Hector Boyardee, in this incredibly factual documentary, says what we're all thinking. How come everything that's so good for us tastes so bad? This is something that you learned as a child - that if something was going to be good for you, it was going to be revolting. Here's a list of so called superfoods - do you like any of them?
Many recent superfood lists contain common food choices whose nutritional value has been long recognized as exceptional. Examples of these would be berries, nuts and seeds in general, dark green vegetables (such as spinach, kale, collard greens, Swiss chard, Brussels sprouts, and broccoli), citrus fruits, fatty fish such as salmon, mackerel, andsardines, vegetables with bright, dark, or intense colors (such as beets and their greens, and sweet potatoes), many legumes (peanuts, lentils, beans), and whole grains as a group.
This is from the ever-accurate Wikipedia page on superfoods, and what it tells you is that fatty fish, dark green vegetables, and beets are the foods to go for. Anyone down for a plate of swiss chard, sardines, and yam? No?
Yes, you have to really force yourself to eat the stuff that's good for you, right? It doesn't come easily. The stuff you want to eat, that comes naturally. Everyone loves to eat the stuff that's bad for them.
Yes, that all looks delicious, and no swiss chard or brussels sprouts to be seen. But here's the thing. Every grocery store you go into, sardines and the like are for sale. And no, it's not as though everyone is buying them as a joke. At least someone is buying them on purpose, going through the effort of buying them because they want to. That means that somewhere out there, there is someone who actually enjoys eating sardines.
Someone who would have been like that would have been our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. When he appears to the disciples in the reading that we had on Sunday, he asks for, and eats some broiled fish. Delicious. Most likely, Jesus would be eating some kind of Tilapia. What do you know about Tilapia's nutritional value?
Tilapia have very low levels of mercury,[43] as they are fast-growing, lean and short-lived, with a primarily vegetarian diet, so do not accumulate mercury found in prey.[44] Tilapia are low in saturated fat, calories, carbohydrates and sodium, and are a good protein source. They also contain the micronutrients phosphorus, niacin, selenium, vitamin B12 and potassium.[45]
Eating this sounds good, right? What's the downside? Oh right.
Tilapia is one of several commercially important aquaculture species
(including trout, barramundi and channel catfish) susceptible to off-flavours. These 'muddy' or 'musty' flavours are normally caused by geosmin and 2-Methylisoborneol, organic products of ubiquitouscyanobacteria that are often present or bloom sporadically in water bodies and soil.[42] These flavours are no indication of freshness or safety of the fish, but can harm the reputation of a product in the eyes of the consumer.
I'm so happy that Jesus ate fish. I'm so happy that he ate broiled fish in their presence, because that entire act tells us important things about our life, our faith, and about Jesus. Jesus wants us to grow in our faith. He wants us to love the law of God, and to meditate on it day and night. He wants us to abide in his word, so we will know the truth, and the truth will set us free. But what does he do with the disciples? Well, when they see him in this most recent post-resurrection appearance, they feel as though he is a ghost, or a spirit. They don't immediately say 'behold, the risen Lord!' Their minds are still focused on the way that things always have been; that you are born, you live, you die, and that's it. The thing is that if something bucks that trend, then it has to be a ghost, a spirit, something like that. It cant' just be the risen Lord. That's not possible. People don't rise from the dead.
Remember that these were guys who were moving around with Jesus, going with him wherever he was going, and moving with him. They were listening to his words, and taking it all in. They were familiar with the scriptures, and heard Jesus speak with his own mouth about how he would have to be crucified, and then on the third day rise again. They'd heard this, and yet still didn't manage to internalize it well enough to figure it out.
Growing in the word is in every way like eating sardines. It's the sort of thing that people know is good for them, you as Christians know it's good for you to get into the word and to hear, mark, learn and inwardly digest it. You know it's the right thing to do. But you don't want to do it. Why does everything that's so good for you taste so bad? Why is the stuff that's good for you to do hard for you to do? Why, if you know that worship of God, growing in his word, is a good thing for you to do, why is it so hard to get it done? Well, we're weak and frail people. Even the disciples, who had heard the word that Jesus had proclaimed, even they didn't understand it, really. They still had a hard time working through the issues with the resurrection, no matter how many times they'd heard it. So Jesus had to open their minds, and teach them everything that was in the scriptures concerning himself.
He has to do that with you too. This is the point behind the incarnation, is that we weren't going to get so deep into the word, we weren't going to meditate on God's law day and night, we weren't going to get our nonsense together, we were just going to continue missing the point, not being diligent, and getting things wrong. So Jesus comes to us, both in terms of being in Israel in the first century, and in terms of being present when there are two or three gathered together, he is there in our midst. And most importantly for us, he is present in the holy sacrament, in the celebration of Holy Communion, where we encounter the body and blood of Jesus. He is here present, as the word of God made flesh. And we make this word of God a part of us, not because we chose him, but because he chose us. He does not wait for us to get ourselves straight, he comes to us here and now. Being diligent in finding Christ, follwing his word, it's too hard for us, and we don't do it. So he comes to us in word and sacrament, and gives the word of God to us in a form we can take.
Now, here's the thing. Given how gross sardines are, how is it that people eat them and seem to like them? How is it that people seem to run and enjoy running, or floss and enjoy flossing? How is it that people look at liver or brussles sprousts and legitimately seem to enjoy the experience? Well, like with many other things, you eat it until you like it. Your parents told you to eat something because it was good for you, and after a while, you started not only to believe them, but to want to voluntarily eat the thing. Once it becomes a part of who you are and what you do, all of a sudden it's not a problem anymore. It's just what you want and crave. So it is with church, with God's word, it's like eating that sardine. At first you may only eat it because you feel like you should, but after a while, a switch gets flipped, and you start to do it because you want to.
Thanks be to God for the fish, for opening the heads of the disciples, and our heads as well, to fill us in on the meaning of scripture. And thanks for dying and rising again, breaking death, and restoring us to life.
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