You hear a lot about food these days, such as "for the hungry" campaigns and "food for oil" scandals. And you are confronted with outlets and options for your every food craving every time you wander through the supermarket. Whole sections of the building are dedicated to food.

It seems life's greatest temptation, or at least pre-occupation, is to eat too much of it, or to starve one's self of it, or to withhold it altogether from vast sections of population, or to make a living out of it. However you look at it, food is of consuming interest — pun intended.

The devil himself is hooked on the stuff. He got stuck into Adam and Eve with food. (Genesis 3:1) He got stuck into the Children of Israel in the wilderness over it. (Exodus 16:3) As soon as God declared Jesus to be His Son, he got stuck into Jesus with it. "If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread," said the devil. (Luke 4:3)

And the devil made food very popular as we have noticed by all the attention it gets. Film makers, popular books, and drug dealers have turned millions of stones into bread — pun intended — as in putting very lucrative bread on their own tables.

However, Jesus gave the whole idea of food another value when he said, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about." (John 4:32)

Jesus gave the whole idea of food another value!
Ah, the plot thickens. Food is now a mystery! And for a couple of millennia, it has been touted as a spiritual mystery — eating and drinking creating a mystery of the fear, excitement and curiosity of a block-buster movie spread across continents and available only through certain spiritual avenues.

But is it such a mystery? As quickly as he drew breath on the "What is it?" mystery (The word manna means "What is it?), Jesus laid it on the table — pun intended. "My food," he said, "is to do the will of him who sent me to finish his work." (John 4:34)

His lunch was on the table and that was his diet. Guess it's now time we asked what our diet really is!