Let Them Eat Cake: Simeon Zahl on Lunch, Elijah, and Spiritual Depression

But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree; and he requested for himself that he might die, and said, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take my life, for I am not better than my fathers.” 5 He lay down and slept under a juniper tree; and behold, there was an angel touching him, and he said to him, “Arise, eat.” 6 Then he looked and behold, there was at his head a bread cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. So he ate and drank and lay down again. 7 The angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said, “Arise, eat, because the journey is too great for you.” 8 So he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mountain of God.

1 Kings 19

"God has compassion on Elijah...and gives him cake. And lets him sleep. And then gives him more cake. God knows what we need far more than we do, and often our true needs are embarrassingly mundane. It is humiliating to hear that sometimes, when we think we are wrestling with angels, we are mainly just tired and hungry, or that the sensation of drowning in oceans of guilt is mostly just a hangover. The worst attack of anxiety we can experience may be in the end the product of a couple of temporary chemical reactions in the chest and stomach. 

And at the end of John's Gospel, Jesus meets Simon Peter, absolves him of guilt for his three denials, sets his life task ahead of him, and predicts his painful death. But before any of this, he says, 'Come and have breakfast.'"

Simeon Zahl

Seven Scene Chiasm of Jesus with Pilate

John's Gospel records a seven scene interaction between Pontius Pilate and Jesus Christ, the scenes moving between outside and inside settings. There is a literary structure as well, a Chiasm, with the central point seizing our attention as the main point in the sequence, the one which interprets the others.

John 18:28 - 19:16

a. Jesus handed over to Pilate for Crucifixion

  b. Jesus interviewed by Pilate about Kingship/Truth

     c. Pilate declares Jesus guiltless; freedom rejected

        d. Jesus beaten, crowned, and mocked: Hail the King!

     c. Pilate declares Jesus guiltless; freedom rejected

  b. Jesus interviewed by Pilate about Kingship/Authority

a. Jesus handed over by Pilate for Crucifixion

Here is a study guide to begin to ponder the meaning of the seven scenes:

A. The Savior-King Handed to the Gentiles: Exile - The Servant Israel bears judgment and is handed over to the Roman authority

B. The Savior-King Bearing Witness: The Good Confession

* 1 Timothy 6:13

C. The Savior-King: the Spotless Lamb

* He in whom no spot of guilt could be found took the guilt of all in whom no spotless righteousness could be found

- Triple Imputation/Representation (Adam to us; Us to Christ; Christ to Us)

- We are all Barabas, set free because the Savior-King was crucified. Barabas could never be a substitute for Christ, but Christ was Barabas’ substitute and liberator

D. The Savior-King Scourged, Crowned, Mocked, and Beaten by the Gentiles he came to save, the Roman ‘world’ which will submit to his reign of grace (Isaiah 49:1-7; Isaiah 53)

E. The Savior-King Revealed in Shame: the mockery and rejection that will become worship and adoration when he is revealed in Glory

* Revelation 1:12-17; 19:11-16

- Rome DOES fall, as does Jerusalem; but both ‘fall’ not only in judgment but into the arms of the Savior-King

F. The Savior-King and True Authority

* The Silence of the Lamb, except where his Father’s glory is concerned

- The assertion of man’s reign always meets with God’s resistance and laughter

G. The Savior King and Crucifixion

* Putting to death the Prince of Life

- The Passover has been prepared; the angel of death and judgment begins to stir for his journey; the hour of deliverance has come: He who was ‘delivered up’ will by his sacrifice deliver the world from sin and to God.

Fool Proof? Food Proof - for God

For example, take the “Caramelized-Onion Proof for the Existence of God.” At my house, cooking dinner often starts with frying onions in olive oil. To me, it is one of the most beautiful smells on Earth. It smells like home, like comfort, like paradise. I started thinking about why that was. Was it simply memory, association with foods I like, or what? Whatever answer I came to, the conclusion was inescapable: If I live in a world where that much beauty can spring from something as ordinary and unexpected as cooking onions, there must be a God. Further, he must be a God who loves us dearly, and perhaps has a surreal sense of humor. There is no other coherent, meaningful explanation. All the alternatives- chemical pathways in the brain, Pavlovian behavioral responses—speak only to the effects of some prior context within which that experience makes sense as a meaningful part of human existence. Such naturalistic, anti-spiritual explanations (“It’s only learned behavior and your nervous system”) fail to speak to the meaningful depth of the experience. Something of the subtlety, beauty, and richness of that smell escapes the grasp of those who hold to this explanation. Only the complexity and depth of a personal and loving Creator can adequately explain the meaningfulness of something so simultaneously beautiful and commonplace. [Ted Turnau]

You won't want to miss Ted Turnau's book "Popologetics"! 

Herb Crusted Rack of Lamb

For the First week of the Feast of Epiphany why not have a true feast! Here'a a good suggestion from Chow.

http://www.chow.com/recipes/30702-herb-crusted-rack-of-lamb

Feast of Epiphany 1: Celebrate the Baptism of Christ

Who was John the Baptist?

"He is the lamp in the presence of the Sun; he is the Voice in the presence of the Word; he is the friend in the presence of the Bridegroom; he is the greatest of all born of woman in the presence of the Firstborn of all Creation; he is the one who leapt in his mother's womb in the presence of the One who was adored in his mother's womb; he is the forerunner of the One who has come and will come again."

Why was Jesus baptized by John?

"Jesus comes to sanctify the baptizer...to cleanse the waters...to bury sinful humanity and begin a new creation in water and Spirit...Jesus rises from the waters and the world rises with him. The heavens, like Paradise with its flaming sword closed by Adam for himself and his descendants, are rent open."

- Gregory of Nazianzus