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Eating continues to express our dependence on God and our submission to his good reign.”⁹ Thus, as we continually eat and feast on Christ, we participate in and enact our ultimate dependence on God who is our provider and giver of that kingdom life.

This eating and drinking also testifies that our dependence on God is a reverse enactment of the fall in Genesis 3 where wrong eating symbolized human disobedience and mistrust of God and an attempt to live life without God.

The truest and fullest sign of participation in God’s life is realized when the nations feast and eat in God’s kingdom in Isaiah 25 and Revelation 22.¹⁰ There, all peoples will come to eat with God and God with them. This picture of eating with God at the eschaton reflects the Old Testament practice in which meals are used to seal covenants of the ancient Near East, where covenants were often arranged through meals (e.g. Gen 26:28-30). “To eat together was important for peaceful agreements in covenants and treaties [thus] at the ratification of the covenant at Mount Sinai, the people of the covenant ate and drank in peace before the Lord (Exod 24).”¹¹

This invitation to eat with God is how he transforms us from being enemies to his friends. Even today, to invite an enemy to eat signifies an act of reconciliation and peace-making. God’s commensality and the sense of security and peace is envisioned in Psa 23:5 (“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies”). Conversely, to refuse food from an enemy or a stranger could invite war or hostilities. If we seek to avoid hostility, we avoid saying, “I’ll never eat with him!”

If Christians loved the stranger and others who do not know Christ, no social class, religious habits, political leanings or economic background should stand against God’s intention to break down every wall that divides us against him (Eph 2:14).

Through food, we are reminded of the final vision that God holds for us in the consummation of this world and this life where God will lead us “to springs of living water” (Rev 7:17) and we will eat with God (Rev 19:9). In this way, we ultimately find our contentment in the food God provides as that final element to be dealt with in the new heaven and earth (Rev 22:17).