Some people might view the question of Jesus’ relationship to veganism as unknowable and irrelevant. Understanding it, however, unlocks one of the keys to His attitude toward food and how we should view it.
Jesus ate like a Jew to reach the Jews
While there is perhaps no definitive statement on Jesus’ dietary preferences, there are strong clues that tell us how He ate. Jesus was under constant scrutiny, and whenever His actions deviated from the religious traditions of His day, He was challenged. If Jesus had strayed from the normative kosher food laws, people would have almost certainly reacted. There would have been questions from the Pharisees about why He refused to eat meat. We have to conclude that when God came into this world as a man, He ate like a Jew to reach the Jews.
The other thing we should note is how important food was to His mission. Consider how many accounts we have of meals that Jesus shared (Matthew 9:10; Luke 7:36; Luke 9:16; Luke 24:30; Luke 24:41-43; John 21:12-13; Mark 14:22). And even when his meals with sinners drew criticism, He persisted in them. If I were being called “a glutton and a drunkard” (Matthew 11:19; Luke 7:34; Luke 15:2), I’d start pulling back, but Jesus didn’t.
It seems clear that meals were more than meals to Jesus. They were a part of His mission, and He ate like a Jew to reach the Jews. You might be tempted to think that this attitude toward food was just a peculiarity of Jesus. But consider what happened next.
Peter ate like a Gentile to reach the Gentiles
We often think of the apostle Paul as the catalyst for the Christian mission to the non-Jewish world. There was something critical that happened first, however – God instituted a new diet. In a dramatic vision, God showed Peter a sheet full of “all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds” (Acts 10:12) and told him to kill them and eat them. The Old Testament food laws were so ingrained in him that God needed to tell him three times before he got the message.
This can just feel like a curious incident, but it was critical to God’s mission to reach the world. An overly restrictive diet would be a huge obstacle hindering the ability of Christians to build relationships across cultures. It’s also why Paul rebuked Peter so sharply when he stopped eating with the Gentile Christians in Galatia (Galatians 2:11-12). Food isn’t just food. It’s a means of fellowship and mission.
Paul called people to eat what people serve you
We know that food continued to be a point of contention in the early church. Not only was there the issue of Jewish food laws that needed to be overcome but most meat that was sold in the marketplace had been first used in the pagan sacrifices of local temples. Christians with delicate consciences felt like they were participating in idolatry by eating such meat and refrained out of conviction (Romans 14:2).
While Paul respected their convictions, he said, “If one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you are disposed to go, eat whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience” (1 Corinthians 10:27). As long as your host isn’t making a religious act out of it (1 Corinthians 10:28), don’t put up barriers by refusing to eat what they serve. Again, it shows how important food can be in breaking down walls between people or erecting them.
Reflecting on these verses isn’t intended to talk anyone out of veganism or any other diet. Thinking responsibly about what you eat is something that glorifies God, and if you’re convinced that you’ve found a way to do that with a particular food plan, that’s commendable. But the Bible reminds us that what we eat has relational implications as well. Considering those implications when we’re eating with others is a vital part of fellowship and mission.
In awe of Him,
Paul
