Eat Me
I just finished eating a Pecan Braid pastry from Panera Bread. I am a sucker for a good pastry. My favorite breakfast used to be a donut and a Diet Pepsi, until I discovered that the aspartame in Diet Pepsi was causing problems with my short-term memory. And, well, I need more donuts about as much as a third-shift cop needs more donuts.
I was having a conversation a week or so ago with a very wise and seasons friend of mine who is north of 70 years old. My friend shared something with me that captivated my thinking, so I wanted to explore it a little more.
It seems there was a day when a group of people were hanging around Jesus and he made a statement that must have seemed like he was advocating cannibalism.
In Jewish culture, custom, tradition and law it was known that devotees of God were not to consume meat with the blood still in it. God had indicated that the life of living things like people and animals was in the blood; the blood was life itself, it allowed life to exist.
So much for rare filet mignon and prime rib.
On that day Jesus suggested to his disciples “…unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.” (John 6)
Many of those who considered themselves to be followers of Jesus were left bewildered and confused by his statements. Jesus’ statements were so seemingly contrary to what they had been taught that many of his followers turned away, never to follow him again. It all must have seemed rather devilish to them at best and utterly absurd at worst; it was no wonder that some of the religious leaders were saying that Jesus was out of his mind, and even his family was saying something similar.
Jesus made the comparison that his blood and flesh were analogous to physical food and drink; and that was essential to having eternal life.
Like many, I’ve always taken Jesus’ demand as being…that if we want eternal life we have to take all of him into us; we have to be consumed with Jesus and be consumed by Jesus. However, my friend broke it down with a few brief statements illustrating for me that it’s far deeper than I have ever imagined, and, probably far deeper than those followers of Jesus ever imagined. I can see why they might have wigged out on Jesus.
The moment that cinnamon, those three half pieces of pecans and that sugary glaze entered my mouth, digestive salivary glands produced an enzyme that began to digest the starch, causing a chemical reaction that broke the pastry into smaller molecules.
I remember my 10th Grade Biology teacher, Mr. Huffman explaining this type of thing, but he always used cheeseburgers and Coca Colas instead of pastries. Since 10th grade I’ve had way too many cheeseburgers and Coca Colas and pastries; I fear Mr. Huffman would not recognize me today.
And so began the journey of my pastry.
Passing through my esophagus, that Pecan Braid, now looking something like wicked oatmeal, drops into my stomach. Once in my stomach the digestive glands in my stomach lining produce acid and an enzyme that digests protein. Then a yummy mucus layer coats the mucosa and helps keep the acidic digestive juice from dissolving the tissue of the stomach itself, otherwise I’d be just another gutless slob.
As a sidebar, this whole process somehow evolved on its own, according to Darwinian evolutionists like Richard Dawkins, and I’m just beginning.
Once my stomach gets tired of that glob of yuck sitting there it drops the whole thing into my small intestines. I always get my large and small intestines confused; I guess it’s a good thing I’m not a surgeon.
Now, my lovely pancreas, and delightful liver work to produce a mixture of tasty juices that combine to break down the carbs, fat and protein in my pastry. It does the same with cheeseburgers, spaghetti and brussel sprouts. But I would never know if MY small intestines have the potential to break down a brussel sprout because I’ve never eaten one, and have no plans to do so anytime soon.
About the time I was sucking a piece of pastry off my fork my gallbladder was squeezing out bile to help dissolve the fat much like detergent is used to dissolve grease from a frying pan. That watery dissolved fat is then digested by enzymes in the wall of my small intestines.
It all sounds pretty complicated to me, and, besides, what in the world does all this have to do with Jesus telling his disciples not to eat rare T-bone steak…I mean…eat his flesh and drink his blood?
Okay, so most digested molecules of food and, water and minerals are absorbed through the small intestine. The mucosa of the small intestine contains a bunch of folds covered with microscopic fingerlike projections called villi. The villi are covered with other microscopic projections called microvilli. All of these structures create a large surface area through which nutrients can be absorbed. Then, specialized cells allow absorbed stuff (aka former pecans, dough and cinnamon) to cross the mucosa into the blood, where they are carried off in the bloodstream to other parts of the body for storage or additional chemical change.
Here’s where Jesus’ saying gets really meaty. The digestion process is the means by which food (i.e. Pecan Braids) and drink (i.e. refreshing Dr. Pepper) are broken down into their smallest parts so the body can use them to build and nourish cells and to provide energy. When Jesus told his followers that they had to eat his flesh and drink his blood there is a spiritual digestive process waiting to take place.
When we think of consuming Jesus and being consumed by Jesus it’s just a surface view of what really must take place; the amazement is in the details. Pecan Braids enter the mouth, are broken down into infinitesimally small units that permeate the body. The pastry is carried to practically every cell in the human body by the process of digestion. Food like Pecan Braids and cheeseburgers and Coca Colas cause us to grow and be nourished and in reality never leave our body because they’ve helped to produce new cells; it is in our blood the life of living things, it’s in our cells, it becomes who we are.
Similarly, when we consume Jesus, he permeates every cell of our being, creating himself by his Holy Spirit. Just as the Pecan Braid affects every part of the body, so too does Jesus when he is consumed by us. We must let him work through our entire being down to the most remote area so that he can supply the necessary spiritual building blocks for us.
So, how do we today do what Jesus admonished his disciples to do back then–eat his flesh and drink his blood? We do it through partaking in Communion, the symbolic representation of that. Each time we eat the bread and drink the juice those very element end up becoming a part of us.
In the moment of Communion, when we remember Christ, we are embracing his command to his disciples and we are taking him into us, and so much so that we become what he disired; we become like him.
So, eat up!
