You Are What You Eat
Posted on Aug 19, 2018 by David Whetter
“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh” (6:51).
Let me just start by saying, YUCK! I mean, truth be told, if you were listening to what I just read you most likely had the same reaction as the “Jews” that were listening to Jesus some 2,000 years ago. In six of the eight verses we just read, Jesus blatantly speaks of eating his flesh and drinking blood (John 6:51, 53, 54, 55, 57, 58). That is gross, and yes, I say, yuck!
Why would Jesus use such a gross metaphor to explain the promise of a better life? I mean, it seems like what he was saying, “drink my blood,” was in direct conflict to the Old Testament law. In the book of Leviticus God told Moses to tell the people, “If anyone of the house of Israel or of the aliens who reside among them eats any blood, I will set my face against that person who eats blood, and will cut that person off from the people” (Lev. 17:10). Was Jesus telling the people to do something that would set God against them? Of course, the answer to this is no, so let’s take a look at what Jesus was really saying here.
As part of God’s instructions to not eat/drink blood, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you for making atonement for your lives on the altar; for, as life, it is the blood that makes atonement (17:11). God said, life is in the blood and the blood is to be used for “making atonement for your lives.” We weren’t to drink the blood because it was to be used for the sacrifice to set us free. Well, Jesus’ blood is that blood that has set us free, and so, in His sacrifice on the cross his blood became the blood that would free us. He didn’t change the law, but he did fulfill the law. So, with that we know he wasn’t asking the people to break God’s laws, so again, what was he doing here? Well, as gross as the eating of flesh and blood sounds, I believe Jesus was trying to say, “You are what you eat!”. If you are going to be my disciples, if you are going to be able to live as I have lived, then you will need to eat that which will allow you to become what you need to become, a new person empowered by eternal life.
You know, the notion of “you are what you eat” never really meant a lot to me until about seven years ago. A friend of ours was turning 50, and so her husband and Jill and I all went out to dinner one night to celebrate. She was the last of our group to turn this magical age. During dinner, she began to ask those big philosophical life questions that we all tend to ask when we hit milestone ages — “What am I doing with my life?” “Am I living the life God has called me to live?” “Am I healthy enough to live a long time.” And while we were all talking about these questions, she noted that she wanted to make some changes in her life, and one of the things she wanted to do was to lose some weight. Well, that was one notion that all four of us could agree upon that we wanted to do, so that evening, while eating a scrumptious dessert, we devised a plan to lose weight and hold each other accountable. Now, I’ve never been much of a “diet” person, so Jill and I began to take a look at what we were eating and how much we were eating and we began altering what we ate. If I got hungry during the day, instead of eating a candy bar, I would eat an apple. For my dessert at night, instead of a whole bowl of ice cream covered in caramel and chocolate, I either would eat a very small portion of ice cream or I began eating fruit. We made significant changes to the foods we bought and ate. And to our amazement we both began losing weight. But something else happened; about eight months after starting this, the new way of eating had become a habit and we no longer considered it a diet. I went in for my annual physical and I was so excited because I had lost over 30 pounds. I couldn’t wait for my doctor to see me, and I was right, he was thrilled with what I had done. But he couldn’t have cared less that I was wearing smaller clothes; no, what he said to me that day made me think long and hard about what I eat. He said, the changes you made to your diet have changed you from the inside out. You see, my blood pressure was lower than it had ever been. My cholesterol was actually low, and the list of other improvements goes on. As he completed my exam, he said, Dave, you have no idea how many years you have just added to your life. Now, I have known my doctor for over 20 years and I can tell you he is also a man of faith, and that day he said to me, I am going to pray that you can continue to eat like you are now because your life depends on it. Now, truth be told, I haven’t kept it up perfectly, but the changes we made seven years ago are still part of our lives.
I believe this is what Jesus was talking about when he said, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you” (6:53). You see, heart disease runs in my family, cancer runs in my family, high cholesterol runs in my family, and unless I changed something in my life, there is no way I could have expected to live a full life. And the same is true of our lives when it comes to being Christian. If we want to experience eternal life, that is a life in the presence of our Lord not just after our death but right now, if we want to know the joy that Jesus experiences, then we have to be willing to literally eat what Jesus called us to eat. What did Jesus call us to “eat”? Jesus calls us to eat that which will make us those who live generous lives with our time, our talents, and our resources. He calls us to “eat” the food that will help us to live lives of peace and not violence. He calls us to “eat” the food that will make us those who seek to live in a diverse world and to relish in its diversity. He calls us to “eat” that which will inspire us to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, sit with the prisoner, welcome the stranger, and house the homeless. Jesus calls us to eat that which will instill in us the willingness to live sacrificial lives. Brothers and sisters, sin runs in our family, and we need to eat that which will strengthen us to avoid sin and the near occasion of sin.
Shortly after this teaching to eat his flesh and drink his blood, Jesus will say, “I came that they might have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). This eternal life Jesus is offering us is a life we can experience now. He is offering a qualitatively better life if we can only see that eating what this world offers is unhealthy. You are what you eat! Eat what the world offers — anger, division, hatred, violence — and that is what you will be. But, eating what Jesus offers — a life filled with peace, generosity, humility, sacrifice, forgiveness, patience, and kindness — will make you healthy and will add eternity to your life.
Brothers and sisters, all too often we are limited because we can only imagine what the world says is possible, but Jesus offers us eternity. Jesus offers us abundance, not scarcity. Jesus offers us prosperity, not poverty, but to really experience what he is offering, we must begin eating differently. We must eat what he has offered — his very life. That night seven years ago when Jill and I drove home, I was scared, because I didn’t know if I could eat differently; after all, I had spent 52 years eating the way the world said I should eat, but with each day of eating differently it became easier and easier, until it became my way of life. So, as gross as it may sound now, we are challenged today to change our diet. We are challenged today to come to this table and eat the very body and blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ, but we are also challenged to continue to eat it every day of our lives in his word and in the deeds we live out. May we live our lives not only knowing, but trusting, that when we eat as Jesus has challenged us to eat, that we too will have eternal life. May our eating habits empower us to be Christ in this broken world. Amen.