Worth the price of the book: chapter VII of Ben F Meyer’s The Aims of Jesus.

Meyer discerns from Jesus’ proclamation (of the kingdom of God) and his public actions that Jesus worked toward “a stunningly unexpected restoration of Israel” (173).

While there is much in chapter 7, I want to focus on Jesus’ habit of “table fellowship with sinners.” We feel a diffused impact of this public behavior of Jesus because we do not know enough about “the significance of table fellowship and the division between ‘the righteous’ and ’sinners’ ” (159).

The Sacred Table

Because most meals began with a blessing and ended with the “Amen,” the meal was viewed as a sacral ceremony. Thus, fellowship at the meal offered an opportunity to identify the clean and the unclean, the righteous and the sinners. The religious avoided at all costs table fellowship with the irreligious. The contagious energy of associating with the unclean meant a sharp distinction between who was worthy to be at table together. It was considered immoral to be at table with sinners. Post-exilic Jews had burned into their consciousness the incompatibility of good and evil (160).

The Radical Jesus

Jesus’ meal-time practice shattered all religious and social order. His blatant fellowship made a powerful impression and ignited some of the fiercest opposition. Eating, mind you. Jesus maintained revolutionary contact and communion with sinners. This was different than John the Baptist’s method. John required repentance/ conversion first, then communion. Jesus radically (what a pastor!) reversed the order: communion first, then conversion!

What was Jesus doing? He fitted his practice to his proclamation. The kingdom of God is here and whoever wants to can enter it…now. All who were considered unblessed (unfit) were now considered blessed: the poor, the tax-collectors, the social riff-raff and maginalized. How can the words of Jesus take on incarnate shape? At his table! Jesus considered his table fellowship a foretaste of the great banquet where Abraham, Isaac and Jacob will dine.

Amazing Grace…How Sweet the Taste!

Jesus believed that welcoming grace had inherent power to generate repentance/conversion. Certainly Zacchaeus is Exhibit A. The grace of God named Jesus initiated communion with Zacchaeus and we know the result. Jesus’ mission valued reconciliation both with God and with man. Jesus lived that reconciliation in grace. Were Pharisees and the religious elite welcomed to Jesus’ table? Yes, of course; it was a table of grace. Yet, the elite for moral and religious reasons refused the table and considered Jesus a blasphemous, rebellious trouble-maker. Oh, had they known.

So What?

I don’t think the church is called simply to re-tell the proclamation of Jesus and explain his radical table practices. In our day we must find the ways to make the outrageous grace of God available to those considered disqualified. We have turned evangelicalism into a new form of Pharisaism by demanding repentance first and then, only then, is communion (at the table) legitimate. How we can do this in the face of Jesus’ message and meal-time habits in simply beyond explanation. We have twisted Gospel into law and think we are protecting God and truth, when, in fact, we’re demeaning the message and promoting a paganized idol for God. God have mercy, Christ have mercy.

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