by LA
Revelation 21:10-22; 22:1-5
There I was at the Commissary window, a friend of mine, an inmate worker who is himself a self-proclaimed Christian was there helping the cashier by bringing everything I had ordered to the register to be rung up. I noticed that instead of my usual order of 24 spicy vegetable ramen noodles he had brought me 24 of the new Cajun shrimp. A substitution that he made of his own initiative. I politely objected to this change in my order. I asked my friend to please replace these shrimp ramen with any other flavor. I did this because I observe the dietary laws of Scripture. My friend does not.
He thought that this would make a fine opportunity to publicly berate me. He started on me with “what’s the matter with the shrimp?” When I reminded him of my beliefs, he said, “Don’t be ridiculous. That’s just for Jews. Christians aren’t Jews. We’re Gentiles.”
I sighed. I encounter these sorts of attacks from my Christian brothers fairly regularly. So, I was not at all surprised at this, nor was I unprepared to respond. It just gets tiresome sometimes. I would have told him any other reason: I’m allergic to shellfish, this kind is less healthy, or I just plan don’t like the taste. I wouldn’t have gotten any flack, but because I choose to obey the commands of Yahweh, not out of any justification but out of love, I am under constant assault form fellow believers.
After my sigh, I responded to my friend, “once we are believers in Messiah, we are no longer Gentiles but grafted into Israel. Just read Revelation 21 and see that there are no Gentile Gates in New Jerusalem.”He then responds with the classic, “Let no man judge you according to meats.”I then simply asked, “Then why are you judging me according to meats?” He hastily left, when he returned he had brought 24 beef flavor ramen, but he dared not continue our discourse any further.
Prison Lectionary 