An "OMG" Grouper Bao ...

We are lucky enough to have a restaurant in Orlando called King Bao in our downtown area.  I am further lucky to have discovered it through a local food delivery service called Bite Squad.  The food is inexpensive and the taste is awesome.  My favorite, as you might have guessed from the title of this BLOG is the “OMG – meaning Oh My Grouper” Bao.  It is an unusual bread (referred to as a bao, but is kind of a soft thicker tortilla) with white fish lightly fried in Tempura batter, with homemade tartar sauce, shredded scallions, and some kind of coleslaw underneath this magic concoction.  To understand just how good this is, you have to know I do NOT eat fish, generally ever.  But for this, I have learned to make a blissful exception.  To be truthful, I could have never imagined any kind of fish dish tasting just this good.  But then, maybe that is just a sign of my aging memory and imagination.  As I continued to read the gospel letter of Luke this week, I encountered another story that occurred which may have been just as heavenly a dining experience to have been a part of.  It turns out Jesus may have made the first ever OMG bao’s, and His would have rightly been called “Oh My God” bao’s, because He was God and they were divinely made.

The story picks up in Luke’s gospel chapter nine in verse 10 saying … “And the apostles, when they were returned, told him all that they had done. And he took them, and went aside privately into a desert place belonging to the city called Bethsaida. [verse 11] And the people, when they knew it, followed him: and he received them, and spake unto them of the kingdom of God, and healed them that had need of healing.”  To set the backstory, Jesus in the earlier verses had just sent His disciples across Israel carrying the gospel message of salvation and life through the true Messiah, Jesus Christ.  This was the time now when the disciples were returning and Jesus intended to take his crew into a private place outside of the city of Bethsaida to talk over how their respective trips and experiences had gone.  But this plan was interrupted by the people, who figured out where Jesus was going.  And they went there in droves to meet Jesus and be with the man, the Messiah, they had heard about from the lips of the disciples.  The news of Jesus was everywhere.  So sick and well, many gathered to be with Him.  And Jesus being Jesus, He would not turn any away.  He healed all those who needed healing, and began to speak to everyone about the Kingdom of God.

Luke continues in verse 12 saying … “And when the day began to wear away, then came the twelve, and said unto him, Send the multitude away, that they may go into the towns and country round about, and lodge, and get victuals: for we are here in a desert place.”  When Jesus speaks, the concepts of time just seem to melt away.  Not like our churches where checking the watch is an every-30-second activity.  The sermon in this desert place was the highlight.  You did not need worship music that drolled on for hours, or children’s stories set aside from the main message.  No offering calls.  No missionary reports.  All of that was deferred in order to hear the words of Jesus.  In those words were the children’s story, the stories we could understand.  In those words were the road map to our salvation, to our happiness, to an end to pain and death.  People lost all track of time until the day was nearly gone.  Only now do the disciples remember it is way past breakfast, lunch, and fast approaching dinner.  No one has eaten.  And this crowd is huge.  The people will need time to walk to find food in nearby suppliers, if those suppliers could even be found, especially for a crowd this size.

Jesus has other ideas.  Luke continues in verse 13 saying … “But he said unto them, Give ye them to eat. And they said, We have no more but five loaves and two fishes; except we should go and buy meat for all this people. [verse 14] For they were about five thousand men. And he said to his disciples, Make them sit down by fifties in a company. [verse 15] And they did so, and made them all sit down.”  A few things of note; first, these same disciples were just returned from their own respective mission trips across Israel where they were fully dependent upon God for what they themselves ate every day.  The charity of people served that purpose.  And they all were given power by Jesus to heal and perform miracles.  So perhaps they should have suggested something like this ahead of Jesus having to do it.  But alas, even those closest to Jesus do not always see what should have been obvious to them.  When we look through the eyes of human limitations this is often the case.

Second, 5,000 men sitting down in companies of fifties, was not ALL the people sitting in those groups.  It was also meant to include wives, daughters, mothers, and the children at large.  So entire families would have been sitting together, even if only the head male of the family was included in the informal census of who was there.  You can pick your own number then for the total number of people who needed to be addressed, but if I were guessing, I would say something like 20,000 if you included everyone.  Keep in mind, in these days women were not usually included in any kind of numbering scheme.  And children may been considered too young to make the normal part of numbering.  Suffice it to say, this number was huge, as just the original 5k men would reveal.  And for practical purposes far too large a crowd to buy food for everyone.  Many would have gone hungry if they had tried to solve this problem themselves.  And Jesus did not need to rely upon money to solve His problems (both then or now), faith would be His currency.  Faith that His Father cared about our hunger even more than we do.

