Community is a vital part of the Christian life, and meals play a significant role in fostering community. Jesus’ willingness to eat with tax collectors, sinners, and outsiders reflects God’s grace and sets an example for us to follow. Meals are an expression of community, and they embody respectability and inclusivity.
In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus uses meals to do community and mission, highlighting the importance of hospitality and loving relationships around the table. The great thing about using meals to do community and mission is that it doesn’t add anything to our busy schedules; we already have 21 ready-made opportunities each week to share lives and food with others.
Meals are an important part of hospitality, fostering grace in our communities. They don’t have to be fancy or special; sometimes, just sharing an ordinary meal with people can create community. This is what makes communities “work.” So, in fact, we can call our missional communities “gospel communities” because they are centered around the gospel story, which often involves sharing food.
The doctrine of justification is not just about who we eat with, but about how we are made right with God through faith in the finished work of Christ. This will then be reflected in our meals, as our doctrine is mirrored in our actions. Meals can express both judgment and salvation; a meal in the presence of God is the goal of salvation.
In the Bible, meals are used to express both judgment and salvation. A meal in the presence of God is the goal of salvation. The first thing God does for Adam and Eve in the garden is give them a menu, the fruit of every tree (except one). The climax of the exodus (an act of salvation commemorated in a meal) is when the elders of Israel eat with God on the mountain in Exodus 24. Isaiah promises a messianic banquet of rich foods that will never end in Isaiah 25, and Jesus anticipates this perpetual meal with God in the feeding of the 5,000, a meal with more food at the end than at the beginning.
The last supper looks forward to the time when Jesus will eat with his disciples in the kingdom of God, and the Bible story ends with a meal as we celebrate the wedding supper of the Lamb in Revelation 19. Every time we eat together as Christians, we are anticipating this hope.
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