A meal with Jesus

Food matters. Meals matter. Meals are full of significance – not just for us, but for God too.

Tamsin Llwyd-Graves | January 2013 - Highfields Book of the Month
By Tim Chester (2011) Nottingham: Inter Varsity Press

meal with jesusFood matters.  Meals matter.  Meals are full of significance – not just for us, but for God too.  After all, Jesus' template for a believer's prayer includes the very practical request for a daily supply of carbohydrate in the form of bread!  And bread was one of the key elements chosen by Jesus for believers to regularly share, in the context of a meal, to remember His self-giving

Most of us, in our comfortable, well fed British society, have shopped for meals, planned for meals, cooked for meals, chosen meals to eat out, and enjoyed sharing meals with others.  Many of us will also have shared in 'The Lord's Supper' (or Communion, or The Breaking of the Bread, or the Eucharist ……..)  But how many of us have studied the frequently recorded role of meals and food in the life of Jesus (after all, 'the Son of Man came eating and drinking')?  Have we ever considered meals as mission, or as enacted hope, or as enacted salvation?  And how would we answer the question - do you live to eat, or eat to live?

Have we ever considered meals as mission, or as enacted hope, or as enacted salvation?

Tim Chester’s book raises these sorts of questions, relevant to all of us who receive daily bread, and who have a passion to share the message of God's good news with others.

Food features so regularly in our home, social, and church gatherings, (particularly in a student church ), that I was delighted to stumble upon this book as the keynote theme for a UCCF day for Wales CU members in the autumn.  Tim Chester was there, unpacking reflections on the Christian practice (or rather minimalist downsizing) of sharing bread and wine in response to Jesus' command at the last supper.  It would seem that the Corinthian church's misuse of a simple act of communal remembering has resulted in the church ever since being over careful not to repeat their mistake.  So following generations of believers are usually shortchanged the meal sized scale of what this table fellowship was meant to be.  Jesus didn't initiate a ritualistic sip of wine and taste of bread, but rather a communal foretaste of the Lamb's supper in Revelation 19!

Jesus didn't initiate a ritualistic sip of wine and taste of bread, but rather a communal foretaste of the Lamb’s supper in Revelation 19!

Some quotes to give you a further 'taste' of this book:

"Hospitality will lead to 'collateral damage' – food will be spilled on your carpet …but remember that God is welcoming you into his home through the (spilled) blood of his own Son..."

"Neither eating to live (food as fuel), nor living to eat (food as salvation) is right. We are to eat and live to the glory of God"

"Prostitutes loved sharing a meal with Jesus (Luke15:1–2) . They avoid the church he founded like the plague. Something has gone wrong"

At 150 pages long, there are also Biblical references and an appendix for further reading.  Here you will find insights into Jesus' life, into the theology of food, and into a meals based mission mindset!  I recommend 'A Meal with Jesus' to everyone who loves food and loves Jesus!

 

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