{"id":52,"date":"2018-11-06T16:24:19","date_gmt":"2018-11-07T00:24:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/migrate.bettersermons.org\/?p=52"},"modified":"2020-06-01T11:41:33","modified_gmt":"2020-06-01T18:41:33","slug":"supersize-fries-and-the-gospel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/supersize-fries-and-the-gospel\/","title":{"rendered":"Supersize Fries and the Gospel"},"content":{"rendered":"
Supersize Fries and the Gospel<\/span><\/div>\n

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Key Passage:<\/strong>\u00a0Matthew 15; Mark 7<\/p>\n

Key Thought:<\/strong>\u00a0Jesus\u2019 main concern regarding what we take into our bodies involved the spiritual realm. We are polluted by sinful ideals, by feasting on gossip and lies and false doctrines. That doesn\u2019t mean it won\u2019t harm a Christian who puts poisons into his stomach or lungs!<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Question:<\/strong>\u00a0Does it make any difference what you have for supper tonight? If a meal has either 350 calories or 1,500, does it matter? What if your menu options are:<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0 A sackful of Krispy Kremes and a main course of LDL-packed pasta primavera, sometimes dubbed \u201cheart attack on a platter\u201d<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0 A green salad, low-fat dressing, with a diet soda and an apple for dessert<\/p>\n

Is one going to hurt you more than another?<\/p>\n

The Bible and Our Grocery List:\u00a0<\/strong>Christians have the option of considering as a diet Bible . . . the Bible! Both Testaments have quite a bit to say about what you should order when you go out to Jack in the Box for lunch next Monday.<\/p>\n

Another hard Saying:\u00a0<\/strong>We\u2019re taking a look in the gospels at some of the hard-to-understand things Jesus the Diet Doctor is recorded as having said. Today we have to really scratch our heads and recheck our calorie counters. Because in both Matthew 15 and Mark 7, He seems to say to all of us who stand on the scales every morning: \u201cHey, relax! It doesn\u2019t matter. Eat anything you want, because it makes no difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt. 15:10, 11:\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cListen and understand. What goes\u00a0into\u00a0a man\u2019s mouth does not make him \u2018unclean,\u2019 but what comes\u00a0out\u00a0of his mouth, that is what makes him \u2018unclean.\u2019\u201d \u201cIt defileth\u201d\u00a0<\/em>(KVJ).<\/p>\n

Jesus says this to a whole crowd of people at a Weight Watchers rally, but four verses later Peter and the disciples come to Him privately and Peter asks: \u201cWe don\u2019t get it. What are you talking about?\u201d Jesus replies:\u00a0\u201cAre you still so dull? Don\u2019t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man \u2018unclean.\u2019 For out of the mouth come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man \u2018unclean.\u2019\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Soul Pollution Vs. Body:<\/strong>\u00a0None of us could argue with Jesus when He teaches that our evil thoughts, our selfishness, adultery, our lies are all polluting agents. Have you ever felt \u201cdirty\u201d because of your sins? This is why we join King David in asking God to \u201ccleanse\u201d us, to wash us white as snow. But is it also true that all of the sugary things we put into our mouths just slide right through the system, staying for a couple of hours and then saying\u00a0adios<\/em>\u00a0when we take a trip down the hall, second door on the left? Is Jesus scrapping all of the proven principles God gave Israel in Leviticus 11?<\/p>\n

Media Illustration:<\/strong>\u00a0Lawyer Samuel Hirsch filed a class-action lawsuit against McDonalds. Eight young people got fat eating Big Macs and having SuperSize fries and milkshakes on a once- or twice-a-day basis. Gregory Rhymes was a 15-year-old high schooler who already topped the scales at close to 400 pounds. And his mom must have been in the crowd the day this Matthew 15 sermon got preached, because she said in her deposition: \u201cI just always believed McDonalds was healthy for my son.\u201d NBC\u2019s\u00a0Saturday Night Live\u00a0<\/em>soon did a bitingly sarcastic comedy sketch about people too clueless to figure out that a hundred McDonalds \u201cBig \u2018N\u2019 Tasty\u201d sandwiches could cause weight gain, but there\u2019s nothing amusing about the\u00a0Herald Sun\u2019s\u00a0<\/em>ominous conclusion: \u201cGovernment statistics suggest around 300,000 deaths a year in the United States can be linked to obesity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Media Illustration:<\/strong>\u00a0In the cancelled NBC drama\u00a0Ed<\/em>, a story line in late 2002 involved actor Michael R. Genadry, who played the part of Mark Vanacore. He was\u00a0huge<\/em>! One web site gently called him \u201cgravitationally challenged,\u201d but an episode, entitled \u201cMakeovers,\u201d had his doctor warning him he was a good 250 pounds overweight\u2014with a father who had died of heart attack. He finally decided to have gastric bypass surgery, and lost 70 pounds.<\/p>\n

But this youth, who simply loved to eat, who was driven to treat himself to endless gourmet confections, is living proof that Jesus must have meant something else when He said: \u201cWhat you eat goes in\u2014then out\u2014and doesn\u2019t hurt you. A trip to the little boys\u2019 room solves everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tim Russert, host of\u00a0Meet the Press<\/em>, recently lost his life largely due to heart weakness and weight issues. Peter Jennings died because he was a cigarette smoker.<\/p>\n

