Easter 3 B
Have You Anything Here to Eat?
St. Luke 24:36-49
19 April 2015 – Redeemer
While they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, Jesus said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it before them.
Do we really need to know what Jesus had for a snack that night? Of all the events of Jesus life, didn’t the Holy Spirit have something more essential for us to know than “Jesus took a piece of broiled fish and ate it before them.” Jesus was risen from the dead. He had limited time on earth before He ascended, shouldn’t He have done something more relevant than have a bedtime snack?
Saint Luke tells us at the beginning of his record of the life of Jesus that he “set out to write an orderly account” so that his readers might have “certainty concerning the things you have been taught.” That little piece of broiled fish is part of Luke’s orderly account, to give us the certainty that Christ alone satisfies our hunger for life.
“Have you anything here to eat?” Jesus asks that question for a very specific reason (which I’ll get to in a minute), but that question is also our question. We are a hungry people. We are consumers. We gobble up the goods that around us. We can’t get enough. The whole of the American economy is built upon the premise of supply and demand and the certainty that we will demand more and industry and agriculture will be required to supply more. Let me ask you a simple question, “Are you satisfied?” Satisfied with your home? Your car? Your work? Your income? Your health? Your boat? Your golf clubs? Your kitchen? Your marriage? Your children?” When’s the last time you were content and satisfied – wanting nothing more? I’m guessing you can’t remember a time. Why does our daily bread from God never fill us full?
God’s Word gives us the proper diagnoses of our undernourishment. Our discontent was born in our first parents – Adam and Eve. They ordered something not on the menu and in that original sin, they separated themselves from the only food the gives eternal life – the Word of God. What are you hungering for? You know – you want life. You want peace. You want health. You want joy. But that hunger is not the result of not having enough money, or the perfect 1.7 children, or a house from Better Homes and Gardens. The emptiness of your life is because of sin. You are a dying sinner and you are trying to find life by consuming everything in sight – buying this, grabbing that, stuffing your closets, cupboards, garages and sheds with stuff. Or seeking that person or pleasure you imagine will make your life worthwhile. But because the real problem is with our souls, earthly food and goods will never satisfy. You will eat and never be full – and the Mall, Menards, and McDonalds are banking on that.
“Have you anything here to eat?” Jesus asked that question as He stood in the midst of a starving room of disciples. He asked that question not to satisfy His hunger, but theirs. Why does the Holy Spirit direct Luke to waste ink on the dinner of choice for Jesus on a Sunday evening? Or as a Lutheran would ask, “What does this mean?”
It means Jesus is risen, in the flesh. Ghosts don’t eat fish. Spirits don’t get hungry. Jesus ate some fish because He was alive in the flesh. The same body and blood that had died on the cross for our sins and was laid in the grave was now alive. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Jesus rising from the dead means that your sin is taken away. If sin is taken away death is taken away. No more sin. No more death. Sin gone. Jesus risen. Your sin gone you rise. Adam and Eve ate fruit that led them to death. Jesus eating fish means your sin is forgiven. Jesus eating fish means your hunger for life is filled in Jesus.
Saint Augustine once wrote, “O Lord, Thou has made us for Thyself and our heart is restless until it rests in Thee.” Today we might paraphrase Augustine’s prayer to say, “O Lord, our soul is starving until it is fed with Thee.” Jesus is the food that feeds us for life as He Himself tells us, “Truly, truly, I say to you, 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.” (John 6:53–55, ESV)
Have you anything here to eat? It is usually our stomachs that prompt us to ask that question. It growls. Sometimes the clock prompts us to hunger. It’s noon so we had better eat. Sometimes, however, our natural appetites and rhythms are disabled by physical or mental illness. A person with no appetite, who doesn’t eat, will not live long. Food is an essential ingredient to life.
Hunger for Christ does not come naturally to our souls. When Adam and Eve ordered something not on the menu of God’s Word, we lost our appetite for God Word. Although we feel this hunger in our souls we seek to fill ourselves on the world’s buffet line, and it’s menu is very attractive. A day in the fishing boat promises peace. A trip to the mall offers satisfaction. The lottery and casino promise us contentment (if we win and it promises us we’ll win). Granite City Brew Pub will quench your thirst and fully fill your belly. Although those may not be your menus of choice, each of you knows that you are naturally drawn to consume the gifts of this life when you are hungry for real life..
What Christ gives us is not nearly as attractive as the world’s menu. This is the menu He gave His waiters (His apostles) to set before the world, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”
Christians are made hungry not through their stomachs, but through their ears. The Holy Spirit works through preaching, through God’s Word, to not only fill you with Christ’s gifts, but also to give you faith – to give you ears that desire God’s Word and a soul that hungers to confess your sins and a conscience that rejoices in the forgiveness of sins.
When you sit down in the Lord’s house He doesn’t come to the table and say, “What would you like? I’ll serve you anything your heart desires.” Instead the Holy Spirit seats us with these words, “This Table is for sinners only.” The Lord Himself sets the table and serves the meal, “Take eat, this is my body. Take drink, this is my blood, for the forgiveness of your sins.” When you enter the Lord’s house the menu, the décor, the music, the waiter, the ambiance should all reflect the uniqueness of that meal – this is meal of life from heaven. “Have you anything here to eat?” Yes, we have life, real life, the only life. We serve the risen body and blood of Jesus which delivers an unending bounty of forgiveness for your sins. Have you anything here to eat? Yes, we have life served to you in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Pastor Bruce Timm
18 April 2015 anno Domini