Hunger Makes a
Good Cook

The Gospel tastes best to those who lie in the straits of death or whom an evil conscience oppresses; for in that case "hunger is a good cook," as we say, on who makes the food taste good.

For when they feel their misery, the heart and conscience can hear nothing more soothing than the Gospel; for this they long, on this they are eager to feed, nor can they get too much of it. So Mary speaks in the Magnifcat: "He hath filled the hungry with good things" (Lk. 1:53).

But that hardened class who live in their own holiness, build on their own works, and feel not their sin and misery do not taste this food. Whoever sits at a table and is hungry relishes all; however, he who is sated relishes nothing but is filled with loathing at the most excellent food.

Source: Quoted in Ewald M. Plass, What Luther Says, A Practical In-home Theology for the Active Christian. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House. 1959 Edition, 10th Printing (1994), p. 563.