Encountering Jesus at the Table

Let Us Pray

Our dear heavenly Father, thank you for giving us ears to hear your Holy Word.  We pray for the illumination of the Holy Spirit to make these ancient words of Scripture relevant and near to each of us this day.  Shine your Holy light in our hearts so we may share it with others. In Jesus’s name we pray, Amen.

There are many, many stories in the Gospels that feature Jesus at the table with others. I personally love this because it shows us that Jesus was a human being just like us, and he needed to eat, but it also shows how he gathered in community in one way or another—and you can bet that no one was unchanged after Jesus attended one of their meals.

Jesus dined at tables with friends, enemies, the curious, the critical, and the devoted.

In Jesus’s own words from the Gospel of John 6:35: “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

This is the ultimate banquet or dinner party of life.

Feasting in different cultures looks different, but because food is essential for life, Jesus’s words here are significant for all people.

From the gospel of Matthew 9:9-13

The Call of Matthew

⁹ As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax-collection station, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him. ¹⁰ And as Jesus sat at dinner^[a] in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting^[b] with Jesus and his disciples. ¹¹ When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” ¹² But when Jesus heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. ¹³ Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous but sinners.”

This passage is, first of all, a retelling of the call story of Matthew as one of Jesus’s disciples, plus the story of a dinner party hosted by Matthew that Jesus attends with other “undesirable” guests.

Of all the criticisms of Jesus that are recorded in the Gospels, “he eats with tax collectors and sinners” and “healing on the Sabbath” were the two most prominent.

Here are three things that I want to call out:

First, this passage is a story of calling—specifically, Matthew’s call. Matthew is the only other call story recorded in the Gospels besides Peter, Andrew, James, and John’s. And what is Matthew’s response? Matthew got up and followed Jesus without hesitation. Matthew went on later to meticulously record Jesus’s life and work in his Gospel so that future generations would have that record. Matthew’s Gospel was also written with the most Old Testament references so that the people of that time would understand that Jesus is who he said he was—God’s Messiah.

Second, this is a story of healing and invitation—a story about a sinful, exploitative tax collector named Matthew who turns away from his old life to be called into Jesus’s inner circle. It is a story of healing and transformation, juxtaposed among the many healings that Matthew’s Gospel records.

Third, this is a story about mercy and inclusion. Jesus calls us to give up the illusion of superficiality—appearances, rituals, and reputations. He calls us instead to sincerity, mercy, healing, and love, which, as we know, are the values so prominent in Jesus’s ministry because they are who Jesus is.

So, who belongs and who doesn’t? Who is welcomed, and who is held at arm’s length? How wide are the boundaries of our communities, our churches, our nation?

These are old questions that humanity has struggled with over the centuries.

But we know, looking back at what Jesus accomplished for us in his life, death, and resurrection, that welcome wins. That is the brilliant good news of the Gospel—that inclusion wins, and God’s mercy is so wide that it is extended to everyone, not just certain people. It is even extended to those on the margins of our society.

Sharing a meal with others impacts those at the table. Hospitality can be transformative on a very basic level, and remembering that Jesus is always present with us at our tables may help us to think about our gatherings in a new and different way.