Journey into Taste
Last New Year’s Eve, I, along with many other people, went to a party. The party had just started and a friend of mine arrived with a strange selection of food and a package of pink tablets. I asked what the tablets were and he replied that they were Miracle Fruit Tablets. Intrigued, I asked what the miracle was? He had seen them on a television programme (see here) and told me that the tablets changed the taste of everything that you ate. So we sat down at a table, cracked the tablets open and started our taste bud challenge.
Within 10 minutes I was sucking on a lemon, amazed at how sweet it was and drinking Guinness, which tasted like chocolate! My taste buds had been fooled. However, after about 30 minutes I wanted a glass of wine. I poured myself a glass of Sauvignon Blanc and took a sip. It was repulsive and so I had to wait until the effects of the Miracle Fruit Tablets had worn off before I could drink again. After chatting with friends, we all agreed that whilst it was fun to suck on lemons we did actually prefer our usual sense of taste.
I missed my sense of taste during these moments and, once back, I relished the return of normal taste. As I have reflected on taste and read the story of the Last Supper, the final meal that Jesus ate with his disciples, I have started to wonder how the meal tasted? Did the thought of what was to come prevent Jesus from eating the Passover meal? Or as he ate the meal did it remind him of God’s faithfulness in the past and hence reassure him of God’s faithfulness in the future.
The meal was one full of many tastes, such as bitter herbs symbolizing the harshness and sharpness of the slavery in Egypt or Charoset, a sweet brown pebbly mixture reminding the Israelites of the mortar used to build the storehouses in Egypt. Many different tastes, all telling a different aspect of an important story. This was a way of remembering a story vital to the Jewish people, different tastes that remind them of different parts of their collective story. Taste can serve to evoke powerful memories.
I wonder if different tastes evoke powerful memories for you? As a Christian, if my eyes were covered and I were given a sip of wine and some bread it would remind me of that last supper that Jesus shared with his disciples. A taste that reminds me of a meal shared by the Son of God with his closest friends. A taste that contains within it a story that has changed the world.
