By Adi Schlebusch
The notion of sharing a meal plays an important role throughout Scripture. Right at the beginning of creation when God addresses man for the very first time, He issues an invitation to man in Genesis 1:29 to eat from the fruits of the Garden of Eden. Jesus’ last night with his disciples before His crucifixion is spent by having a meal together, where He also institutes the sacrament of communion with bread and wine. The Bible also concludes with the image of the marriage supper of the Lamb in the New Jerusalem in which all the saved believers participate (Rev. 19:7-10).
It is striking that sin, redemption and eternal glorification, that is, the whole redemptive plan of God is often presented by means of the image of meals. When sinners are called to repentance from sin, they are called to participation in a meal. In Isaiah 55:1 and 3 we read:
Everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters, and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price ... Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live.
Jesus calls Himself the Bread of Life in John 6:35, noting that his work of redemption satisfies the hunger and thirst for life everlasting. But what makes this metaphor particularly interesting is the fact that He makes this claim right after literally feeding thousands of people with a few small loafs of bread and a few fish. When Jesus breaks bread with His disciples He uses the image in reference to His body being broken through his suffering for the sins of His elect (Luke 22:19-20). Here the breaking of the bread also has a twofold significance: it primarily refers to Jesus’ human body being broken in atoning for our sins, but also to the fact that the bread being broken and shared by the faithful is a sign of their redeemed status as communion of the saints—the one body of Christ. And so the spiritual bond and unity of the covenant community is ratified by a meal. One of the reasons God made humans with a desire to eat and drink regularly is to remind us of our own insignificance and complete dependence upon Him. In Exodus 24 we read about a covenant God formalizes with Israel, in which a meal signifies their complete dependence upon an Almighty God. After the people committed to following the commandments of God and made offerings to Him, we read the following in verse 9-11:
Then Moses went up, also Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and they saw the God of Israel. And there was under His feet as it were a paved work of sapphire stone, and it was like the very heavens in its clarity. But on the nobles of the children of Israel He did not lay His hand. So they saw God, and they ate and drank.
So also the Passover in the Old Testament is a fine example of how God uses a communal meal as a ritual through which His works of deliverance is not only brought into remembrance but conveyed to upcoming generations. In the New Testament Jesus continues this ritual tradition when He has meals together with his disciples when they are together (Luke 5:29). The sacrament of communion is then also of course a covenantal meal par excellence, emphasizing our commitment to God and to each other.
Finally it is also important to note that meals often have a distinct missiological character. We are all called to expand the Kingdom of God on earth by making the nations his disciples. In terms of this calling, meals also play a significant role. Jesus shared meals with sinners when He called them to repentance from sin and faith in Him. In the Old Testament we also read of II Kings 6 where Elisha prayed for the Syrians to be struck with blindness. Consequently he led them to Samaria, but instead of killing them, the Israelites prepared for them a great feast. And after they ate and drank together, we read that “the bands of the Syrian raiders came no more in the land of Israel” (II Kings 6:23). Thus peace between the two nations was established by means of a meal by which the Israelites exemplified the love and grace of God.
In Scripture, sharing a meal is not only a sign of peace and hospitality, but a symbol of God’s loving redemption from spiritual hunger.
The author is a senior researcher with the Pactum Institute.