Jesus Cared Deeply About Food Justice
By Kate Fields
In his book Jesus for Farmers and Fishers: Justice for All Those Marginalized by Our Food System, scholar Gary Nabhan so beautifully describes why Jesus cared about food justice, particularly from the side of the farmers, fishers, and laborers who were caught up in a rotten Roman system of taxes and debt. In the agrarian crisis of the first century, many fishermen and farmers were being forced to move out of rural areas into the city for service jobs due to their economic circumstances. Wealthy money lenders and politicians were forming a new urban elite group and were scooping up the best arable land that had been nurtured by generational farmers for centuries and establishing plantations for olives and spices to be exported to Rome.
These elite took over the harbors and taxed their usage. Taxes were levied on the fish that fisherman caught to sell, and tolls were charged when taking the fish across a bridge that was owned by an elite. The taxes due each year often meant that fishers had to fish enough to meet those and, if not, had to sell their boats to moneylenders at high rates of interest and then basically lease them back to use. If they could not pay off their loans, they would lose their boats and have to essentially become indentured servants to the elites. Jesus cared about these dire and unjust economic and physical circumstances, just as he cared about spiritual matters.
We can understand Jesus’ Gospel mandates in this light. Given the agrarian crisis that was occurring and Jesus’ care for laborers, Jesus’ teachings are so often about right relationship. Knowing that Jesus cared so much about food and workers really is how we can know that food justice should be an integral part of our discipleship. Food justice has not commonly been a topic within discipleship other than charity for the hungry, but Jesus cared deeply about food justice.
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says some powerful and striking words about caring about people’s basic needs: “Then those who are righteous will reply to him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you a drink? When did we see you as a stranger and welcome you, or naked and give you clothes to wear? When did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ Then the king will reply to them, ‘I assure you that when you have done it for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you have done it for me.’” (Matthew 25, CEB)
We are called to love. We are invited to do that through food and working for a just food system. We are to care not just about immediate food needs but also about why those immediate food needs exist in the first place. Why were these people hungry? Why were they thirsty? Why did they have no clothes, and why were they in prison? In other words, this is a Gospel imperative to look upstream at what is polluting the water.
Theologically speaking, living into the connectedness that we were created in and loving others is a primary role of the Church in the world, because it is the way to dismantle systems of oppression that Christ resisted and sheds light on dark spaces. Believing that we are responsible to all, theologically compels a congregation to not only care well for each other, but to focus on structural justice issues that preclude members of creation from living in right relation with each other and God. It is joyful and abundant to do this work together.
The love that we are invited into as disciples of Jesus gathered as the Church has collective power to elicit change. That is because this collective consciousness has both a moral authority that the Church holds, and also a deep belief that something better is possible and that the unjust status quo can change. This collective consciousness leads to collective action and gathers power through multiple ways, including the building of social capital through deepening relationships of trust, and reciprocity. In addition, the multiple relational, physical plant, financial and communication resources of faith communities render them powerful units that can quickly organize and exert an influence for social change in their communities.
Examples of using faith to elicit change are: serving Eucharist/Lord’s Supper on the steps of the legislative body, ashes-to-go for an Ash Wednesday observance of mourning death-dealing systems, church spaces being utilized for community organizing groups, clergy on the protests lines for the Black Lives Matter movement, interfaith vigils to hold the light against violence, interfaith ecojustice organizing in communities around corporations extracting natural resources of the area, bring worship services out into open space in the community, organizing programming in the community like “Cider and Hymns” night that unify us around love.
In relation to my own call, addressing inequalities in the food system is where I believe I can put Christ’s Gospel mandates of love into action. Food justice, more than food charity, must be a part of Christian discipleship because we have been given the Gospel mandate to love one another. The epistle of 1 John 4:7-8 reads: “Dear friends, let’s love each other, because love is from God, and everyone who loves is born from God and knows God. The person who doesn’t love does not know God, because God is love” (CEB).
Because of this Gospel mandate to love, as followers of Jesus, we are given an invitation to live into right and equitable relationships with God, with ourselves, and our neighbors (both human and nonhuman). Love is not ethereal but rather it has hands and feet, looks like caring about the basic needs of our neighbors, and having access to those basic needs ourselves. At the core of this is food. No one is exempt from the need for food which provides the energy our cells need to function. Therefore, food is one of the most basic and necessary ways that we can love God, love ourselves, and love our neighbors.
In particular, there are many entry points into food justice work that Christians can practice in their local contexts. We can make personal choices that care for the earth. We can reduce meat consumption and support the local food system by buying local as much as feasible, and refuse to buy certain items. We can look for labels indicating that laborers were paid fairly for the food item.
On a more collective level, we can support local farmers/food producers by leasing them church land to grow food, providing commercial kitchens for processing and cottage industry pursuits, providing parking lot usage for Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) pick ups or selling goods, providing financial resources to support farmers, growing food in community gardens, etc. We can support projects that care for the land such as prairie/savannah restoration in Tennessee. We can put pressure on farmer’s markets and state programs to accept Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, a.k.a. “food stamps”), Seniors Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program (SFMNP), and other related programs at farmer’s markets.
We can partner with or support organizations who are justice-minded and are already involved in the food community, like the Nashville Food Project and work to reject neoliberal capitalist practices by supporting alternative exchange networks like bartering instead of buying. We can draw upon our theological traditions who are not faithful to capitalism and begin to think of land as gift, and not in terms of money and ownership. (See Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Kimmerer.)
On a personal note, I currently pastor in a large, urban congregation in Nashville and have been serving in ministry for six years now. While I am working there, I am pursuing a Doctor of Ministry in Land, Food, and Faith Formation through Memphis Theological Seminary in Memphis, TN. As I work on creating a dissertation project, I am hyper-focused on the local food system around Middle TN. With the challenges of land here being quickly developed for housing and commercial interests as well as rising expenses, Middle TN farmers need support to care for the land and to grow nutritious foods that support the local food system. Christian faith communities within Middle TN have a myriad of volunteer, land, infrastructure, and financial resources to care for the land, support farmers, and invest in the local food system. By doing this work, these Christian faith communities can engage in faithful discipleship as they care for God’s creation. I hope to create a project that bridges gaps between farmers and faith communities in TN and creates mutual support.
It is clear that Christians have within our theological and biblical traditions strong mandates for and invitations into justice work. We are to be people whose faith is thoroughly interwoven with justice-making. Thanks be to God for the invitation into this work of abundant life!
Kate Fields is a native Nashvillian and biologist-turned-pastor who is studying at Memphis Theological Seminary for her Doctor of Ministry degree. She is ordained in the American Baptist Churches USA and loves supporting the local food system in Nashville, growing food, baking sourdough bread, adventuring with her partner and two kids, rescuing greyhounds, and listening to Johnny Cash!
She was one of the 2022 recipients of the Nancy E. Roach Memorial Scholarship.
(Photo by Kate Fields, used with permission; cover photo above by Couleur on Pixnio)