How Would Jesus Kill an Animal?
I am a Christian vegetarian. This week, I listened to a podcast about an investigative documentary by Kip Andersen, the co-producer and co-creator of the films Seaspiracy, Cowspirasy, and What the Health. Anderson’s latest film, Christspiracy, was the topic of the podcast.
I disagree with Anderson’s argument that Christ was a vegetarian, but I found many of his points valid and thought-provoking. I have long heard the position that Jesus was at odds with Judaism, keeping a lamb-less vegan Passover with his disciples since the temple’s slaughter and consumption of animals had become a corrupt system. In contrast to this position, however, Jesus sent His disciples to Jerusalem to prepare and keep a Jewish Passover. Jesus was not against the Jewish traditions. He went to Jerusalem to eat the Passover meal, following the Jewish customs of leaning, dipping, and even singing at the end of the meal. That Jesus ate a Passover lamb with His disciples should not be glossed over so easily just because it calls our conclusions into question. I am bothered by the many hypocritical perspectives and conspiracies that abound on both the vegetarian and meat-eating ends of the spectrum. We can’t model Jesus after our own image.
Some Christians legitimize their vegetarian convictions by simply insisting that Jesus never ate meat, reinterpreting the Scripture passages that imply He did. This is not a new approach, as one translation known as the Gospel of the Nazarenes reports that Jesus fed the multitudes with loaves of bread and clusters of grapes—not fish (The Gospel of the Holy Twelve, Lection XXIX, 1–8). That Jesus was among the Nazarenes, a sect that followed a vegetarian diet and rejected animal sacrifices, is also mentioned in the podcast.
However, Matthew 2:23 indicates that Jesus’s Nazarene title is a pun that is derived from the prophesy given in Isaiah 11:1. Jesus is to be called the “Branch”—regarding the benevolent, flourishing rule of the Messiah. Can we accept that Jesus was not a health-reforming vegan and yet still protest today’s exploitation of God’s creatures? I think so.
Jesus sought to reform religion by addressing the greed, power, and control driving its mistreatment of both humans and animals. Jesus loved the Temple and wanted it to become a house of prayer for all. Viewing Jesus’s table-turning actions in the Temple through the lens of animal compassion, we see Jesus halting an empty sacrificial system and bringing an end to sacrifices by His death. The one who noticed the sparrow falling targeted those involved in the system of animal exploitation.
What I found provoking in the podcast was its exploration of the connection between religion and the treatment of animals. In this regard, I think Andersen was spot-on. Many Christians claim they have the liberty to eat whatever they desire and feel that they can aggressively dominate the earth’s resources based on a deep-seated misunderstanding of the command to dominate in Genesis 1:26–28. I find that Christians tend to dismiss these health-conscious and ethical concerns so that they can continue to exploit there earth and gorge themselves on animals. Having this discussion with churches would be fascinating. How can we find topics of common ground or interest among millennials and tree-hugging atheists today? How might Christians answer such thought-provoking questions more effectively? I have found that my vegetarianism has convinced others to find God, people who would never think of attending church.
Also raised by Anderson was the question “What would Jesus do?” What does it mean to follow Jesus’s example in today’s world of animal suffering? Might choosing not to eat meat be a valid way to follow the example of Jesus? If not, how would Jesus kill an animal?
In a small story tucked away in 1 Kings, God provides Elijah bread instead of meat before sending him on a pilgrimage to receive divine help in a sacred cave where the mercy and compassion of God were revealed to Moses (1 Kings 19:5–9; Exodus 34:6). Might this story suggest that we should allow the ethics of God’s mercy and compassion to inform our dietary choices? Our eating should be act of worship to the loving Creator.
In the end, I don’t think it matters whether Jesus ate fish or a piece of lamb at Passover. Instead, it matters how He wants us to choose to eat today in light of animal suffering. Following the compassion of Jesus will always look like justice and restoration. Bringing us into the heart of God’s mercy and compassion, Jesus has shown us what He would do. While I do not believe Jesus was a vegetarian while here on earth, might we consider Him one now? To follow the ethics of Jesus is to live in the spirit of mercy and compassion with a view toward God’s future benevolent kingdom, when God’s ideal will be achieved on the earth. Indeed the Branch of Isaiah 11:1 will someday bring a lush world filled with greenery and fruit like the Garden of Eden, a perfect age of complete beauty, compassion and grace.
Whatever you eat and whatever you think about this topic, your thoughts are welcome.
Craig Ashton Jr.
Theological InTents 
One Response to “How Would Jesus Kill an Animal?”
I was just feeding mom and fell sound asleep. I just woke up that’s really something.
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