When I was in college, there was one sure way to increase the attendance of each and every event we planned, namely, the inclusion of free food.
It sounds so simple: if you feed them, they will come. And yet it says something about us, doesn’t it? There is something communal about eating together. No matter our background, family life, religion, or time in history, we all understand the power of food to draw people in. Gathering around the table has a great number of benefits to our physical bodies, our spiritual nourishment, and our societal good. (Jane Austen might even say that it is a truth universally acknowledged.)
Recently we have started reading The Chronicles of Narnia with our two oldest kids, and while the stories themselves have been a huge delight to reread, there is something new that I’m noticing: the work of preparing a meal, and the weight C.S. Lewis gives to eating it. He seems to appeal to our senses when he describes the food being eaten in many of these stories: the four Pevensie children are leery about trusting Mr. Beaver when they first arrive in Narnia, until he mentions dinner. In The Horse and His Boy, Shasta is welcomed to Narnia with breakfast – and he gets to experience butter for the first time (it’s a throwaway line, but I love that Lewis includes it). After the end of a long voyage on the Dawn Treader, Edmund, Lucy, and Eustace are invited to breakfast with a Lamb with “the most delicious food they had ever tasted.” What do these stories show us? Eating together prepares us for a grand adventure, comforts us along the way, and welcomes us when we have done well.
In the Bible, there are multitudes of stories that include eating communally. What does Abraham do instantly after meeting God in Genesis 18? He prepares a feast and asks them to stay, rest, and eat. What does God instruct his people to do the night before they’re freed from Egypt in Exodus 12? Prepare a lamb, smear its blood on the doorways, cook the meat, and eat it together – expectantly, waiting for the Lord’s deliverance. What does David offer Mephibosheth in 2 Samuel 9? Many things, but the final and greatest thing is a place at his own table. This lame beggar, who can offer nothing to David and thinks of receiving nothing from him but wrath, is lavished with favor, blessing, and nourishment. What do the Jews do in Esther 9 after destroying their enemies? They feast and offer gifts of food to one another.
As he does, Jesus naturally increases this all through the Gospels by meeting people’s physical and spiritual hunger. His literal first miracle in John 2 was to change water to the best wine at a celebratory wedding; in John 4, he promises an unnamed (but very important) woman that he will give her water that fills her up, such that she’ll never thirst again. He satisfies a great crowd’s longings for bread, but more than that, he satiates a deeper hunger they may not realize they had. The day afterwards, he invites those who received physical food to “work for the food that endures to eternal life” (Jn. 6:27). Before he goes to the Cross, he tells the disciples that he’s been wanting to eat with them (Luke 22:15); after his resurrection, he himself prepares food for them (Jn. 21:2, 13).
Eating, Christian, is both work and rest. It is being nourished by Jesus, the bread of life, and it is working to invite others to come and feast at his table. There is much work to be done to prepare a meal (just ask Martha), but there is much reward in doing it together (Acts 2:42, 46-47).
Eating in the Bible is something designed to remind us of our own physical needs, but it’s also a beautiful way to be part of the fellowship with the Lord. When we share food together, whether at a fellowship lunch or a life group supper, we must do it corporately (not virtually) – we must take up the same room, talking, praying, sharing. Giving food to another believer allows us to share in each other’s joys (a new home, a beautiful baby) or weep with someone who weeps (medical struggles, death, an unexpected hardship). Offering a meal to someone outside God’s family can open an evangelical door and show how God’s grace is freely given to us so we can freely give to others. In the Lord’s supper, we eat together to remember his life, death, and resurrection; we eat together as a body of believers to enjoy one another and the God who calls us to his table.
And someday, someday very soon (Come, Lord Jesus), we will ALL eat together at a great wedding supper. And it will be exclusively because the Lord Jesus, like David did so long ago with Mephibosheth, has invited us to eat at his table. I’m anticipating that the wine and the butter will be exquisite.
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