Lunch is Served

There is a Chick-fil-A near where I work.  I don’t know how much chicken they sell on a week-end, but during lunch hour on a week-day they sell a boat load. I have never seen a fast food restaurant run more efficiently.

I went there for lunch on Friday.  After enjoying a delicious “number 4,”  I sat and watched the drive-thru line for a few minutes.  It was amazing.  They have two lines going at once for the order taking.  The lines merge into one to meet the guy at the window.  He’s hanging out the window when you get there, with his hand stuck out waiting to be paid.   The food is bagged and ready.   I sat and counted 10 cars going through the drive-thru in 3 minutes.   That’s 18 seconds per order.  Ordered, cooked, bagged, paid, and delivered in 18 seconds.  And the order process inside the store is just as fast.

On any given week-day you can find cars lined up into the street around this Chick-fil-A, despite the fact that they have TWO order lines.   People wait in the long lines because Chick-fil-A sells a good product and because even though the line is long, the wait isn’t.  It’s inspiring to me to see how successful this business is.  They sell more food than anybody else around, and they do it in six days instead of seven. 

I once had an atheist friend tell me that maybe Truett Cathy (the owner of Chick-fil-A) could sell even MORE chicken if he stayed open on Sunday.  I told him I didn’t think so.  Besides, isn’t that what everybody else is doing?  Truett Cathy’s message is clear:  Honor God and keep him first.  Because everybody knows he is closed on Sunday, every chicken sandwich comes with that message.

Jesus fed 5,000 people with a little boy’s lunch, but just like Truett Cathy, he had a message.  The people had a hungry belly, and Jesus didn’t want that need to get in the way of his message, so he fed them, and in doing so, sent a message about his care and provision.  Here’s the point of this lunch time story:  I think too often we get caught up in the “how Jesus did it” and miss the point of the “what Jesus did.” 

In the gospel of John we hear Jesus say “Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake.”  I always thought of that as ” . . . believe me because of the miracles you’ve seen me do . . .”  But this week as I read it, it struck me differently.  What if Jesus was talking about work in the sense of “things accomplished?”  When I read the 14th chapter of John that way, it comes alive with new meaning.  Jesus “accomplishes” the things the Father wants him to do, and we should believe him for the sake of the things that yet need to be accomplished.  Now I can ask the Father for things in Jesus’ name  (i.e. for Jesus sake) in order to bring about those works (accomplishments) that are the will of the Father.  And Jesus says we will do even greater works than he did because he was not talking about the “how” but the “what.” 

Jesus fed 5,000 people and in the process preached the message of the kingdom to them.  Mr. Cathy has fed millions, all the while sending the simple Kingdom message: “Keep God first.”  I believe they both accomplished the work of the Father.  Jesus did it with a miracle.  Mr Truett Cathy does it with good food, a fast drive-thu and a simple sign, “Closed on Sunday.”

Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.  And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.
       – John 14:10-14