What Is the One Food That Will Change Your Life Forever?

I used to see him every day when I ate lunch.  There at Henry Barger elementary, he smiled down at me.  And every time he freaked me out.   I did not like, “You Are What You Eat” Man.  I did not like him at all. 

I knew.  The poster was trying to give me a good message.   But I’m sorry.  That guy looked scary to me.  Has anyone here ever seen a “You Are What You Eat” Man?   I tried to find the image on-line.  The closest I could find was this.  

 Does that give you an idea why I might have freaked out?

Still the message those images share certainly folksneed to hear.   We Americans by and large could eat healthier.   But here’s the problem.   You can eat all the healthy foods you can.  You can go organic or vegetarian or vegan.  But those will only go so far.    No food, no matter how good, gives you self-worth or meaning.   No food, no matter how healthy, heals your regrets, frees you from guilt or shame.   No food, no matter how vitamin-filled, changes you deep down, creates in you the person you yearn to be, except one.

One food exists that has restored people, that has changed lives, that has transformed the world.  And, here, Jesus tells you what that is.   Let’s listen and hear what Jesus has to say.

John 6:35, 48-58

Food does a lot of things.   It nourishes you.   It brings you health or, depending on what it is, may bring you the opposite.  It even can change your appearance.   Yet, food can’t transform you deep down.  It can’t bring to you lasting joy or meaning.   It can’t liberate you from fears or guilt or can it?  Jesus tells you here such a food exists.   Jesus says all those things happen when you eat this, when you eat me. 

But how can you eat Jesus?   How does that even make sense?  

To understand that, you need to understand how food-obsessed the Bible is.  Think about it.   What act does Genesis tell us separated people from God?   Adam and Eve ate the wrong thing.   A few books later, you have whole chapters devoted to keeping kosher, what you’re supposed to eat or not eat.   Look at the 23^rd Psalm.  “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.  My cup runneth over.”   Heck, Jesus makes his first miracle turning water into wine.   And the whole reason Jesus is even having this conversation is because he has just done a miracle where he fed thousands.   Why does the Bible focus on food so much?  

Well, think about what food does.   You eat food, and it does become part of you.  In a real sense, you are what you eat.   That can be a good thing, or it can be a bad thing, a very bad thing.

Recently, my son has become fascinated with how our car works.  And that means, I have learned a whole lot about engines, I never knew before.   It’s kind of blown me away.  I never realized what is going on every time I drive.   You and I can cruise down the road only because the gas that you pump into your car is creating thousands of tiny explosions in your engine.  That’s what makes it all happen.   Yet, if you put the wrong fuel into your car, it will mess that whole process up.  It may even literally destroy your engine.   

And when you eat food something not all that different happens.  That food explodes into energy inside of you.  It fills you with power.  Basically, Jesus is telling you here.  When you follow me, that’s what happens.   The very life of God begins swirling through you, exploding within you, healing broken places, changing old behaviors.

Now, how does that happen?  To get that, you need to understand what Jesus and the Bible means by life.  Unlike English, the Greeks had two words for life, Bios and Zoe.   Bios, as you might guess, means your physical life.  But Zoe, went deeper to what gives your physical life meaning or joy, what gives it life, so that you’re not simply existing.  No, you’re actually living in the fullest sense of the word.   Zoe is the word the Bible uses here.  That’s what Jesus is talking about, Zoe. 

And everyone needs this Zoe, this life.  Existence doesn’t cut it.  You need more.  Everyone does.  But just like putting bad fuel into a car, not everything that looks like it gives you life does.   It works for a while, but over time, like bad fuel, messes your life up.  It takes your life way.   And some of it will literally destroy it.    That’s why Jesus tells you.  Don’t look for the food that spoils.   Look instead for the food that endures forever.  And everything that you look to for life, that isn’t me, Jesus says, will spoil.   It will end up taking your life away.

And that gets to the heart of the human problem.  You and I run after so many false Zoes.  It can be a substance, alcohol or drugs or even food.  It can be the approval of others or success or wealth or a relationship.  It can even be religion.  The list goes on endlessly.   And you say to yourself.  If I have this, then that will be living.  That will be Zoe.   But it always spoils, Jesus says, always.

Why does it spoil?  All the false Zoes don’t connect you to reality.  They dull you to it.   They give you an escape from it.  But eventually reality hits, often painfully.  And when it does, the false reality collapses, and with it your life.  But Jesus doesn’t dull you to reality.  Jesus opens you to reality like never before.   In this reality, no set back or hardship or loss or failing can take your life away.  Why?

You now know what reality is.  You realize.  At the heart of reality, you don’t find an idea or a thing.  No you find a relationship.  You find a person, a person who has found you.  You find someone who loves you so powerfully, so infinitely not even your death will take his love away.  That’s who you meet at this table.  You meet a person, a God who in Jesus gave everything for you, who loves you no matter what.   And as you take his love in, as you eat and drink it, it explodes within you.  His love gives you life, a life that not only never spoils.  It never dies. 

Do you want this life?  Then know that this life is what the meal called communion not only proclaims, but actually gives.  But don’t just leave it there.  Every time you eat or drink, say a prayer like this.   Jesus, I want to experience you like this food, to feel your love fill me, energize me, freeing me to become all you created me to be.  And as you do, see what happens.   See how Jesus’ love fills you more and more.  And as you do, you will enjoy all of the good things of this life more.  Why? You are connected to the life, the love that lies in them and beyond them.  You are connected to what is truly life, to the only life, the only love that will never die.