Table Teaching
October 20, 2013 | Patrick Preheim
In their own way each New Testament book testifies to the new life which Jesus offers and his people are to celebrate. While each of our four gospels includes similar material about Jesus, each also emphasizes unique dimensions of the life, death and resurrection of the Christ. Luke’s account, for example, emphasizes “the Table”. Sometimes Luke locates stories present in other gospels at the dining table. Luke’s also includes some meal scenes not found in the other gospels. Part of Luke’s gift to a deeper understanding of the salvation which Jesus announces/ offers/ enacts is found at the Table. In thinking about the Table of our Lord two questions are helpful to keep before us: 1. what does Jesus offer at the table, and 2. which people need to come together at the table. Salvation comes to us when we stop resisting the invitation by Jesus to join him at the table; when we stop scolding people away from the table of Christ; when we begin hosting like Jesus. This inconspicuous aspect of Luke connects with our other October worship services.
Two Sundays ago was World Communion Sunday, a Sunday which testifies to the unity of all Christian churches in spite of our different personalities. Last week we celebrated communion in this space. In both cases we have given relatively little time to the implications of the table and what it might mean for us. So, today we offer stories and questions from the Table.
Luke 5:27-35
Jesus needed to round out his team. He had drawn heavily from mariners with his first draft picks, and now it was time to take a gamble on an un-scouted prospect with a huge upside. Levi was a division two tax collector, not a chief tax collector like Zaccheaeus, but still he was a star at the minor league level—collecting the dreaded toll and customs tax as merchants brought goods to the market (Robert Tannehill, Luke (Abingdon New Testament Commentary Series), p. 107-198). Like a good draft pick Levi left everything and joined the club. Levi hosted the signing celebration. The list of invites included his fellow tax collectors as well as a few “sinners” with whom he had been chumming (these were other outcasts of Jewish society). The Pharisees and their scribes took note of this—“why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” It is the same observation they make in chapter 15 before the parables of lost sheep, lost coin and lost child. Indeed, Jesus chooses to eat with tax collectors and sinners.
What does Jesus offer at the table of Levi the tax collector? [pause]
Which people need to come together at this table? [pause]
Luke 7:36-59; 11:37-41
Simon is a Pharisee and has heard comments about Jesus from some of his colleagues. Still, he is curious and has questions of his own. Despite what most of us think, not all Pharisees think alike. Like the Pharisee in chapter 11, Simon invites Jesus to dine with him at the table. He is nervous and misses some hosting protocol—like washing his guest’s feet. The Pharisee in chapter 11 also displays some awkwardness in receiving Jesus as a guest, and yet they are making the effort. Unlike many of their peers who are trying to find a way ensnare Jesus in some scandal or other, Simon and the unnamed Pharisee of Luke 11 are trying to understand. Simon and his double-ganger of chapter 11 feel torn between tradition and the incredible works God has done through Jesus. They invite to the table this non-Pharisee who acts with authority. And Jesus says, “yes I will come”.
Strange things happen when we choose to host the son of God, but even the oddity of Luke 7 seems beyond the reach of imagination. The meal is half over and suddenly a sinful woman from the city barges into his home. None of the servants know what to do and in stunned slow motion to the rest she collapses at the table with Jesus and the Pharisee. She began crying on Jesus. She dried him with her hair. She took balm and anointed him. All before crème brulee and coffee had been served. We don’t know her sin, but it seems everyone else did. Simon is shocked and somewhat traumatized. I would be too.
In these two scenes of Luke 7 and 11 what does Jesus offer at the table? [pause]
Which people need to come together at these tables? [pause]
Luke chapter 9: Renata
Luke chapter 15: Youth video
In this modern day account of Luke 15 what does Jesus offer at the table? [pause]
Which people need to come together at this table? [pause]
Luke 22: Institution of the Lord’s supper
It was the last week of his life and no one knew it. Several times he had plainly told his friends and disciples how this story was going to end, but no one believed him. Something beyond language, it would seem, would be necessary to prepare them for the end and beyond.
Step one: choose a night important for them. Well, that would be easy. With Passover under way, Thursday evening would be the night. This was the time when families would traditionally gather for a meal and a re-telling of the Exodus story. The ritual meal of memory might help them remember.
Step two: choose elements they will not forget. Since this was the Festival of Unleavened bread, clearly, bread would be a good mnemonic device. Leavened bread and manna got their ancestors out of Egypt and into a promised land. Perhaps they would make the connection that this bread would help in their deliverance and into a different promised land. And then there is the blood from the Passover lamb. It would be worked into the drinking of the cup. Perhaps in years to come the bread and cup will help the disciples remember God’s presence and plan.
Step three: choose words the disciples are more likely to remember than not. Taking, blessing, breaking, giving—these was the words and rhythm when 5000 were fed. Repeating this language might help them remember the trust of that day, the miracle, the abundance. When it feels like there is precious little and they hear those terms—taking, blessing, breaking, giving—maybe they will be anchored anew.
This would be the new Passover, the new covenant, a new start—perhaps the disciples will get the message. Perhaps. Perhaps.
What does Jesus offer at the table of his Last Supper?
Which people need to come together at this table?
Luke 24: Ted Schwartz video
In this story from Luke 24 what does Jesus offer at the table? [pause]
Which people need to come together at this table? [pause]
Concluding Comments:
Call to mind your favorite painting of Jesus at a table. May be it is a Last Supper scene painted by Salvador Dali or Leonardo da Vinci; or maybe it is a different meal scene. If the painting which comes to your mind is anything like mine it will be an image of Jesus around a table or at a meal with others. In considering art work for this Sunday I came across a stunning and yet haunting piece of art. In a painting by Jorge Alexandre Rodriguez there is a brilliant Christ at a table emanating light in all directions. The entire picture is filled with light and its source is Jesus Christ. And yet Jesus is alone at the centre of a long table. I tried to find an image of the painting to display, but I couldn’t and it did not photocopy well. The title is The Light of Conscience. I resonate deeply with the reflections offered by art critic Michael Farrell as he considered the painting. These are his words...
In The Light of Conscience Jesus is alone at a long table. It is one of the saddest pictures I have ever seen...
With the new millennium comes a dramatic new rendering of the Last Supper. In the Rodriguez painting there is no one else at the table with Jesus. Have they all left him? And if they have, where have they gone? Look how quiet and lonely the table is.
It is as if, 2,000 years later, the crowds have gone home. The poignant truth is that Christianity that gave us so many Last Supper paintings has left, as a legacy, many empty churches. Two thousand years later it is as thankless as ever to be a saviour.
“Will you also go away?” Jesus once said to his close companion when things were going badly. Perhaps, the picture seems to suggest, we took him at his word.
There is another way to look at it—as a challenge to our time. Jesus is back at the table around which it all started, alone again and waiting to see who will join him for another millennium. (Michael Farrell in Christ For All People (edited by Ron O’Grady), p. 104)
I do not want Jesus to be alone at the Table. I want to be there with Jesus—learning from him, being encouraged by him, sometimes being corrected by him. I also want others to be at that table with me—tax collectors, sinners, Pharisees, clueless disciples, disillusioned members of the faith, and other hypocrites. I want Luke’s vision of the Table to guide us in our homes and congregational life. May it be so for us and our congregations. Amen.
