I love to host and attend parties with my girlfriends. We play games, drink tea and soda, and we eat a meal together. One friend and I swap meals, so we both get to try new dishes. With certain gals, one-on-one is easier — not all of my friends love groups — and we’ll take a picnic to the park or go out for dinner. Food itself is not what connects us at a deeper level, but it’s often the centerpiece around which relationships are built.
Food Extremes in the Bible
Food isn’t always presented in a positive light scripturally: Samson and that honey; Deuteronomy’s description of a rebellious son as a “glutton and a drunkard” among other things (21:20). Then there’s the symbolic abstinence from certain foods, which shows that Daniel and his friends were set apart from the pagans around them.
Figures in the Bible also gave up food as part of personal or corporate prayer, a symbol of their deep need for God’s direction, forgiveness, or comfort. Esther called for a corporate fast as she sought the salvation of her people.
Jesus fasted alone in the wilderness, after his baptism, directly before his ministry got going. Food is important for our bodies, so giving up meals in order to draw closer to the Lord is noteworthy.
There are also times when God has shown his generosity and omnipotence by providing food against the odds. What was meant for evil was turned for good in the lives of Joseph, his father, and his brothers: relief from famine.
Ruth was permitted to glean in Boaz’s fields when she and Naomi were hungry. The Lord sent manna from heaven in the wilderness. The Lord saved his people from starvation in a fashion by which he was glorified.
Food in the Middle
And then there are the dinners. At the start of his ministry, Jesus was observed to eat and drink with sinners (Luke 5:30). Jesus met tax collectors and other “bad” men on their own terms, in the places where they were comfortable. He met with them over a dinner table and taught them about forgiveness of sins.
We often like to do that today, at least some of us. Meet with a friend or a new acquaintance over coffee and a snack. Food and drink provide people with something to hold onto if they are nervous. And when one person talks too much, the other can busy herself by nibbling and sipping.
The meal itself is a drawing card. If you want people to gather and listen to you, get them relaxed with comforting foods requiring a knife and a fork. Or go where food is already being served.
The tax collectors were happy to listen to Jesus while they filled their bellies, or if not happy, then at least too comfortable to walk out.
They were eating after all. That’s not to say they all agreed with him, or followed him, or listened to everything he said, but the atmosphere was relaxed: the tax collectors were “reclining at table” with Levi and Jesus (Luke 5:29).
When Jesus fed thousands of people at one time with a miraculous provision of bread and fish, his hungry audience stayed to listen.
Once the food was gone, they left him, but that’s an encouragement to any party hostess who has noticed guests looking at their watches constantly, eager to be gone once dessert is over.
When they had the Messiah with them, the people didn’t see him for who he was. When you host a party and hope that some of your friends will want to hear about Jesus, they might not see the good news in front of them either.
There is another dinner at the end of Jesus’ ministry, right before Calvary. This is the last supper, the one, which forms the basis for communion. Here, another set of sinners sat around the table with Jesus, but this was not a relaxed event.
Jesus reclined (Luke 22:14), but his message was emotional and urgent: “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer” (v.15). This final supper makes me think of Jesus dining with sinners. The disciples were no better than the tax collectors; nor am I.
The disciples, however, could look forward to salvation (except one of course) on the basis of Christ’s saving work and their belief in that work, their devotion to Christ, and to sharing the good news. This is the only thing that sets us apart from other sinners.
A Symbolic Nourishment
There is plenty of symbolism around food in God’s Word. Ruth gleaned grain from the harvest of Boaz’s crops as per God’s command: “you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, nor shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner” (Leviticus 23:22). Ruth foreshadowed how Jesus would make salvation available to Jews and Gentiles.
At the Last Supper, Jesus broke bread and shared wine with his disciples as a way of trying to explain what was going to happen to him. “This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19).
They weren’t literally eating his body but breaking the bread would help them remember Jesus’ sacrifice and his great love for them every time they shared a meal with each other, or with anyone.
I see my Savior telling me with his broken bread “I knew what was coming, I went willingly for you, because I love you.” The bread contains no magical properties. Man does not live by bread alone but on every Word of God (Deuteronomy 8:3, Matthew 4:4).
Every Word of God included every word Jesus had spoken to these men; every teaching, every example. He is the life-giving Word. Eating real bread wasn’t going to save them, but breaking bread together would take them back to that final supper.
When Jesus returned from the grave, “He said to them, ‘Have you anything here to eat?’ They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them” (Luke 24:42-43). This is real food, for a very real, hungry Savior, yet it is also symbolic.
That simple plate of fish tells me that the Lord was bodily resurrected and restored, not a ghost. And I will also be bodily resurrected after I die. “Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven” (Colossians 3:1).
I like this NLT translation because this is exactly what I need to hear: we will really, corporally, be raised to new life with our Savior just as he was fully, truly raised to life from the grave.
Bread and Peace
And, by eating with them, Jesus also brought peace. When two people were eating together, they weren’t fighting. I seem to recall reading that somewhere — it’s hard to eat and hold a weapon at the same time. But also, it’s an offering of vulnerability.
When you pick up a plate, you let your guard down. Jesus was not vulnerable, but eating was a natural sort of thing for a real person to do, which would have eased the tension, and the guilt of those in the room with him.
In one sense, breaking bread at the supper table before he died was a way of extending his peace ahead of time.
Your Next Meal
I get frustrated that my friends don’t get the gospel. Half of them are non-believers. Some of them read tarot cards or consult with psychics. Even many Christian acquaintances conflate the Christian faith with spirituality more generally.
Although I want parties to be serious ministry opportunities where hearts and lives are transformed, dinner can also simply be dinner. Christ walked with his disciples for three years, eating many meals together, and they still didn’t understand who he was.
And if Christ wishes to work powerfully in and through these events, I hope I’m ready to listen with my mouth full.
For further reading:
What Was the Symbolism of the Last Supper?
How Did the Phrase, ‘Eat, Drink, and Be Merry’ Become a Positive Thing?
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