What's Your Favorite Food?

We all have our favorite foods and favorite meals. Mine are mostly Greek and Middle Eastern. I do really like as well pasta and seafood. I’ve got my favorite pizza place and bagel shop. And, every so often I have a craving for certain Korean or Indian dishes. I guess you could say I’m a bit eclectic when it comes to food.  

I know some people like to eat basically the same thing day after day. That’s definitely not me. Even my favorite foods I don’t want to eat every day. I just can’t imagine eating souvlaki or pasta or pizza or even strawberry-rhubarb pie on a daily basis. I like a bit of variety in my diet.  Thus, when Kim and I do go out for dinner (which is not that often these days), we like to mix it up a bit, eating at a variety of restaurants. So, in thinking about it, I’m not quite sure I have a favorite food or meal. 

Jesus, however, did seem to have a favorite meal. But it wasn’t food that one can eat. It was a far different kind of meal. In John 4, Jesus has been ministering to a Samaritan woman by a well—a woman who had had a very tough life. His disciples had gone into town to buy some food, and when they came back and offered some to Jesus, Jesus insinuated he wasn’t hungry anymore. They  thought someone else must have brought him food. That’s when Jesus said to them, “My food…is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.” (John 4:34 – NIV) 

It seems that doing the will of his heavenly Father—i.e., ministering to people in need—so satisfied Jesus, that it took away his craving for physical food. It appears that, Jesus’ favorite meal was touching broken lives and bringing to them the healing, restoration, and salvation for which he had been sent. For Jesus, that was enough; that was a satisfying and delicious meal. 

Later on in the book of John, Jesus said to his disciples, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” (John 20:21) We might say, Jesus was placing before them the very same meal that his heavenly Father had placed before him. He was asking them to make ministry to others their favorite meal. 

So it makes me ask myself, have I made doing God’s will by reaching out to others my favorite meal? Am I craving the times I get to minister to others? Do I find reaching out to the people around me as satisfying and delicious as eating souvlaki or pasta or pizza or even strawberry-rhubarb pie? 

How about you? What’s your favorite meal? 

Have a great day! 

- Pastor Tim Harris 

P.S. – Did you catch that I really like strawberry-rhubarb pie?