Joy Around the Table

 I'm not a social butterfly, but I truly enjoy gathering together with friends and family in fellowship over a meal.  There's something about sitting around a table with the people you love...even those who sometimes irritate you.  Once you are sharing a meal and enjoying time together things feel just right. There's something about it, after all the hectic preparations are over and all that is left is to sit and just be...it's hard not to feel joy.  It is part of human nature to find satisfaction being near those we love, especially if there's yummy food involved.  

Jesus showed us His humanity in the many instances of fellowship around food and lively conversation that we see in the Gospels.  From weddings, to dinner parties to Passover celebrations and everything in between, Jesus fully participated and took active roles in this very human ritual of hanging out.  

The calling of Matthew is one of those instances.  Let's hear it from Matthew himself:

9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.

10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

12 On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Matthew 9: 9-13

This passage is not only a moment in which we see Jesus being a normal person, eating and having exchanges with other people, but it is one of those moments that fill our hearts and souls with hope.  Not only was Jesus displaying His humanity, but He also infused the room with His Majesty when He pronounced the purpose of His coming: "to call the sinners."  Sinners of which I am the worst...

Praise the Lord for giving us these passages of Scripture that record the seemingly mundane events of His earthly life, but that in reality state His Divinity and Glory in the midst of His humanity.  May we remember Jesus' fellowship when we gather together with our loved ones to commemorate Our Lord's death and rejoice in His resurrection.  May He remind us that He is waiting for us to gather around His table again soon. In the precious Name of He Who Came for Us...the least deserving of all.  Amen!