A Place at the Table

In Bible times, eating together meant a great deal. It was not like grabbing a snack with someone at school. Sharing a table meant you belonged to that household. It was closer to being family than to being fed.

David’s table. That is why David’s gift to Mephibosheth was so big. He did not send food to Lo Debar, and he did not arrange a payment. He said, “you shall eat bread at my table continually” (2 Samuel 9:7). David speaks of his table four times in thirteen verses (9:7, 10, 11, 13). The land made Mephibosheth rich. The table made him family.

The first family meal. On the night God brought Israel out of Egypt, each family ate the Passover lamb together inside the house, with the blood on the door (Exodus 12). The meal showed who belonged to God’s rescued people.

A meal on the mountain. At Mount Sinai, Moses and the elders went up the mountain, “and they saw the God of Israel” (Exodus 24:10). Then the Bible says, “So they saw God, and they ate and drank” (24:11). God’s promise to His people was sealed with a meal.

A son comes home. In Jesus’ story, a son who wasted everything came home ready to ask to be a hired servant. Servants did not eat with the family. But “when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion” (Luke 15:20). His father gave him a robe, a ring and a feast, and he sat down as a son (15:22-24).

The night before the cross. Jesus ate the Passover with His disciples and said, “With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer” (Luke 22:15). He broke the bread and said, “This is My body which is given for you” (22:19). His death would open the way to God’s table.

A promise of a table. That same night Jesus promised His disciples that they would eat and drink at His table in His kingdom (Luke 22:30). The meal they were eating was a small picture of a much bigger one.

The last table. The Bible ends at a supper: “Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!” (Revelation 19:9). God keeps using a shared meal to show the joy of being with Him forever.

What we learn. When David seated a man who called himself a dead dog among the king’s sons, he did a small version of what the whole Bible is heading toward. God wants His people at His table.

What to do. This week, when your family eats together, thank God that Jesus has made a place for you at His table. Then think of someone who needs a seat at yours.

If sharing a table meant you belonged together, then people were sure to notice who Jesus ate with. They did notice. All through the Gospels the same complaint keeps coming up.

At Levi’s house. Levi was a tax collector, and tax collectors were hated for cheating their own people. After Levi left his tax booth to follow Jesus, Jesus ate at his house with many tax collectors and sinners. The religious leaders complained that Jesus ate and drank with tax collectors and sinners (Mark 2:15-16).

Jesus’ answer. Jesus said that healthy people do not need a doctor, but sick people do. He said He came to call sinners, not people who think they are already good (Mark 2:17).

Three stories. Later the leaders grumbled that Jesus welcomed sinners and ate with them (Luke 15:1-2). Jesus answered with three stories: a lost sheep, a lost coin and a lost son. Every story ends with joy. “There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:7).

Up a tree. In Jericho, Jesus called Zacchaeus down from a tree and said He would stay at his house. The crowd complained that Jesus had gone to be the guest of a sinner (Luke 19:7). But Jesus said, “Today salvation has come to this house” (19:9).

Three towns, one complaint. Three different crowds said almost the same thing. Nobody said His teaching was wrong. They said He was eating with the wrong people. In that world, that was a claim about who belonged with Him.

He kept doing it. Jesus never said they had the facts wrong. He just kept giving the same reason: “the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). Then He would sit down and eat.

Like 2 Samuel 9. Mephibosheth was the one man in the kingdom with the best reason to expect to be kept away from a royal table. He is the one David went looking for. That is how God has always done it, and it is how Jesus came looking for you.

What we learn. Jesus is not ashamed to eat with people who need Him. Hebrews says that He “is not ashamed to call them brethren” (Hebrews 2:11).

What to do. Think of someone at school who eats lunch alone. This week, ask them to join you, the way Jesus made room for people others left out.