You're Welcome at the Table

Read, watch, or listen and join the conversation below.

Have you ever wondered why the setting of so many of the gospel stories is around the eating of a meal? Just a quick glance through the gospel of Luke alone, makes the point. Jesus eats with tax collectors and others at the home of Levi (otherwise known as Matthew, one of his first disciples) in Luke 5, he eats at the homes of Pharisees in Luke 7, 11, and 14, he provides a meal for five thousand in Luke 9, he is invited to a meal at the home of Mary and Martha in Luke 10, he eats with tax collectors and sinners in Luke 15 and with Zacchaeus, a chief tax collector, and others in Luke 19, he tells parables about feasts and banquets in Luke 12, 13, 14, and 15, he eats his most symbolic meal with his disciples on the evening before his death in Luke 22 (which we are remembering tonight, by the way), and he is recognized after his resurrection during a meal in Luke 24. If we looked at the other three gospel accounts as well, we could add even more examples. Jesus clearly attached great meaning to table fellowship. But why? What was it about sharing a meal together at the table that demonstrated such a powerful message for Jesus and yet angered so many of the religious leaders?

To answer that question, we need to look back at the culture and context of the ancient near east and the ancient Hebrews specifically. First of all, in the ancient near east, hospitality was an almost universal value. The offering and sharing of a meal could affirm kinship, friendship, and goodwill. It could acknowledge status, confer honor, seal a contract, or signify peace between parties. In the ancient Hebrew culture, offering hospitality to a stranger was considered an act of righteousness and was actually commanded in Mosaic Law, while, as we’ll see in the coming weeks, breaches of hospitality were viewed as offences against God that could incur his wrath.

While the wider cultural value of offering hospitality was common in ancient civilizations, table fellowship—sharing a meal together—meant something even deeper in the Hebrew culture, it meant establishing a relationship.

Theologian Joachim Jeremias explains it this way, “in Judaism in particular, table-fellowship means fellowship before God, for the eating of a piece of broken bread by everyone who shares in the meal brings out the fact that they all share in the blessing which the master of the house has spoken over the unbroken bread.” Table fellowship created a bond, a mutual acceptance between the guest and the host, a covenantal relationship if you will, a mutual sharing of the blessing of God.

The great Hebrew prophets picked up this theme as they foresaw the anticipated “age to come”—the time when God would act to deliver his people, put all things right, bring his kingdom, and come to dwell with them again. They envisioned that day as a grand banquet. The Prophet Isaiah said, “On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine—the best of meats and the finest of wines. On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; he will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth. The Lord has spoken” (Isaiah 25:6-8 NIV).

Table fellowship was so fundamental to the Hebrew culture, it was the primary means by which the nation Israel was commanded to remember and worship God. The 7th day and 7th year Sabbath celebrations, the Passover celebration, and all the other Jewish feast days commanded in the Mosaic Law, were all centered around a meal.

We pick up this theme in Christianity as well, in the sacrament of Communion. As New Testament scholar N.T. Wright wrote, “It’s worth noting that at the center of the spiritual lives of God’s people in both the Old and New Testaments, we find a table: the table of Passover and the table of Communion”. And he said, “When Jesus himself wanted to explain to his disciples what his forthcoming death was all about, he didn’t give them a theory, he gave them a meal”.

Table fellowship was profoundly meaningful in the Jewish culture. But, because sharing a meal around the table signified fellowship and acceptance, not only between the host and the guest, but also between those who would partake and God himself, the meal also delineated clear social boundaries as well. Who one ate with at the table and who one excluded, served to mark out who was included and accepted in the community of God’s people and who was not.

So how were these boundaries created? Well, for the ancient Hebrews, it seems like the boundaries were centered around a few main themes; the patriarchal power structure of the day; the covenant God made with Abraham and his descendants, who later became the nation Israel; the concept of “purity” as defined by the Mosaic Law; and how the honor/shame culture of the ancient near east effected all these themes. By the time Jesus arrived on the scene in the first century, these themes in combination had created well-established boundaries that had become a part of the political-religious system of the day.

