Skip to main content

More than meals

A List of some of the Table-Fellowship Incidents in Jesus’ Ministry

Category A – Jesus uses meals to reconfigure kinship relations
Category B – Jesus disregards a person’s status during a meal
Category C – Jesus disregards purity rituals involved in meals

INCIDENT                                                  CAT.              MATTHEW          MARK          LUKE          JOHN
Woman at the Well                                  A                     -                            -                      -              4:5-9,31-34
Banquet at Levi’s House                          A                     9:10-17           2:15-22          5:29-39                -
Picking Grain on the Sabbath                 C                     12:1-8              2:23-28          6:1-5                    -
Sinful Woman at Simon’s                        B                     -                        -                      7:36-50                -
Too Busy To Eat; Family Comes             A                     -                        3:20-21             -                          -
Feeding the 5,000                                    A                    14:15-21           6:35-44           9:12-17      6:4-13
Eating with Unwashed Hands               C                     15:1-20             7:1-23              -                          -
Syro-Phoenician Woman                       A                     15:21-28           7:24-30            -                         -
Feeding the 4,000                                   A                     15:32-38            8:1-9a             -                          -
Mary & Martha                                       B                     -                                -                  10:38-40            -
Prominent Pharisee/Dropsy                 B                     -                                -                  14:1-14              -
He Eats with Sinners                              A                     -                                -                  15:1-2                 -
Zacchaeus                                                A                     -                                -                  19:1-10                -

When we eat at a local restaurant we are typically not concerned about where we are seated. Restaurants often have a mix of races, social-economic groups and political ideologies all seated near one another. There is no separation for these classifications. Further we would find it odd if someone suggested that by eating near other people of a different ethnicity or political ideology was some how a negative reflection on our values or family traditions. In Jesus day who you ate with was a BIG deal. In Jesus day the food you ate and who you ate it with defined who you were, what you valued and who you consider family. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John tell us about some of the meals Jesus had with other people. By telling us these stories about Jesus the Gospel writers are doing more then simply telling us cute little stories. They are attempting to communicate to us that this is what it looks like when the Kingdom of God arrives on earth and the kind of life disciples are to embody.
The Gospel writers are telling us that Jesus used meals as a means of disrupting social values and overturning normal standards of behavior and honor. Jesus used meals to reconfigure who he considered his true kin. Rather than capitulating to his family’s request to see him, he created a fictive family around the table based on one’s devotion to hearing and obeying God’s word. This was never clearer than at the Last Supper.“Jesus’ open table fellowship was a strategy used to challenge social and religious exclusivism wherever it was accepted as normal or officially sanctioned” (Neyrey,361-387). Because he ate with all class of “sinners” he offended the sensibilities of the religious elite. Jesus refused to perpetuate religious traditions about washing, fasting, and Sabbath regulations. This was more than a faux pas. This was an assault on a religious system that prioritized rules above people. Finally, when invited by prominent teachers, Jesus often offended both the host and the guests by pointing out their misguided priorities. Moreover, he often honored some sinner who happened on the scene. He turned the tables of social rank upside down at these banquets. Use the resources below for further study and reflection.
J. H. Neyrey, “Ceremonies in Luke-Acts: The Case of Meals and Table-Fellowship,” in The Social World of Luke-Acts: Models for Interpretation, ed. J. H. Neyrey (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1991) 361-87.
J. H. Neyrey, “Reader’s Guide to Meals, Food and Table Fellowship in the N.T. http://www.nd.edu/~jneyrey1/meals.html. (November 29, 2001).
Hicks, John Mark. Come to the Table: Revisioning the Lord's Supper. Abilene TX: Leafwood Publishers, 2008.
Book Suggestion: Eats with Sinners: Reaching Hungry People Like Jesus Did by Arron Chambers
So who are you eating with? Eats with Sinners introduces a biblical model for building relationships like Jesus did, one meal (or cup of coffee) at a time.
• Each of the13 chapters concludes with a "Meal Plan," which contains questions and directives designed to give individual readers or small group members the opportunity for personal reflection and practical application of the principles outlined in each chapter.
• Fun sidebars scattered throughout the book feature recipes, meal traditions in Jesus' day, and case studies.







Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thoughts on The Widening of God's Mercy by Hays and Hays

When I heard about the book by Hays and Hays titled The Widening of God Mercy I was intrigued. I had read Richard Hays' book The Moral Vision of the New Testament in seminary, especially the chapter on homosexuality. I ended up adopting much, if not all, of Hays' position on homosexuality and often used his reasoning while serving as a church minister.  I have read other things that Richard Hays has written such as Reading Backwards: Figural Christology and the Fourfold Gospel Witness and found it beneficial to my understanding of Jesus and what it means to be a follower of Jesus. When it was suggested that Richard Hays might have changed his mind about what he wrote in  The Moral Vision of the New Testament  on homosexuality, I wanted to find out for myself.  My Context I spent over ten years doing youth ministry in the local church. I now know many adults who used to be teenagers in my youth group. Some of those adults are gay or lesbian. That means unbeknownst ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Worshiping the Executioner part 2 (Suffering and Faith)

The medical staff quietly and somberly removed all the medical lines and devices from the 48-hour-old baby. The baby's mother and father wanted to hold their child for the first time. Removing all the medical devices meant that their child would live only a few moments. Holding your child for the first time should be a joyful occasion. Instead of this moment being a kind of introduction between parent and child it was a goodbye. The baby's body was simply not set up to survive and thrive.  After removing all the medical equipment the little one was wrapped in a blanket and gently handed into the arms of the mother. The room went silent as the mother softly repeated "Mommy and Daddy love you" while she wept. The baby's father wept and kissed his newborn on the forehead. Other family members in the room started to cry as well. Once the little one had passed the family gathered together to pray. After composing himself, one of the older men in the family offered a pr...
Post a Comment
Read more

Worshiping the executioner part 1 (Suffering and Faith)

The brother kept yelling "I did this" as I opened the door to one of the hospital family consultation rooms. Maybe you have sat in a room like this and received some not-so-good news. Rooms such as these tend to be basic. A few not-so-comfy chairs, a drab paint job, and odd abstract artwork on the walls.  I had asked the family members, who had been seated in the ER waiting area, to follow me to the family room. I told them that the doctor wanted to give them an update on how their loved one was doing. The family gathered up their belongings and nervously began to follow me. The family consisted of two adults, a baby, and two girls. One of the girls was the daughter of the patient that the doctor needed to give an update on.  She was a cute little girl. Probably about four or five years old. She had messy wavy short blond hair and green eyes. She was wearing a pale pink shirt with little white flower prints and a matching pair of pants. She had a pair of Crocs-style pink shoe...
Post a Comment
Read more