Recently PBS presented a program called “Magnificent Beast”, the subject of pigs, their history , their characteristics, and their role in the religious life, especially of the Jews. During an interview, a rabbi said, “ Not eating pork or pork products is part of who I am. It’s part of my identity.” I couldn’t help thinking that “not eating pork” was also part of the identity of Jesus of Nazareth.

The program explored many theories for the cause of the “taboo”, acknowledging that it had Biblical origins, and finally concluding that it was a device for separating the Hebrew people from all others and ensuring that they retained their unique identity.

As I watched I wondered why no one suggested that it was also an opportunity to relate to and ,in fact, obey a direct order from their Father God. Searching high and low for some natural and feasible explanation, the writers of the show seemed to miss the most simple and obvious explanation. The rabbi identified with the Torah, the Word of God as he knew it, the very thing God asks His people to do: “Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach; it is not up in heaven, so you have to ask, ‘who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?. . . No, the word is very near you, it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.. . . For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to Him, and to keep His commands” (Deut. 30:11-16).

Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to destroy the law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill them.” (Matt. 5:17). In the Cross Jesus fulfilled the law by offering himself to his Father. Because of who he is, God’s own son, God accepts his obedience as worthy of covering all the disobedience of the entire human family. As Oswald Chambers once wrote, “Redemption is so easy for us, because it cost God so much.”

I believe that whether we eat pork or not, either way should lead us closer to the love of God.

Love in Him,

Prue