Patriarchy was common in many ancient cultures in the near east and the ancient Hebrew culture was no exception. A patriarchal system is any familial or societal system, institution, or government where men are dominant and hold the preponderance of power, authority, and privilege over women. The patriarchal power systems in ancient times created firm hierarchical gender boundaries. With a few notable exceptions in the Old Testament Scriptures, women were generally viewed as less valuable, inferior, weak-willed, emotionally and psychologically compromised, a potential risk for contamination and ritual impurity, and subordinate to men in every way. Just take a quick stroll through Leviticus and Deuteronomy and you’ll see what I mean.

Although the Mosaic Law was seen as a step forward in the treatment of women compared to neighboring cultures, in many cases women were still viewed as a man’s property. They could not bear witness, they had few legal rights of their own, and generally, they could not own property or inherit assets unless there were no male heirs in the family. Marriages were arranged by the father for a price (the woman’s consent wasn’t necessary), and although husbands could divorce their wives and send them away for any reason, leaving them vulnerable to abuse and economic hardship, wives were not able to divorce without the husband’s consent. Wives could gain value by bearing and rearing children, especially sons, but being childless was the source of great shame. Women were not allowed to study Torah or serve in the Temple, and they were required to worship in a separate, outer court, away from the men. In patriarchal cultures, men were to be dominant, never passive, and they were to maintain control at all times. Women on the other hand, were to be passive, never dominant, and they were to be submissive and subordinate to men in all areas. In patriarchal cultures, breaking these established hierarchical gender norms brought shame, condemnation, and even death.

Another boundary marker for the ancient Hebrews was nationalistic and based on family lineage. The covenant God made with Abraham and his descendants, marked by the sign of circumcision, was a defining indicator of who was a part of God’s chosen people. One was either a Hebrew—a member of Abraham’s family line, a descendant of one of the twelve tribes—or they were considered a non-Israelite—a Gentile. A stranger, a native, or a foreigner might be assimilated into the community through circumcision and adherence to the Law, but they were considered “proselytes”, not true Israelites. Eating with Gentiles who were not circumcised and did not adhere to the Law was strictly forbidden, as Gentiles were thought of as “impure” and “unclean”.

This idea of purity, the concept of things, food, people, or actions being “clean” and “unclean” was the driving force in the Mosaic Law. We see this in the words God spoke to Moses before the giving of the Law in Exodus 19: “Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine;and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel” (Exodus 19:5-6 NASB).

A main purpose of the Law then, had to do with “holiness”—setting the nation Israel, the covenant people—apart from their pagan neighbors. The Hebrew word for “holy” is “qadosh”. It means “separate or set apart; dedicated, devoted, or consecrated to God”. Purity was what was needed to approach a holy God and to become a “holy nation”. And impurity was not only thought of as a personal issue, it was also a corporate issue as well. One person’s impurity that was not addressed, was thought to put the entire community in danger of contamination or divine retribution.

The purity regulations in the Law marked out what was deemed clean and unclean in a number of areas. Rabbis and biblical scholars debate the reasoning behind many of them, but there are some theories that seem to make sense. For instance, it seems clear that anything associated with the Israelites’ Gentile neighbors was designated as unclean. The food they sacrificed to idols, their ritual sexual practices like temple prostitution, and their idolatrous worship practices, were all deemed impure and unclean, hence, contact with the practices or the people, could make one unclean as well and therefore, was forbidden.

