Mark 3:20-21

"Then Jesus went home; and the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, 'He has gone out of his mind.'"

Reflection by Lillian Daniel

I know there are two types of people in the world: those who forget to eat and those who can't imagine forgetting to eat. But either way, this passage speaks to us all. It's about tending to the basics in our bodily life.

You'd think that when God was designing his son and planning the short three years of Jesus' ministry on earth, God could have designed Jesus more efficiently and supernaturally. Why didn't God make Jesus a machine that could live without food? Why did he burden Jesus with all the same physical issues we have? Whatever the reason, God created Jesus as human as the rest of us, and as such, even Jesus needed to eat.

According to the stories, Jesus falls into category number one. He doesn't seem to worry about food when he's busy. Jesus skipped many meals, sometimes intentionally by fasting but sometimes unintentionally, due to hard work and a crazy schedule. But as a human being, he couldn't go without food entirely. And so his family had to remind him at times to stop and eat. I love this moment of his real humanity.

At this time of year, I rarely skip a meal. If anything, in my busyness in December, I tend to eat way too much, not too little. In November, we were collecting healthy food for the hungry and letters for the UCC's Mission:1. In December, the season of parties, it's like we're making up for all the good we did.

December is when people bring holiday treats into the church office, so that every time I walk by the Xerox machine, I am popping something into my mouth. Sometimes I want to put a sign up saying, "Please do not feed the staff." But if I did that, they might stop bringing in goodies and I don't want them to!

I take comfort that while Jesus occasionally forgot to eat, he also loved to eat, with the outcasts and the sinners, with his disciples and with all of us, at the communion table. So let the feast continue, but the feeding too.

Prayer

For what I am about to receive, may the Lord make me truly thankful. Amen.

About the Author Lillian Daniel is the senior minister of the First Congregational Church, UCC, Glen Ellyn, Illinois. She is the author, with Martin Copenhaver, of This Odd and Wondrous Calling: the Public and Private Lives of Two Ministers.

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