A Series of Questions: Is There Going to Be Food in Heaven? [Part 2 of 2]

So we started looking at this question, “Will there be food in heaven”, by first exploring why this is a great question to chew on (no pun intended…seriously!).

Today let’s take a look at the question itself and see whether the answer is yes or no.

So, I’ll show my cards right off the bat: I believe the answer is YES, there most definitely will be food in heaven. And not just the kind of food that keeps our bodies going (I’m not even sure if we’ll need to eat!), but something far more…essential. Food that is food in its purest form, beyond simple sustenance, beyond calories and keeping our bodies going. I believe that in heaven when God’s adopted children sit down to eat the experience will be something akin to history’s most epic and greatest meals/feasts/whathaveyou multiplied by…infinity. It’ll be the taste, certainly. But it’ll also be about the fellowship, the laughter, the pure joy that we sometimes get a glimpse of at wedding banquets and other memorable meals.

Yes, there will be food in heaven.

Now why do I believe this?

Let me give you two reasons:

What We See in Scripture

First, in scripture, heaven is described as having fruit of the tree of life (Revelation 22), and the fulfillment of salvation as a wedding banquet (Revelation 19).

Second, Jesus in Mark 14:25 says that he will drink of the fruit of the vine in the Kingdom of God. This may simply be a figure of speech, but why not say something else at that point? Why even bring up drinking or eating in the first place unless you literally mean that’s one of the things that you’re waiting for?

Also, this is far from solid proof one way or the other, but after Jesus is resurrected he sits down to eat fish with the disciples (Luke 24:41). He likely didn’t need to…and yet he did. That at least means that it’s not ludicrous to think that the adopted sons and daughters of God will be eating in heaven.

Finally, God often uses meals and food to teach. Jesus talked of the kingdom of heaven as being “like a wedding banquet”. In the Old Testament the Passover meal was perhaps the most important event for the people of God, and followers of Christ today celebrate communion as Jesus taught his disciples to do at his final Passover meal.

The Character of God

A lot of what you think about heaven probably is tied to your opinion of God. As I was researching this question I saw one online comment that said something along the lines of, “Heaven just looks like a place where people will be singing and worshipping God all the time…pretty boring.” If your picture of God in heaven is some kind of pompous king who just sits on his throne satisfied to spend eternity listening to people tell him how great he is, then I’d agree with that comment.

But this is not the God of Scripture. This is not Jesus’ God. The God of Scripture is a creator God (Genesis 1-2). He’s a healer (just look at everything Jesus does). He’s a righteous king, an everlasting father (Isaiah 9), he’s a savior (John 1 and 3). Simply (and un-poetically) put, he’s some kind of combination of superhero, compassionate and wise father, and just and loving ruler.

So to what kind of an eternity would he call those who put their faith in him?

Actually, I don’t doubt that we’ll be worshiping him there. But I think heavenly worship will be a far cry from the dull Sunday experiences the commenter I mentioned may be familiar with. I think there will be singing, yes, but it will be the kind of singing that you feel when you take the stage for the first time and you feel thousands singing with you. It’ll be the kind of music you create when you start jamming with your friends for the first time, and you find out you actually sound pretty good.

And it’ll be more than singing: worship in heaven will be creating, adventuring, loving, and…I would venture to guess…feasting, banqueting, and eating! 

A Series of Questions: Is There Going to be Food in Heaven? (Part 1)

Will there be food in heaven?

Short answer: YES

Long answer: I think we can break this down into two parts

 

 1.Why this a great question to chew on

 2.Why I think the answer is YES

 

We'll tackle the first one in this post, then the second in the one following.

 

1. Why this is a GREAT question to chew on

 

So I don't know who submitted any of these questions, so I can't follow up with them and ask specifically why they were wondering about this. But I can say that wondering about heaven is great for someone who follows Christ, since Christ often talked about heaven. Here are a few examples:

 

• "Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” Luke 10:20
 
• "I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven" Matthew 8:11
 
• “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven." Matthew 18:10

 

If you're following someone, if you're their disciple, then your mind and heart should be on the same things that their mind and heart are. If Jesus talked about heaven, then his disciples shouldn't shy away from thinking or talking about heaven.

 

A warning: with all this said, we should be careful not to take things too far either. Scripture talks about heaven, but by no means does it tell us to go get PhD's in "Heavenomics/ology". See here for reference of when this can go too far.

 

In fact, one of the ways in which we should be growing is replacing our worldly hopes (and the fears that so often go along with them) with the same kind of hope our Master has. I can't tell you how often I catch myself so consumed with thoughts of achieving financial security, or fears of falling behind according to the world's standards. Make no mistake, we are called to live wisely, to care for ourselves and those who are under our care, but the truth is our hopes and fears actually determine the direction of our lives, and you can't move in two directions at once no matter how hard you try.

 

If you are consumed with worldly hopes and fears, then you cannot follow Jesus.

Instead we need to hope in the same things that Jesus hoped in.

 

But what did that hope look like? As I mentioned earlier, Jesus often talked about heaven. But here's one really important thing to note about this: Jesus wasn't talking about heaven in the sense of someone who couldn't wait to get out of earth (which unfortunately many Christians do). For Jesus, the hope of heaven was something different. In the next post we'll look at what Jesus' hope in heaven looked like, and what food might have to do with that :)

A Series of Questions: A New Blog Series

Candid taken during a UL hiking trip to Little Si

Okay, so sometimes plans don't come out the way you think they will. 

Such is the case with the aforementioned posts about what was happening with this blog. Originally I had planned to transition over to our ministry's website, but due to various factors that ended up not being the best place to blog, at least in my opinion. 

So...

Here we are! 

I'm still trying to figure out what to do with my non-ministry related posts. Maybe they'll still end up here, maybe somewhere else, but it's getting to be that time to stop planning and just start executing. And part of what's driving this is the fact that I promised our membership class that I would answer some of their theological questions via a blog since we didn't have time to tackle them all during our class. 

Here's what we already covered during class: 

• How come people still avoid certain foods? (i.e. pork, etc) 
• Where did Cain's wife come from/Where did the generation after Cain and Abel come from? 

Here's what I'm planning to cover (in no particular order):

• What Does it Mean to be a Theologian in the 21st Century
• Is the Exodus Story True?
• Is There Going to Be Food in Heaven?
• If I Was Falling From the Sky Would God Catch Me? 
• Is There a Definition of Good that God Acts on or Is God the Arbitrary Definition of Good? 
• Why Is There Sickness in the World? 
• How Does One Know What God's Will Is?