Our Relationship Status with Food: It's Complicated

Photo by Grant Barker

Did you know I write a monthly article for my email subscribers?

This month I wrote about how food can aid our knowledge of spiritual things. Here's how it begins:

No matter how you slice it, our relationship with food has always been complicated. The food that tastes the best also seems to be the worst for us. Too many doughnuts and cheeseburgers will render us obese and lethargic. Too little food? You’ll surely die. 

Spiritually speaking, our dealings with food might be even more bizarre. In the beginning, Adam and Eve tasted fruit they weren’t supposed to touch, even though they didn’t have to eat at all since death was not yet a thing. 

Because of those bites, we lost paradise, God cursed the ground, and suddenly not only was food now required for survival, it also became difficult to obtain. 

And that’s just the beginning. 

We don’t even have time to address vegetarianism, clean and unclean food, manna and quail in the wilderness, the Passover lamb, unleavened bread, food sacrificed to idols, Nazarite vows, our daily bread, cooking goats in their mother’s milk, fasting, eating with sinners and a whole multitude of other issues. 

Nevertheless, food provides a critical conduit for spiritual knowledge and realization, both as a metaphor and in the actual act of chowing down. This isn’t some sort of new age mysticism I’m hawking here, but stick with me as we focus in on two specific Bible passages with eerily similar wording. Coincidence? I think not, but I’ll let you be the judge.

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