The Kitchen Sink
An occasional piece of paper
May 7, 2000
Vol. 3 No.19

Everything But...
            It was a case of the meaningful being derived from the insignificant. "Have you anything to eat?" was Jesus' famished question to a bunch of disbelieving, doubting disciples. They had broiled fish and Jesus munched on it right there in front of them. All sorts of theological questions were answered right there with a mouthful.
      When Luke sat down to write his Gospel, people had been talking about Jesus for a number of years. The bottom line is that Jesus is difficult to think about, and his resurrection is virtually impossible to think about to which many of you can testify. Even back then people came up with elaborate theories to explain away what had happened on Easter.
      One of the most common ideas - and still very prevalent today - was to say that Jesus after Easter was no longer real flesh and blood. He only appeared to be human, for actually he was a ghost. That's what most of the disciples seemed to think. Seeing his wounds from the nails on the cross were not enough. Ghosts don't eat, however, so eating a piece of fish was the most human thing Jesus could do and that plain act struck his disciples to the heart. Jesus is risen, and he is real! He's not pretending.
      For our continuing efforts at remaining faithful, the most important message of Easter is that our faith can and must be real. We can be idealistic about our faith, and we can dream, but our faith matters only when it is embodied - incarnated - into physical actions in this hurting, suffering, all too real world.
      Luke has made eating a habit. In the verses before our story, it was in Emmaus that Jesus ate with disciples on Easter evening , and they knew who he was only when he broke the bread. And now eating fish. There is hope for us: people know you are real when you eat with them.