Scripture reading: John 6:48–60

Green Eggs and Ham

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! (Psalm 34:8)

 

Sin entered the world through food. The serpent used the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden to provoke appetites in Adam and Eve for fruit that God had forbidden. Once their desire became fixed on the wrong thing, sin came and, along with it, brought guilt, shame and death.

Salvation also entered the world through food. I am the bread of life, Jesus said. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life (John 6:48, 54). Also, perhaps nowhere in Scripture is the issue of appetite more graphically depicted than in the exodus. In the desert, as the people of God found themselves geo- graphically between Egypt and the Promised Land, the future of the nation was literally determined by people’s appetites. Would their hunger for the milk and honey of Canaan be strong enough to counteract their hunger for the leeks and onions of Egypt? Yes. The Bible is a food-driven book, and our eternal destiny will be determined by that for which we hunger.

Few people have helped me to understand this truth better than that great theologian Dr. Seuss! Oh, I know he was not really a writer of theology. I know his purpose was to entertain children. Yet children’s books contain more spiritual truth than is often recognized. Green Eggs and Ham is no exception. Let me tell you the story. A little fellow named Sam-I-Am wants his friend to eat some green eggs and ham. The friend however is disgusted at the offer and adamantly refuses. I do not like them, Sam-I-Am. I do not like green eggs and ham. But Sam-I-Am just won’t quit.

 

Would you like them in a house? Would you like them with a mouse? Would you like them in a box? Would you like them with a fox?

Would you? Could you? In a car? Eat them! Eat them! Here they are.

 

Sam’s friend tries every trick he knows to get away from such incessant questioning, but without success. Sam-I-Am’s badgering never lets up. You do not like them, so you say. Try them! Try them! And you may. Finally, Sam’s friend is so frazzled and exhausted he simply has no more strength to resist. In exasperation he agrees to taste the offered meal. He knows that this is the only way to get Sam-I-Am to leave him alone. He opens his mouth and takes a bite.

 

Say! I like green eggs and ham! I do! I like them, Sam-I-Am. Thank you! Thank you, Sam-I-Am.

Psalm 34 is not about green eggs and ham, and the author is not Dr. Seuss. Rather, the psalm is about God and the author is David. But David and Sam-I-Am have a lot in common. They both realize that many people are turned off by something they have never actually experienced themselves. This is irrational at best and hypocritical at worst. Many today who say they want nothing to do with God have never even given him a try! Dear friend, if you have no appetite for God, then I want to take on the pestering role of Sam-I-Am and say to you: You do not like God, so you say. Try him! Try him! And you may.

 

We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. —C. S. Lewis

 

point to ponder • It is hypocrisy to say you don’t want Jesus Christ in your life when you have never even given him a serious chance.

 

prayer focus • Someone who is hostile to the Gospel.