Dining with Jesus

I just finished eating dinner with my husband where we not only devoured fried chicken and Tinola but we also talked about how our day went, challenges, blessings we received and the latest Music video of Jason, Moira's husband and our opinion about restoring their marriage.

I suddenly thought of what conversations Jesus had when He dined with His disciples and other people in the Bible and so I curiously gone over the verses where He reclined at the table as He visited their houses and ate with them.

The first one I saw was when He invited Himself to Zacchaeus' house.

When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. -Luke 19:5-6

Who was Zacchaeus? He was a despised chief tax collector that the people cringed upon knowing Jesus' visit to his house. But what happened after their intimate meal?

"But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”-Luke 19:8

He had a heart surgery and became a brand new creation together with his entire household.

Dining with Jesus resulted to a drastic change on the trajectory of a once lost soul.

When was the last time you invited lost souls to dine with you and how did it impact them after?

"Our life at the table, no matter how mundane, is sacramental- a means though which we encounter the mystery of God."- Tim Chester

Amazingly, Jesus dined at the table of another tax collector.

As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth.“Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”-Matthew 9:9-13.

Matthew also decided to leave everything to follow Jesus although the Pharisees strongly opposed their dinner, in the same event, Jesus gave a very clever analogy on verse 12-13 "On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

When we dine with others, do they meet people who are full of mercy or people whose hands are busy working yet with hearts full of judgment like the Pharisees?

Jesus demonstrated generosity on another food gathering when He fed the 5000 (only men were counted) out of limited resources. He welcomed strangers in a remote place, healing and teaching them and when evening came, instead of dismissing them, He miraculously multiplied the 5 loaves and 2 fish to have enough food for the crowd with even 12 basketful leftovers.

During this festivity, Jesus showed His compassion and displayed His immeasurable power.

How about us? Do we show generosity especially to those who don't have capability to reciprocate it? Do we let people experience miracle whenever we share meals with them?

Another meal Jesus shared with His disciples happened a day before His crucifixion on the upper room in Jerusalem found on all 4 Gospels. During the Last Supper, He washed their feet, including the one who would later betray Him with 30 silver coins, Judas.

He showed them humbleness and commanded them to love and serve one another.

At the same feast, Jesus instituted the Lord's supper.

While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.”

Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. -Matthew 26:26-28.

"When God invites us to His table, He is not just calling us to simply eat, but to enter into a relationship." - Rob Douglas

The last meal I want to share was the meal Jesus had and also the third time He showed Himself after He resurrected.

And He said to them, “Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.”

When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. But while they still did not believe for joy, and marveled, He said to them, “Have you any food here?” So they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish and some honeycomb. And He took it and ate in their presence. -Luke 24:38-43

He dined with them to let them know that He is alive and that they had nothing to be afraid of. This meal was to assure them that they could come close to love Him, have fellowship with Him and to worship Him.

Do we dine with people to enter their world of fear and doubt and they'd leave with an assurance of a confident access to love, trust and fellowship with Jesus?

In application,

1. Make sure that whenever we dine with people, believers and unbelievers alike, we should nourish them with God's mercy and grace. As we recline at the table, let's aim to build authentic relationship just like what Jesus did with His disciples.

2. Value your family meals. Make memories and champion meaningful conversations with your children while eating. Feed their soul.

3. Open your home to people no matter how big or small it is. It's not the spaciousness of your house and the grandiosity of the meal you can prepare but the conversations you'll initiate and the love you would spend with people that would matter.

4. Learn to walk away from tables, meals and conversations that won't bring you closer to God.

Remember this;

"You may be the only "Jesus" people will ever meet and ever dined with. Make sure it counts. "