Sashimi and Such
Jesus was human. We know this. However, we also know that humans, being endotherms, must be heterotrophic and consume energy from outside sources; they must eat. Did Jesus eat? Why, he was documented by Mark and Luke a few times. In the story of Jesus Feeding the Five Thousand, he multiplies five loaves of bread and two fish to fill the stomachs of five thousand hungry followers. In Luke 22 and 24, Jesus ate a piece of broiled fish and honey. And, of course, at the Last Supper, Jesus shares bread and wine with the disciples. But if Jesus was the Son of God, why did he need to eat? If he can conquer the rising waters of the Sea of Galilee, then shouldn’t he be able to conquer his need for energy?
The most common foods eaten in Jesus’ time were fish, bread, wine, fruits and vegetables, eggs, fowl, cheese, wine, olives, honey, beef and lamb. Pork and crustaceans were not allowed by Jewish law because they were “unclean” (www.jesuscentral.com). This is sometimes called the Mediterranean diet, and is quite nutritious and lean.
The story of Jesus Feeding the Five Thousand is a story intertwined with the Mediterranean diet. Jesus, before a crowd, provides copious amounts of food to feed five thousand listeners on the shore while he sits in a boat on the Sea of Galilee. The disciples are worried: they tell Jesus “’send them away so that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy something for themselves to eat’” (Borg for NRSV 29). Obviously everything in this story is symbolic. Of the many goods eaten in Jesus’ time, bread and fish were the most common and humble of all foods. They were easily attained by fishing in the Sea of Galilee and growing wheat in the fertile area surrounding Israel. However, this is what Jesus had to offer to the people. Though, perhaps Herod would have fed the masses great amounts of beef and lavish food to win their approval, Jesus shows the people that they only need humble bread and fish to fill their stomachs. However, he provides their fill. Perhaps this shows that Jesus is suggesting that faith in God is ever-providing; God will give you as much as you need to be full, but do not expect lavish beef or much wine, since these are creations of the World and His kingdom expands much further than this. God will give you all that you need to survive—be rest-assured, disciples! All Jesus asks is that they have faith in order to receive assurance from God.
As Borg mentions on page 58, we are not to deliberate about the factuality of this story, because such deliberating causes us to miss the point of the story, since Jesus acted and taught in parables. What we need to grasp from the story is not to follow the Mediterranean diet or how Jesus managed to provide fish cooked and prepared to eat for 5000 people, but we need to realize that Jesus is showing the people that all of their needs would be fulfilled should they choose to follow the path of Jesus. Since they eat bread and fish, we can decipher that the path of Jesus is not one filled with lavish and luxurious material things of this world, but is instead filled with love and faith to fulfill the needs of the soul, rather than the body. Perhaps the story which is most about food is not, in fact, about food at all!