Third, other gospel’s tell us of the original 5 loaves of bread (likely unleavened, that pretty much resembles a thicker tortilla) and 2 small fishes (not a bass or swordfish or salmon for example) came from a small child’s lunch (whose mother was perhaps the only one who liked to make sure her boy was prepared for any eventualities).  He was glad to share it.  And so the love of a well prepared mother, and very willing young boy was the source material for would come in any case.  Luke continues in verse 16 saying … “Then he took the five loaves and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed them, and brake, and gave to the disciples to set before the multitude. [verse 17] And they did eat, and were all filled: and there was taken up of fragments that remained to them twelve baskets.”  And here is where the miracle begins to take place.

In my original imagination, I think of Jesus reaching into the basket of the boy’s lunch and pulling out some fish and bread and placing it in an empty basket for one of the disciples.  Jesus keeps doing this until the basket is filled, and then that disciple heads out to one of the groups of people to begin food distribution.  The idea though is that Jesus is the one who keeps digging his hands into that boy’s lunch box and filling up empty baskets for the disciples until everyone finally gets fed.  But given the number of people and the lack of quantity a human can place in a basket each time they dig in – this approach could have taken all night to get it to the people who were already hungry.  I now imagine it differently.  I imagine a group of empty baskets placed around each of the companies of 50 men.  After the blessing of Jesus, I imagine fish and bread appearing in each empty basket until it is nearly overflowing.  The baskets are passed through the respective companies until everyone has not only eaten, but eaten till they are completely filled.

And my new mind, does not just imagine a simple fish and bread, as prepared by a boy’s mother for lunch.  I imagine OMG bao’s as prepared by the mind and abilities of Jesus Christ Himself.  Gordon Ramsay has nothing on Jesus for how food could and should taste when done exquisitely.  And why not?  Do we imagine Jesus was a dull cook, only providing base nutrients to this crowd, uninterested in how it tasted at all?  Why?  Jesus created us with the ability to taste in the first place.  If you think that ability is trivial just get a head cold and lose your ability to taste any food for a few days, and tell me how pleasant that was.  On the contrary, I will bet that the Author of taste buds has excellent ideas on how to tantalize them that are well beyond anything we could imagine.  And picture this, that same Author of our senses is the same One building heaven for us right now.  We may not eat meat in heaven, at least meat that comes from the butchery of animals.  But perhaps my steaks will grow on a steak tree, and taste just as good as anything good old black angus could have provided in this world.  This very story negates the process we think about where it comes to fishing and preparing to get to a final product.  Maybe Jesus will provide an OMG bao bush right in my backyard that only needs to harvested and eaten without a single creature being harmed in the process.  Maybe a pizza tree.  And who knows just how good a grape itself will taste in heaven, whether in fruit form, or in juice form.  Why would we limit God to our own ideas about what kind of food He can make, and how it will taste, and how it will be provided?  That is just our own stunted imaginations not a limit to power and love of our God.

12 baskets of fragments remaining is not a testimony to dull food nobody likes.  It is a testimony to a hungry crowd over-filled until they could eat no more.  And the excess from that feast will go to the poor in the surrounding towns and villages distributed by those who now leave to go home after the beauty of this day with Jesus.  The idea that this day ends with Jesus providing a master class on how to prepare white fish and bao’s was not all that would be remembered.  The words of His sermon would echo in the minds and hearts of the people long after this.  In later days the disciples would harvest thousands of believers in a day because of the seeds sown at this very gathering, that echoed and spread throughout the land.  Delicious food.  But better words.  This was church reconceived.  Heal everyone first.  There would be no disease or deformation that could not be healed and remade by the power of our loving Creator God.  Speak to the hearts.  Feed them all.  And love would echo in tangible demonstrations far after the day was gone.  Jesus made church about meeting the needs of people all the time, and anytime or place He was.  What I would do to have been a part of this day.  I hope to taste His cuisine in those days to come in the city He builds now for us all.  I can’t wait to taste a bao that my Jesus makes for me, and I wonder if it might come on a bush, or from a basket once again.