God of the Table
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and dine with him, and he with Me.
– Revelation 3:20
Friend, Jesus wants to have dinner with you.
One of our basic needs is food. Without it, we progressively become grumpy, grow faint, and die. Yet food is not merely a basic biological need. Our physical appetite for sustenance is intertwined with a much deeper soul-hunger for fellowship, intimacy, and being known. And to satisfy this deep hunger, Jesus calls us to come and dine.
In Scripture, our story starts with God planting a garden, a spread of trees that are “pleasing to the eye and good for food.” He places before humanity a banquet to satisfy their bodily hunger. But He does not leave them to eat alone. He walks with them through this veritable banquet, satisfying the hunger of their souls. He intended for them to live in a cornucopia of fellowship and food.
But that is not what we walk in today. The banquet was ruined. Humanity’s rebellion spoiled the food and broke the fellowship. Now our stomachs feel perpetually empty. Our souls are eternally famished. Though we endlessly consume we are never satisfied. Yet God continues to extend to us a dinner invitation!
At Mount Sinai, as God established a covenant with Israel, He invited them to join Him for five annual feasts. He was calling them back to table-fellowship. Jesus, reclining with His disciples at one of these feasts, exclaims, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before My suffering. For I tell you that I will not eat it again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” He is telling them that this dinner is merely the appetizers before the feast He will share with us in His Kingdom. And so is every meal we eat. What we consume now is not meant to satisfy us. It is to merely whet our appetite that we may join Jesus in anticipating the fellowship of the Great Feast!
Today, as He sits at the Father’s right hand, Jesus longs to share a meal with you, to feast and fellowship with you. In His letter to the Church at Laodicea, Jesus said, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and dine with him, and he with Me.”
Friend, can you hear Him knocking? The invitation is extended. The table is set.
Will you open the door and join Jesus for dinner?
There is a fellowship He invites you to now, in anticipation of feasting together one day in His Kingdom.
Pause, just for a moment. In your mind’s eye, sit down to dinner with Jesus. What menu would you like to share with Him? Is it simple or extravagant? What posture does He take across the table from you? Is He sitting up straight; reserved yet expectant? Or are His elbows on the table, leaning into each bite? And now, as He breaks the bread, what question does He ask you…?
