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While He was eating With Them (Acts 1:4 - NIV)
Eating is more than just taking physical nourishment
it is one of our most important customs. At a meal we get to know each
other better. Meals can help mend fences, build bridges, forge friendships
and today some sociologists tell us that strong families are those that
regularly sit down to a meal together.
When, in Genesis 18, Abraham was visited by three mysterious men in he
said:
If I have found favour in your sight, my lord,
do not pass your servant by. Let a little water be brought, and then you
may all wash your feet and rest under this tree. Let me get you something
to eat, so you can be refreshed and then go on your way - now that you
have come to your servant (Gen.18:3-5)
In the Near and Middle-East hospitality is important to this day.
When the victorious David sought any that remained of the house of Saul
he was told of Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, who was crippled in
both feet. David sent for a fearful Mephibosheth, and reassured him:
Don't be afraid…for I will surely show
you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan. I will restore to you
all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will always
eat at my table…And Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, because he always
ate at the kings table… (2 Samuel 9)
How important that meal was for Mephibosheth.
In The Merchant of Venice, Shylock the Jew is invited to a meal
with a fellow businessman and his archenemy, Antonio, a man he despises.
Shylock replies:
I will buy with you, sell with you, talk with
you, walk with you, and so following; but I will not eat with you, drink
with you, nor pray with you.
Eating can be a powerful symbol of relationships and so the fact of Jesus'
eating with his disciples is incredibly significant. When Jesus began
his ministry he identified with sinners in baptism (Mark 1:9). In Luke's
gospel we read:
Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at
his house, and large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with
them. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their
sect complained to his disciples, "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors
and sinners?" Jesus answered them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor,
but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."
(Luke 5:29-31)
At the end, and climax, of his ministry Jesus again identified with sinners
as he hung between two thieves. This in fulfilment of a remarkable prophecy
from Isaiah:
…he poured out his life unto death, and
was numbered with the transgressors (Isaiah 53:12)
And in our text we see the risen Lord eating with his disciples. This
is not Jesus at the seashore eating a piece of fish to prove he is physically
resurrected (Luke 24:40-43), this a social occasion - a meal. The risen
Lord eating in intimate association with those who believe in him, a friend
of sinners eating with his friends.
What a wonderful thought to take into the week, that our friend Jesus
wishes to not just walk with us and talk with us but sit with us and eat
with us and has invited us to, one day, sit at a great heavenly banquet
prepared for who love him. (Matthew 22:1-14)