What Did Jesus Eat And Drink?

To ask what Jesus ate and drank is to assume that Jesus, the Son of God, did eat and drink, that he ate because he was hungry, and that he drank because he was thirsty.

We know for certain that Jesus was thirsty on the cross when He said, "I thirst," [1] and that He did drink when He said, " I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s Kingdom." [2]  That, however, does not tell us what exactly Jesus was thirsty for (on the cross) or what fruit of what vine He had been drinking and will again drink in His Father's Kingdom, but it is assumed that the vine Jesus was referring to was grapevine and the fruit was grape.  The liquid Jesus drank could therefore be fresh or fermented grape juice (wine).

Did Christ drink water?  It can be assumed that He did but then again, He was known to be able to turn water into wine [3].  If Jesus preferred wine over water, He could easily have transformed water into heavenly wine.  Fathered by the Holy Spirit, Jesus might not have needed water although blood and water flowed from His side on the cross: "one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water." [4]  Christ probably drank water as well.

Did Christ eat?  Jesus was human so it can be assumed that He became hungry and ate.  How do we know what Jesus liked to eat?  We do not but one entity that knew was Satan.  In the desert, Satan told Jesus: "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread." [5]  Bread, therefore, can arguably be Christ's favorite food.  If it is not, why would Satan ask Christ to turn the stones into something He disliked; instead, It could have tempted the hungry Jesus to turn the stones into something He liked, perhaps a gourmet feast.

Based on Satan's choice of bread in Its temptation of Jesus, Jesus was probably not a foodie and did not eat very much and when he did eat, He probably ate simply.  I imagine that He was lean and His diet consisted of only bread, water and wine.

However, in the Gospel of Luke, the only time Jesus was said to have eaten fish took place after the resurrection. [6]  Whether or not the account that Jesus ate fish can be verified, Jesus' consumption of fish took place not  when he was in the flesh as a human but in the flesh as the resurrected Son of God.  For the purpose of this entry, this distinction, whether Jesus ate any meat of any kind before His crucifixion or only after, is important because this entry is about what Jesus ate and drank during his life, not His life after death.

No where else in the Gospels do they tell what Jesus actually ate, not even when He multiplied five loaves of bread and two fishes to feed a large crowd. [7]  Jesus only told his disciples to give the people something to eat, not that He needed to eat anything at all.

Jesus came into the world to offer us the bread of life, his body, and wine, his blood for the forgiveness of sins but not to consume what the world has to offer.  He came to serve, not to be served.  He came to attend sheep, not to profit from the flock.  He came to give, not to take.  What He has to give is eternal life to all; what Satan wants is to take that away from everyone.

When Jesus rejected Satan's temptation of bread, He showed us what we eat or drink is not at all important.  What He had to eat and drink was not important to Him, nor was it important to Him what people ate or drank.  What the world has to offer is for our flesh to consume until it is hungry again.  What Christ offers fulfill our soul and it will never again be empty.


[1] http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+19%3A28&version=KJ21
[2] http://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Matthew%2026:29
[3] http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+2:1-11
[4] http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jn++19:34
[5]  http://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Matthew%204:3
[6] http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+24%3A36-43&version=NIV
[7] http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+14%3A14-21%2CMark+6%3A30-44%2CLuke+9%3A10-17%2CJohn+6%3A5-14&version=NIV