What did Jesus eat in the Bible?

The call of the Lord on His disciples to handle Him was to convince them of the identity of His Person, that it was indeed just Himself, risen, and again in their midst. "And when he had thus spoken, he showed them his hands and his feet" (Luke 24:40). This is very touching. Here were the marks of the nails. Here in His side was the testimony of death. "And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said to them, Have ye here any meat?" (Luke 24:42). The object before His mind was plain. Wonder and joy were mingled in their minds, and I can understand the mixed state of their hearts. They were thrilled with joy, while hampered with unbelief and wonder. His words, "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.

It is very touching to notice the way God puts things in His Word. 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. How rich and deep is the grace that ever provides that which will confirm our faith, and feed and sustain our souls.

In spite of seeing and handling Him, the disciples were slow to believe and still wondered, for the joy of it seemed too much. The Lord asked for food, and before them He ate a piece of broiled fish and honeycomb (v.42). We may be sure that His body did not require physical food, but this eating proved for them that He had a body capable of eating, an actual physical body. Wonderful assurance!

There was no doubt about His resurrection; the preacher himself had seen Him, and had eaten and drunk with Him. Peter remembered the piece of broiled fish and of an honeycomb, which they had given Him after His resurrection; and he remembered too the fire of coals with the fish laid thereon, and bread, when Jesus had called him and his six companions to come and dine with Him, on the shores of the Lake of Galilee; and he brings out now the truth — rich beyond all expression in its fruits — the beautiful, blessed truth of the death and resurrection of Christ. His death met the claims of God, while His resurrection displayed His absolute victory over death, and sin, and all the power of Satan.

We have just seen that the Lord desired to eat the Passover with His disciples; that He sent Peter and John to procure a room where He might eat the Passover with His disciples; that at the appointed hour He and the twelve sat down, and as they sat and did eat, Jesus said, "I will not eat any more thereof." Referring to Judas, He also said, "He that eats bread with me," etc. Can there be a doubt, then, that our Lord did eat the Passover? How very serious for any one without a shadow of proof to say, "He did not eat of it"!

First of all His desire is to eat that paschal feast with His disciples. He was the only One who knew what it meant — the One to whom it spoke of such a burden as never was nor could be borne by mere man. And yet with desire He desired to eat of that passover before He suffered. He knew it was the immediate harbinger of His death upon the cross. Yet there was not one of the disciples that so desired to eat it with Him, as He desired to eat it with them. This is love, and love is self-sacrificing.

It was this cup that He told them to divide among themselves — not that of the Lord's supper. Our Lord Jesus never partook of His own supper. He partook of the paschal supper, but not of His own. For this is for us, being the witness of a redemption which He wrought for us (not for Himself, of course). The paschal supper was for Him as well as for the disciples, and He desired to eat it along with them. On the occasion of the passover, after its cup was passed round, He institutes His own supper; but before that He says He was no longer to drink of the fruit of the vine till the kingdom of God was come. He had done with the earth and had no fellowship more with men in flesh and blood. He took the supper, to Him not a sign of joy, but of the deepest suffering. The Lord's supper, which speaks to us of perfect peace through His suffering, He needed not: He gave it all to us.

He ate the passover, but passed the cup in connection with it, as we believe, without drinking of it. A cup and more than one, three or four, we are told, — were drunk at that supper; but they were all an addition to God's institution, and the Lord did not on this occasion partake of them. That they were an addition the reader may see as he peruses the sixteenth chapter of Deuteronomy, which treats of the spirit in which each of the three great festivals was to be kept. At the feast of weeks and at that of tabernacles rejoicing was to be a marked feature (vers. 11, 14). At the passover not a word of that have we, but with unleavened bread, the bread of affliction, they were to eat of it. Joy characterised those feasts which could only be kept after they entered the land of their inheritance. Passover, which could be observed in the wilderness, was not therefore characterised by joy. That they should have introduced a cup after they had entered the land one can readily understand. The instinct was right so far, though wine formed no part of the original institution. So on this occasion the Lord just before His death ate of the paschal supper in obedience to the Word, but passed to His disciples untouched by Himself the cup of wine. The time for full joy will come. Then, when the kingdom of God shall have come in power, He will drink of it, rejoicing with His own in His Father's kingdom.

Besides the loaves, there were a few small fishes. These the Lord also took and blessed, and the disciples passed them to the people. Thus He provided bread and fish for their repast, as after His resurrection He did for the seven apostles in Galilee (John 21:9). It was not then the day of the glory of the kingdom. When that day comes, He, as Melchidezek, will dispense bread and wine to the men of faith. When the ark is brought to its final resting-place in Mount Zion, the Lord will re-enact, but far exceed the bounty of David, who gave "to the whole multitude of Israel, as well to the women as men, to every one a cake of bread and a good piece of flesh, and a flagon of wine" (2 Sam. 6:17-19). But the joy of full victory over the sin of the world was still future; hence the Lord said to His disciples on the night of His betrayal, "I will not drink henceforth of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom" (Matt. 26:29). He also said, "Blessed are those servants whom the lord when he comes shall find watching. Verily, I say unto you that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and come and serve them" (Luke 12:37).

It was with five barley-loaves and a few fishes that the Lord fed the five thousand. John 6:9-13. Such loaves are still the bread of the poorest in Palestine. Barley is sown in October as soon as the ground is softened by the rains, and the harvest is in April, but extends to May in the colder districts.

I have read the threefold account, which God has been pleased to give us, of the temptation of the Lord Jesus, because, beloved friends, we get in each Gospel some point that is very noticeable, but which the other Evangelists do not record. Matthew gives you the historical sequence of the temptation, while Luke gives you the moral order of events. When we think who it was who was tempted, it well becomes us, with unshod feet, to tread this ground, and with circumcised ear to listen to what God says to us. We have the history here of a Man, a true real Man, vigorously assaulted by the foe of God, as it says: "Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered" (Luke 4:2). He was forty days and forty nights without food, and then, as you might expect, He was hungry. Then the tempter came, man's tempter, your tempter, my tempter, in that day the tempter of the Lord Jesus. I do not doubt Satan came thinking that he would do with this Man as he had done with the first man he tempted, that is, upset him to his ruin.

But mark how tenderly the Lord dispersed their doubts and fears, and what pains He took to convince them of the reality of His resurrection. So gently He says to them, "Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts (reasonings) arise in your hearts?" Then with infinite grace He says, "Behold My hands and My feet that it is I Myself." Doubtless He submitted His hands and His feet to their inspection because of the marks of the nails, wherewith He had been fastened to the cross; and then, moreover, He even said, "Handle Me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see Me have." Going still further, He showed them His hands and His feet; and finally, to chase away the lingering fears that obscured their vision, He said, "Have ye here any meat?" In response to His question they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish and an honeycomb; and He took it and did eat before them, the blessed Lord, as the Risen Man, condescending to share the food of His humble followers.