“The lips of the righteous feed many, but fools die for lack of sense.” – Proverbs 10:21
“You’re the cook.” I don’t remember much from this preaching conference, but that counsel from Kevin DeYoung stuck. He extended the analogy by asking us to think about our upbringing and all the meals our moms or dads prepared for us. How many of those do I remember? Probably a few. Special occasion meals, like some Thanksgivings or an elaborate birthday cake. But then you do the math. That leaves about 99.9% of my meals devoid of any standout significance. Except that’s the only reason I’m here…my mom kept feeding me meals.
After Peter blows it in the garden during Jesus’ arrest, Jesus takes a walk on the beach with him to restore him. Three times Jesus asks Peter: “Do you love me?” When Peter says, “Of course,” how does Jesus tell him to show it? Sell all his possessions and join a monastery? Start a movement? Speak in tongues? Heal people? Become a dynamic speaker? No. He tells him the same thing three times, “Feed my sheep.”
Our world glamorizes and gravitates towards the big moments, the big events, the wins with numbers. There’s nothing wrong with these, but anyone who does something worthwhile knows that his job, day by day and hour by hour, is feeding. It’s the faithful work behind the scenes to research the meals, create a balanced plan, buy the ingredients, prep the dishes, and serve the food.
It would be weird if every time someone went for a routine doctor’s appointment, she walked out raving about how spectacular the service was—the doctor might be trying a bit too hard. Jesus calls us to simply feed his sheep. Some people excel at bringing nutrition, others flavor, and others presentation, but the job is the same.
No matter what your profession is, your words feed people’s souls. All of us have the opportunity to spoon spiritual nutrition into people’s lives. Fools, this proverb says, “die for lack of sense.” Sometimes that calamity comes all at once. But even when it does, fools have suffered from a lack, a deprivation of righteousness and wisdom for years beforehand.
A fool often doesn’t know it, but he’s wasting away. He’s malnourished, slowly fading into rasping starvation. We desperately need the good food of good words. And that means you, as a cook, need to be eating yourself. Just like a master chef is refining his palate, we need to continue feeding on Christ and his Word. Jesus promises that everyone who comes to him will never go hungry (Jn 6:35). We need to fill up on wisdom and righteousness. If you’re sick and about to pass out from hunger, you’ll hardly have energy to scrape together an apple and crackers, let alone “feed many.”
Once you’re eating good, regular meals of God’s wisdom, you need to remember the goal. It’s not getting fat or looking sleek. It’s to feed many. And if you want to feed many, that means you’ll have less time to get the lighting and color palette perfect. Sheep do well as long as you lead them to some good grass.
