Practice 2 of 13
Eat together
A shared meal says “you belong.”
Key points
- The practice: A shared meal says “you belong.”
- Try this week: Share a meal this week with someone outside your usual circle, or with someone who usually eats alone.
- The good news: Jesus still eats with people who don’t have it all together.
What Jesus did and taught
Dinner with the wrong people
Jesus invites a tax collector named Levi to follow him. Levi throws a dinner.
The guests are people respectable folks avoid. Jesus sits down and eats with them.
The religious leaders complain. Jesus doesn’t leave the table.
“When you make a feast, ask the poor”
Luke 14:13
Find it: Mark 2:13–17
Read Mark 2:13–17
13 He went out again by the seaside. All the multitude came to him, and he taught them. 14 As he passed by, he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax office, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he arose and followed him. 15 He was reclining at the table in his house, and many tax collectors and sinners sat down with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many, and they followed him. 16 The scribes and the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with the sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why is it that he eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?” 17 When Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
World English Bible, public domain. The whole chapter on Free Scripture → · Read in the NRSVue, the ELCA’s standard translation →
Why it matters
Jesus did a lot of his best work at dinner.
Eating with someone is one of the oldest ways to say: you are one of us.
Try this week
Share a meal this week with someone outside your usual circle, or with someone who usually eats alone.
Low-energy week? Eat one meal this week with phones put away.
A question to carry
Who would be surprised to get an invitation from you?
With kids
Let your kids choose someone to invite for dinner, and help cook.
Go deeper
The good news
Jesus still eats with people who don’t have it all together. In the meal he gave his church, he says: “This is my body which is given for you.”
You don’t earn anything by doing this practice. Why it starts with grace