The Proof is [not] in the Pudding

“The proof is in the pudding!” That is how the old saying goes, but what does this even mean? Back in 2012 on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition one of the hosts used this phrase, which caused some consternation to at least one listener. Tim Lowe from Santiago de Cali, Colombia addressed the N.P.R. staff, “The proof is notin the pudding. It would be a messy, if not completely silly place to keep it.” It sounds to me as though Lowe is referring to proof here as “the minimum alcoholic strength of proof spirit.” So if the proof is not in the pudding where is it?

Originally this phrase was not about where one would keep their booze, but rather where the compelling evidence for something’s efficacy was to be found! After the N.P.R. staff contacted Ben Zimmer who was the language columnist at the Boston Globe they found that the original saying had been mixed up, like so many others sayings evolve over time. In its earliest days the idiom went: “The proof of the pudding is in the eating.” That does not roll off the tongue quite as nicely, but it certainly makes more sense, especially when we think about pudding not as a tasty dessert, but rather a sausage dish that was common in England when the saying originated. For one’s health getting the proof of whether the sausage was edible (preferable by someone else) rather than just looking at the pudding itself would have been helpful, if not life-saving. For Jesus though the proof is not just in the pudding, but in the eating or maybe better put the healing, the cleansing, and the resurrecting.

When John the Baptist from prison sent his messengers to check if Jesus was indeed the Messiah the response the forerunner gets is not so much in the pudding, but in “the blind receiv[ing] their sight, the lame walk[ing], the lepers [being] cleansed, the deaf hear[ing], the dead [being] raised, and the poor [having] good news brought to them” (11:5). Jesus in this moment points not to the pudding itself, but to the response to the pudding, the proverbial eating. We might say, if we are going to beat this analogy about pudding to death, that Jesus is the pudding (or, put more endearingly Jesus is puddin’), and these powerful acts are the eating. However, more than simply a funny way of looking at this passage for our Third Sunday of Advent, we would do well to hear what Jesus truly said to John’s disciples and to see how the world of Galilee responded to Jesus.

John the Baptist had spent his entire life preparing the way for the Messiah. He had staked his entire existence on this belief that he was indeed making straight the course for the one who would come after him to save all of Creation and put things right. As John heard this very story he sat rotting in a jail, and it would not be long before he was beheaded to keep Herod’s reputation intact. John did not need to hear empty words, he was far more invested in the Messiah’s coming than that. The messenger of the Messiah needed proof! The evidence for Jesus' Messiahship could be seen all around him, not just in the words he spoke or the ideas he brought forth, but more profoundly in the way that the world responded to Jesus’ presence. When the blind came they saw, the lame to walk, the lepers were cleansed, the deaf heard, the dead lived again, and the poor received good news! 

If we are to get into the pudding making business with Jesus we must not solely focus on the results, but we also cannot ignore them by only speaking empty words either. Sometimes we might be afraid to try something new, as we are worried the pudding might taste bad. That is precisely why we need to try new things in the Church though, so that we can learn from our failures by tasting new recipes to see if it truly is good and worth making again. Jesus’ ministry spoke for itself and as important as our words may be our ministry with the Living Christ now can also speak for itself. We must be willing in this Advent season and beyond to make some pudding and not to be enamored with how it looks, but to taste and see the results. I believe that if we truly trust in God we will taste and see that the Lord is good and still working in us to feed us with a very tasty pudding!