Recently, I read A Meal with Jesus by Tim Chester. I share this following excerpt (pp. 68-69) from his book in hopes that we’ll all think a little more intentionally about how we actually live in light of how we actually believe. Moving our thought to action with integrity takes work and time, but in the long run, we’ll find our joy in living the way God intended for us to live and take part in his work of redemption. Chester presents a good argument to eat less processed food and relish in the process of food preparation and enjoyment, but the main thing I want to point out is how he is thinking so that might be inspired to make real, tangible changes in our lives for the glory of God and loving our neighbors well. This holiday season, a time when we take special care and time in quality food preparation and feasting with friends and family, might serve as a good starting point to begin the new year with some new Christ-exalting habits.

Chester writes:

The best thing you can do for your health is to eat less processed food, which is full of added sugar, salt, and fat–none of which is good for us in large quantities. “When my generation of women walked away from the kitchen,” Barbara Kingsolver says, ” we were escorted down the path by a profiteering industry that knew a tired, vulnerable marketing target when they saw it. ‘Hey, ladies,’ it said to us, ‘go ahead, get liberated. We’ll take care of dinner.’ They threw open the door and we walked into a nutritional crisis and genuinely toxic food supply.” Many of us have structured our busy lives around the availability of processed food, so we may need to change our lifestyles as well as our shopping baskets if we want to enjoy good food in good company. Food is not meant to be “fast.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer says:

“The breaking of bread together has a festive quality. In the midst of the working day given to us again and again, it is a reminder that God rested after God’s work, and that the Sabbath is the meaning and the goal of the week with its toil. Our life is not only a great deal of trouble and hard work; it is also refreshment and joy in God’s goodness. We labour, but God nourishes and sustains us. That is a reason to celebrate . . . God will not tolerate the unfestive, joyless manner in which we eat our bread with sighs of groaning, with pompous, self-important busyness, or even with shame. Through the daily meal God is calling us to rejoice, to celebrate in the midst of our working day.”

Not only did God give us food, he also ordained cooking. Cooking is a central expression of the cultural mandate. God gave this world to us to care for  and cultivate. But he also gave it to us to explore and develop It was God’s intention that we take  the raw material of his world and use it to create science, culture, agriculture, music, technology, and poetry–all to his glory. Every time you bake a cake, you’re fulfilling that creation mandate. Every cake is a reminder of our freedom to create and be creative in the image of the Creator. Every time you place a meal on the table with quiet satisfaction, you’re sharing the joy of the Creator at the creation of the world when he declared everything good.

So take the time and care to cook a fine meal and feast with friends this holiday season, but do it in such a way as to illustrate how God intended for us to live and to demonstrate God’s redeeming work in a fallen world. Don’t stop there, however, let this line of thought drive you toward reforming your beliefs according to God’s word and conforming your whole life to match those beliefs. We can think this way about how we cook, eat, party, work, rest, spend/save, travel, play, etc. When Jesus confronted the Pharisees, it was because they blindly lived life according to tradition and enforced it on others rather than living according to God’s rule and inviting others to enjoy the freedom it brings. Living a pharisaical life is saying you believe one thing but not living out of that belief. So don’t go party because it’s just what people do right now or because you’ve always done this, but go party because God means for you to party and because you have something worth partying for. Oh, and one more thing, party like a rock star, or even better, like Jesus. You can begin by reading Chester’s book; he’ll give you great insight into how prominent eating and drinking was in the life of Jesus 2,000 years ago and how central it will be for us with him in eternity.

Happy feasting and celebrating!