Two Realities:<\/strong>\u00a0What is Jesus talking about? Is He specifically giving a lecture on diet? The NIV headings for both sections say it plainly: \u201cClean and Unclean.\u201d The Pharisees have just posed this accusing question to Jesus:\u00a0\u201cWhy do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don\u2019t wash their hands before they eat!\u201d\u00a0<\/em>(Matt. 15:2).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s true that washing your hands before lunch is a good idea, and you\u2019ve heard about that from non-biblical sources. But the religious leaders here were talking about ceremonial washing, an elaborate, lengthy procedure involving careful, precise washing and scrubbing clear up to the elbows, using as much water as could be held in one-and-a-half eggshells, \u201cholding to the tradition of the Zakenim,\u201d according to one Jewish source. They also said a ritual prayer as they did so: \u201cBlessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, who has sanctified us by Thy commandments, and commanded us concerning the washing of hands.\u201d<\/p>\n

Main Point:<\/strong>\u00a0This was a\u00a0ritual<\/em>\u00a0washing, not a sanitary one. The concern was not for germs; it was for following the tradition. In fact, if there was no water available, the devout followers could simply go through the motions \u201cdry\u201d and still be undefiled.<\/p>\n

Regarding the diet part of this discussion, Jesus is plainly telling His accusers that ceremonial uncleanness\u2014whether from not washing your hands in the prescribed way or by eating a food that is ceremonially unclean\u2014was not what was going to hurt your soul. \u201cFood doesn\u2019t enter your heart,\u201d He says in Mark 7:19. \u201cEating with unwashed hands had no\u00a0moral<\/em>\u00a0effect whatever upon a man\u201d says one Bible commentary. Adultery, anger, dishonesty\u2014those were the things that could poison your heart and soul and mind.<\/p>\n

So What?<\/strong>\u00a0Is it still a good idea to wash your hands before you eat? Are there foods which can hurt you? The answer to both questions is an obvious yes. In Leviticus 11, there\u2019s a long list of animals that are \u201cunclean\u201d foods. Anything that didn\u2019t \u201cchew the cud\u00a0and<\/em>\u00a0have a split hoof\u201d was forbidden; any sea life that didn\u2019t have fins and scales was also on the non-kosher list. All sorts of varieties of birds were banned. Pork, obviously, was on the \u201cno\u201d list for sure as written up in verse 7. The question is this: were these various kinds of meat unclean just from a ceremonial viewpoint, or did God put them in that category\u00a0also<\/em>\u00a0because they were unhealthy? Clear back in Genesis 7, before there was a nation of Israel or temple ceremonies, and as Noah was preparing to build his ark, God already called some animals clean and others unclean. Were they just ceremonially so, or can eating pork, for example, actually be harmful to a person\u2019s physical well-being?<\/p>\n

Erasing the Rule:<\/strong>\u00a0Here in Mark 7:19, Mark adds a parenthetical that Jesus was intending to erase the ceremonial distinction between clean and non-clean:\u00a0\u201cIn saying this, Jesus declared all foods \u2018clean,\u2019\u201d<\/em>\u00a0say the NIV and RSV. The much looser\u00a0Message<\/em>\u00a0paraphrase:\u00a0\u201cThat took care of dietary quibbling; Jesus was saying that ALL foods are fit to eat.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0In the\u00a0Living Bible<\/em>:\u00a0\u201cBy saying this He showed that every kind of food is kosher.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

What of Physical Health:<\/strong>\u00a0But did God, in the Garden of Eden, and then when talking to Noah, and again when giving instructions to Moses and His chosen people, Israel, also have in mind the\u00a0physical health<\/em>\u00a0of those He loves and not just their ceremonial purity? Here in the 21st century, it seems plain that He did.<\/p>\n

Health Trend:<\/strong>\u00a0It\u2019s on the cover of every major news magazine in America now that certain foods are harmful and that a largely vegetarian diet is the ideal one. The recent secular bestseller,\u00a0Live Ten Healthy Years Longer<\/em>\u00a0has the numbers to back it up: if a person lives by the biblical blueprint\u2014even though the ceremonial restrictions are now gone\u2014they\u2019re going to be stronger, healthier, more productive . . . and enjoy up to a full decade of extra living.<\/p>\n

The Adventist Advantage:<\/strong>\u00a0this is why our Adventist family gratefully holds on to the \u201cdo\u201d and \u201cdon\u2019t\u201d list of Leviticus 11. Not because of the ceremonial aspect of the \u201cclean\u201d vs. \u201cunclean.\u201d But because God knows best and our bodies are still His temple. Because, as Paul himself puts it in I Corinthians 10:31:\u00a0\u201cWhether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.\u201d
\n<\/em>______________________________<\/p>\n

Submitted by David B. Smith.\u00a0<\/span>Better Sermons \u00a9 2005-2007. Click here for\u00a0<\/span>usage guidelines<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Supersize Fries and the Gospel Key Passage:\u00a0Matthew 15; Mark 7 Key Thought:\u00a0Jesus\u2019 main concern regarding what we take into our bodies involved the spiritual realm. We are polluted by sinful …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53,"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52\/revisions\/53"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}