Stacey Wheeler | Director of Communications and Church Planting Support
If I were to ask you to picture yourself “sitting around a table,” what table comes to your mind?
Maybe it’s the table from your childhood home, or the one currently sitting in your kitchen or dining room. Who is eating with you? Your parents, siblings, or children?
Whether it is large or small, made of pine or oak, or white or brown, most of us can remember enjoying meals spent sitting around a certain table celebrating birthdays, everyday dinners, and hosting special guests. The table can be a place where we are fed both physically and emotionally. It can be a place where we laugh and cry and explore others and are deeply known. It can also be a symbol of intimacy and community.
Jesus had many meals and conversations with his disciples but undoubtedly one of the most famous meals with them is the Last Supper, his last meal with them before his betrayal, crucifixion, and resurrection. In John 13, the evening meal had already begun when Jesus got up and took the time to wash the disciples’ feet before joining them again in eating the meal. In verse 14, Jesus tells his apostles, “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.”
Jesus knew that Judas was about to betray him, and he was “troubled in his spirit” (21). During this meal, after Judas leaves the room, Jesus states, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (34-35). None of the apostles could fathom what Jesus was about to endure as he was sacrificed on the cross to cover our sins. Three days later he would be raised from the dead, providing a pathway for those who believe in him and follow him to find faith, hope, and joy in this life and the next, our eternal home in heaven.
In the last three lines of the poem “The Last Supper” by Lydia Sigourney, she writes,
That our Last Supper in this world may lead
To that immortal banquet by thy side,
Where there is no betrayer.
Most of us enjoy the fellowship and community as we sit around a table and eat a delicious meal with family and friends. May we also remember that we will be able to attend “that immortal banquet” in heaven when we pass from earth to heaven, and until then to recognize that Jesus is with us, inviting us to lean into the fellowship of the believers that we are offered and to consider the invitation from Jesus to love one another as he has loved us by serving each other and caring for one another.
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34-35
Follow Us!