Feast: A Theology of the Table

One of the key components of Jesus’ ministry is sharing meals with people. In Luke’s gospel, Jesus is either having a meal with people, on his way to a meal with people, or coming from a meal with people. There are three ways that the New Testament completes the sentence, “The Son of Man came…” “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to do give His life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45); “The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10); “The Son of Man came eating and drinking...” (Luke 7:34). The first two are statements of purpose and the third is a statement of method. Feasting at the table seems to be the method by which Jesus fulfills his mission to seek and save the lost. He ate and drank. He invited people to the table. He did life with people around the table. In the final hours of His earthly ministry with His disciples, Jesus shares a meal with them and extends that table to us with the Sacrament of Holy Communion. In Acts 2, feasting together was a catalyst of the grace and power of God in the early church. “Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved” (Acts 2:46-47). What if we begin to see eating meals together as sacred business? What if we begin to see gathering at the table as a spiritual act that has the power to connect us to God and each other? Join us for this series as we taste and see that the Lord is good and discover how we might use the meals that we eat and the tables we gather around to connect to God and others and grow in faith as we do life together.