Who here likes to eat?

Genesis 1:29
I have provided all kinds of grain and all kinds of fruit for you to eat. (GNB)

The first order of business is to find something to eat.

Then, from the beginning on, think about how much importance God attached to meals. Of course, we have to eat to stay alive, but it’s more than that.

In Exodus 12, as God prepares the people of Israel to leave Egypt, he has them prepare a meal. After the exodus, he makes the Passover a recurring ordinance. And even though it’s sometimes called the Passover Festival (Ex. 34) and elsewhere they are told to “celebrate” it, the fare is never what I would call celebratory.

Think about how we celebrate things. On Thanksgiving, have you ever eaten too much? What about Christmas? Even the 4th of July, while the fare is often simpler—hamburgers and hot dogs—we still put a lot out there with it: fries, chips, homemade ice cream, ten kinds of soda and watermelon so the kids will have an excuse to spit later.

The Passover meal was to be very simple, stark, even. Unleavened bread and roasted meat. That’s it. There was to be no yeast in the house, so that would eliminate even having wine. That leaves juice or water.

Why so simple? Because the purpose of the Passover Feast was not to honor the eaters, or the food, but God. In other words: “remove all distractions and focus on me, your Lord and your God.”

Psalm 23:5a
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; (NKJV)

Jesus told a parable that I think goes well with this concept.

Luke 14:8-11
"When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, and he who invited you both will come and say to you, 'Give your place to this person,' and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, 'Friend, move up higher.' Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." (ESV)

Wouldn’t that be embarrassing, to sit in the wrong seat like that and have everyone see you get demoted? But wouldn’t it be great to have that happen the other direction. We may get a little embarrassed by recognition, but most of us are, deep down, glad to get it. It’s nice to be noticed.
When I was in 9th grade, I went to church camp at Boiling Springs Christian Camp, outside Woodward, OK. One of the traditions was that they always had a banquet on the last night of camp. And everyone took a “date” to the banquet.

I sure wanted to ask one of the girls to the banquet but I was a] shy; b] the only 9th grader in a camp full of high-schoolers; and, above all, 3] chicken. So when I showed up at the banquet stag, what I really wanted to do was to sit under a table. As I was slinking in the door, trying to find a place to sit and becoming horrified to find that almost all the seats were already taken and—as far as I could see—everyone was a couple, I thought about turning around and not eating at all.

But then, something happened. There was this really pretty girl there. I can’t remember her name, just that she was really pretty and a senior. I don’t know if no one had asked her because she was so pretty they were afraid of her, or maybe she had a boyfriend back home, or what. But she was alone. And she didn’t even know my name. But she invited me to sit with her and be her date.

I was so nervous I don’t think I said two words to her, but suddenly I felt a whole lot better about the banquet. And all those guys who I was moments before hiding from because I was afraid they would tease me about not having a date, suddenly I wanted them to see me. I was too nervous to stand—which is probably good, because I might have stood up and shouted, “Look who I’m sitting with!”

It felt good to receive a seat of honor.

King David knew what it was like to have enemies. He knew what it was like to go hungry. But now, he is praising God because he is being fed … by the Shepherd! Not only that, but those enemies that David was hiding from, all they can do is watch.

I think this is about more than just David eating a king’s meal at the palace table. This is about his presence before the very throne of God. Think back to when David was called to be king of Israel. Israel already had a king, Saul. Saul had drifted away from God’s plan, though, so God said through the prophet Samuel, “But now your kingdom shall not continue. The LORD has sought out a man after his own heart, and the LORD has commanded him to be prince over his people, because you have not kept what the LORD commanded you." (1 Samuel 13:14 ESV)

Between that day and the day David (likely) wrote this Psalm, a lot has happened. David knows that there have been many moments in his life where he deserved much less than honor. Yet, here’s God preparing a table for him.

God has to.

David knew this. David had been a shepherd. He knew that sheep couldn’t fend for themselves for very long. So a good shepherd had to go clear the pasture of boulders and predators.

David knew that he had no right to eat at God’s table. His invitation depended entirely on God preparing the place and setting the table.
Rather like something that would happen later.

Mark 14:12-16
On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the day the lambs for the Passover meal were killed, Jesus' disciples asked him, "Where do you want us to go and get the Passover meal ready for you?" Then Jesus sent two of them with these instructions: "Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house he enters, and say to the owner of the house: 'The Teacher says, Where is the room where my disciples and I will eat the Passover meal?' Then he will show you a large upstairs room, fixed up and furnished, where you will get everything ready for us." The disciples left, went to the city, and found everything just as Jesus had told them; and they prepared the Passover meal. (GNB)

Who really prepared this meal? Was it the disciples who put out the food or the Lord, who miraculously provided a room?

I mentioned that the shepherd had to get rid of the predators. What does Jesus do at the meal? He got rid of the snake (Judas).

And notice something: Jesus chose to do this at Passover. It wasn’t just because the original Passover was a prophecy or foreshadowing of his sacrifice, I think it also had something to do with the meal. No one’s going to lean over to Jesus at this meal and say, “We sure fixed a good meal, huh, Lord? You like those steaks? What about that salad Martha fixed? And Matthew hit up some taxpayer friends of his and scored this excellent wine!”

Nope. Just unleavened bread, roast meat with bitter herbs, and grape juice. And it wasn’t even their room. No one could say, “Look at the great room I provided, Jesus!” Just a borrowed room. Everyone sitting on the floor. All attention on one man.

Did they deserve that?

Probably not.

Then, Jesus establishes the cup and the bread as a lasting ordinance. Not some hard-to-find ingredients that would lead people to praise themselves for finding them. Nope, just bread and drink—two things that will be found at almost every meal. We’ve read recently about one of our presidential contenders who, while held as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, gathered together bread and water and led his fellow prisoners in commune.

That’s all that’s needed. Common, ordinary things. Simple things. Actions we’ll perform every day of our lives. And when we do them—here at church or at home where the meal is pizza and pop—we are to eat them in remembrance of him.

Satan can only sit back and grumble as we are served Jesus’s Passover meal.

Do we deserve that? Probably not.

We almost never get what we deserve—praise God!—we get the gift of his love!

This communion we take this morning, we often take it as a solemn affair. And there’s a place for that. But it’s also a table of celebration and we should take it that way, too.

Comments? Email me at martha917@yahoo.com