Did Jesus eat meat?

He says, "With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer." Here you have the perfection of His feelings as Man, His human feelings... As a sweet hymn says — "The union of both joined in One / Form the fountain of love in His heart." His love is human and also divine.

He previously partook of the Passover, as a true, obedient Jew; but now He gives to His disciples the symbols of His own holy body and precious blood, the touching expression of His ineffable love in laying down His life for them.

The Passover was, as we know, the great feast of Israel, first observed on the memorable night of their happy deliverance from the thraldom of Egypt. As to its connection with the Lord's Supper, it consists in its being the marked type of that of which the Supper is the memorial. The Passover pointed forward to the cross; the supper points back to it.

"Have ye here any meat?" made the reality of His presence absolute to them. "And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb. And he took it, and did eat before them" (Luke 24:41-42). All was now clear. Every mist of doubt rolled away as they saw Him eat.

When the Lord was going to give them the most conclusive testimony as to the reality of His Person, He eats the broiled fish and honeycomb, which they had provided for themselves, to assure them it is really Himself. When you come to John 21, again there was broiled fish, but it was provided by Him to assure them that He cared for them.

It is the Lord Himself, risen from the dead, but a real man, with hands and feet, capable of being handled and seen, not a spirit, but a spiritual body. Of this He gave the fullest proof by proceeding to eat in their presence. As having a body He could eat; as having a spiritual body He did not need to eat.

Luke goes more carefully into the proofs which Jesus gave His disciples, that it was indeed He Himself, and none other, who was in the midst of them again. He eats before them. He shows them His hands and His side. He tells them that a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as they saw He had.

On the shore they find a fire, with fish and bread prepared for them. Their breakfast has nothing to do with their own work: it is the Lord Himself who prepared and served it. We must be reminded continually of our dependence upon His grace.

When they got to shore it was to find that the Lord had provided them with a fire of coals, and fish laid thereon and bread. Was not our Lord, who had called them to fish for men, sufficient to meet their bodily needs?

"Whom they slew, and hanged on a tree, Him God raised up the third day, and showed Him openly: not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before of God, to us who did eat and drink with Him after He rose from the dead."

Jesus, who had eaten with them in the days of His sojourn with them, had now eaten with them in His risen days. Jesus, who had given them draughts of fishes in the days of His sojourn with them, had now given them draughts of fishes in His risen days.