Do You Have Anything to Eat?
Excerpt from Luke 24:36-49
"While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, 'Have you anything here to eat?'"
Reflection by Martin B. Copenhaver
Jesus asks a lot of questions in the gospels — 307, to be exact. Even when the risen Christ appears to the disciples, he is still asking questions. We might assume that, on this occasion at least, he would have settled for declarative sentences. And if he were to ask questions at such a time, we would expect those questions to be momentous ones. But one question he asks seems anything but momentous. According to Luke, soon after Jesus appeared to his disciples, he asks, "Do you have anything here to eat?"
What do you make of that? That doesn't sound like the question of a Risen Lord. It sounds more like the question of a teenager arriving home from school.
So his disciples give Jesus a piece of broiled fish and he eats it.
Apparently, rising from the dead really works up an appetite. Who knew? Get this fellow something to eat!
So what's going on here? Well, for one, it's a way for Luke to affirm that Jesus' presence is real. He isn't a ghost.
But, knowing Jesus, the follow-up question is this: "Does your neighbor have anything to eat?" After all, this is the same Jesus who taught us to pray, "Give us this day our daily bread." Not mydaily bread, our daily bread. It is a collective plea, not an individual one. In this prayer we say so often is the radical notion that your neighbor's need is not different from your own need. There is only our need.
Fifteen centuries ago, Saint Benedict wrote that Jesus comes to us disguised in every stranger knocking on the door asking for hospitality and asking for food. And if that is true, the question on his lips surely is: "Do you have anything here to eat?"
That turns out to be a momentous question, after all.
Prayer
Jesus, give me eyes to see you, especially in your distressing disguise as one of the poor. Amen.
Excerpt from Luke 24:36-49
"While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, 'Have you anything here to eat?'"
Reflection by Martin B. Copenhaver
Jesus asks a lot of questions in the gospels — 307, to be exact. Even when the risen Christ appears to the disciples, he is still asking questions. We might assume that, on this occasion at least, he would have settled for declarative sentences. And if he were to ask questions at such a time, we would expect those questions to be momentous ones. But one question he asks seems anything but momentous. According to Luke, soon after Jesus appeared to his disciples, he asks, "Do you have anything here to eat?"
What do you make of that? That doesn't sound like the question of a Risen Lord. It sounds more like the question of a teenager arriving home from school.
So his disciples give Jesus a piece of broiled fish and he eats it.
Apparently, rising from the dead really works up an appetite. Who knew? Get this fellow something to eat!
So what's going on here? Well, for one, it's a way for Luke to affirm that Jesus' presence is real. He isn't a ghost.
But, knowing Jesus, the follow-up question is this: "Does your neighbor have anything to eat?" After all, this is the same Jesus who taught us to pray, "Give us this day our daily bread." Not mydaily bread, our daily bread. It is a collective plea, not an individual one. In this prayer we say so often is the radical notion that your neighbor's need is not different from your own need. There is only our need.
Fifteen centuries ago, Saint Benedict wrote that Jesus comes to us disguised in every stranger knocking on the door asking for hospitality and asking for food. And if that is true, the question on his lips surely is: "Do you have anything here to eat?"
That turns out to be a momentous question, after all.
Prayer
Jesus, give me eyes to see you, especially in your distressing disguise as one of the poor. Amen.
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