Yummy and recipe are two

"Oh I must have that recipe!" We have all said this when something yummy is served.

So you get the recipe. But when you follow the recipe, the dish is not so yummy. Why?

Because yummy and recipe are two, not one.

We live in a world of recipes, because we think recipe and yummy are one.

But recipes are attempts to reproduce yummy. The yummyness is not in the recipe.

The yummyness is somehow in the first-hand experience of the original cook. That you can't capture in a second-hand recipe.

Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem (see post May 27, 2009). His disciples wanted to call down fire from heaven to wipe out villages that spurned them. Is that the recipe, huh, huh, Superman? No, says Jesus.

Others wanted to sign up and be disciples -- so they can get his recipes. They must have his recipes! No, says Jesus.

For Jesus, it was not about second-hand recipes; it was about life lived first-hand. He was going to Jerusalem to lay down his life. Not to act it out in a movie, but to lay it down first-hand. Out of that came resurrection life.

So here is the message: to really produce anything that is yummy -- filled with life; filled with beauty; filled with taste -- a life must be laid down.

In the giving of a life, recipe and yummy just may become one.

Logos2Go

Psalm 116.15 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints

John 12.24 I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.

Psalm 34.8 Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!

Luke 9.51-62 [51] When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. [52] And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; [53] but they did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. [54] When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, "Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" [55] But he turned and rebuked them. [56] Then they went on to another village. [57] As they were going along the road, someone said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go." [58] And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." [59] To another he said, "Follow me." But he said, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." [60] But Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God." [61] Another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home." [62] Jesus said to him, "No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God."