Some biblical scholars believe the book of Genesis also gives us a clue as to why certain things were designated clean and unclean. Genesis 1 and 2 shows us that order—having things in their proper place, unmixed, and functioning in what was considered a normal, purposeful way—was a defining theme in the creation story, as was the claim that the Hebrew God, Yahweh, was the one and only Creator who brought all that ordered creation out of chaos. So, it makes sense that things that seem out of place, things that are disordered, that are not functioning in the normal way, or that are mixed or outside of their traditional categories, might be thought of as impure or unclean. In fact, the Hebrew word, “kashrut” which is the body of Jewish law dealing with what foods can or cannot be eaten, means “fit, proper, or correct”. It delineates what is “kosher” for the Jewish people. So, for example, animals with fins and scales, (what is proper for water animals), were designated as clean, while crustaceans (which have legs and walk underwater), and amphibians (which live on land and in the water) are called unclean. Crustaceans and amphibians were out of order, they were out of place in that they break the categories that were considered normal. A look through Leviticus provides even more examples of clean animals that fit into categories, and unclean animals that don’t, as well as prohibitions against mixing fabrics or seeds in the field.

This theory can be expanded further to include people as well. People who broke the normal categories or whose physical or mental conditions were out of the norm, were seen as impure, and unclean. The blind, the deaf, the lame, and others who were differently abled were a minority, not the norm, and they were viewed in much the same way as the sacrificial animals, anyone or anything that were thought to have “defects” was considered disordered, not whole—and therefore, unacceptable to God. Those with skin diseases or discharges of bodily fluids including semen (which was associated with procreation and new life and not to be wasted outside the body), and blood (which represented life and was considered sacred to God), were a source of contamination and ritual impurity if not treated in the proper way. And those who were in the sexual minority such as eunuchs, and others who were outside of hierarchical gender role categories were out of place, they broke gender boundaries. All these people could not worship in the Temple, but were confined to the outer courts, and unless they could undergo the ritual purification processes and be pronounced clean by a priest, they were considered outcasts from the community.

Jesus turned all of these traditional boundaries upside down. In addition to overturning the ritual food laws, he acknowledged sexual minorities, and broke the patriarchal gender boundaries of the time by elevating women, inviting them to be disciples, encouraging them to learn alongside the men, and even calling them to be the first evangelists and witnesses. Jesus broke down nationalistic boundaries and welcomed people of all nations. He redefined power as loving and serving others, and he redefined purity and holiness as heart issues having to do with how one sees and loves and values people. Not external, legalistic holiness; not purity defined by the Mosaic Law; but holiness and purity defined by the greatest commandments, to love and trust the God he reveals to us, and to love and value all people. Jesus burst the categories, broke down all boundaries, and invited everyone to his table.

His table, not ours. We’re the invited guests. We don’t get to make the guestlist, we don’t get to decide who can come. I’m reminded of this, every time I think about that symbolic meal, we read about in Luke 22. Jesus was eating his last meal before his death, around a table with his disciples—the Last Supper, as we Christians call it. But just think about that meal. It began with one of the most boundary-breaking actions of all time, Jesus, the Messiah, God with us, took on the role of a servant and washed the feet of his disciples. All of his disciples, including his betrayer.

And then came the meal. Tax collectors, sinners, zealots, women, fishermen, some who would betray him, some who would deny him, some who would desert him, all at the table, all invited to remember him and what he was about to do—lay down his life for his friends in the ultimate act of self-sacrificial love. All at the table were invited to be a part of his new covenant family—God’s new creation kingdom—his new way of being human that would change the world. And at this meal, he gave one final command to his disciples: “I am giving you a new commandment,that you love one another; just as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this allpeople will know that you are My disciples: if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35 NASB).

Jesus says the old legalistic boundaries of nation and tribe, of patriarchal gender roles, of ritual purity and holiness codes, are not what sets God’s people apart. He says his followers will be known by their love. And not just any love, not our own version of love. Just as we don’t get to decide who is welcome at Jesus’ table, we don’t get to define what love looks like either. Jesus said, “As I have loved you…”. As Christians, that statement should always give us pause. As he has loved us…no strings, no limits, no conditions, no boundaries. Everyone is loved, and everyone who wants to come is welcome at his table.