“Food for Thought—A Return to the Kitchen Table”
When it was evening, Jesus sat down at the table with the Twelve.
- Matthew 26:20, NLT
It was a long-standing tradition in the Tinker household.
Each evening, around five, we (Mom, Dad, my two sisters and me) sat down to a home-cooked meal. It was the routine of life in the 1960’s and 70’s. No matter what we were doing individually, when supper was announced, we gathered around our small kitchen table, and we ate what Mom had prepared.
The meal was always delicious, but food was not the primary focus. The impetus was togetherness: all of us being in one place at one time and calling a halt to our disparate pursuits to share life and connect as a family. It was a guarded and special time.
That model is a relic of a bygone era. Today most dining tables are barren of food and families except for special occasions. Fast food and microwave meals are the now the norm.
The erosion of the “family dinner hour” was not one that we foresaw with any level of alarm. Like many digressions, it just sort of happened. Convenience overtook convention like kudzu overtakes a garden, and as with kudzu, defeating convenience to recover convention seems almost insurmountable.
What’s the big deal? So, we don’t eat together around the table—in a fast-paced world, this is the best we can do. But is it?
The Bible placed a high priority on sharing meals. Jesus ate with all kinds of people in all kinds of places, and He especially enjoyed intimate meals with His followers (think of the “breaking of bread” at Emmaus and of the “home cooked” breakfast He served to His disciples on the Galilean shoreline). He even provided a “meal” for us to consume in His absence.
Why the emphasis on mealtimes? Because in the sharing of a meal, something almost mystical occurs, and where believers are concerned, there is the presence of the Holy. Perhaps we haven’t given much thought to this reality, but we intuitively know it’s true. It’s one of the main reasons we look forward to meeting friends and family for lunch or dinner. It isn’t really so much about the consumption of food as it is about sharing life.
I have come to believe that many of the social and cultural challenges we face today could begin to be remedied if we would make a genuinely concerted effort to reclaim the family dinner hour. It won’t be easy—and it probably won’t come without resistance—but the rewards will be well worth it.
Sitting down at the table was the way of Jesus, and the way of Jesus is the way to life in its fullness—and a good place to live out that fullness is around our own kitchen table, one day at a time, one meal at a time, with the ones we love—for it is there that we will encounter the Divine Presence in their presence.
So, this evening, give it a try—and invite Jesus to be there, too. He loves it. It was His custom.
A fellow beggar along the Way,
Greg