“Come Lord Jesus, Be our Guest”

These days we certainly eat in a great variety of places, and in the presence of people we neither know, nor with whom we have anything in common. We may not always feel comfortable about eating in public, but we are accustomed to it. Fast food, take-out, hot dogs and knishes at the beach, it seems we’ll eat with anybody, anywhere, if we feel like it, and if the conditions are not too outlandish. There are some exceptions of course: some keep Kosher, others have dangerous allergies, some must observe diets and special needs, still others are careful and sensitive to cleanliness, and so on. But in the broad view of things social, we do not usually consider eating as an act implying some special relationship to those in whose presence we eat.

This is, of course, a great difference between the sign that says, “Good Eats,” and a deliberate invitation to one’s home. In the book of Revelation Jesus speaks to the Church and says, “Listen, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into his house and eat with him, and he will eat with me.” (3:20) In the old Palestinian Jewish culture, unlike our own time, that meant a most intimate and trusting privilege, a kind of social sacrament–that of eating together. There was no refrigeration of any kind, no insecticides, very little potable water, the possible presence of livestock mingling with the household, no airtight containers, cooking over open wood or brush fires, little or nothing we might call soap, no clean towels. If for no other reason than one’s health, it was urgent that great care be taken at mealtime, even when invited–not only was food precious and scarce, it was easily spoiled. To consider eating in a stranger’s house was a real problem for the observant Jew whose laws forbade it; if the rituals were not observed it would be to share in what was “unclean.”

There was more to it that ritual. Then, as in our own day, to sit down deliberately to a meal with another person actually opens a whole array of meaning, when a shared meal is the common medium of being together. People discover each other, so to speak, in the breaking of bread–the conversation, the manners and the preferences we reveal, often without thinking. There is a social intimacy that we recognize, and that usually follows naturally at the table. And so taking a meal together has always been an offer of acceptance and mutuality.

With the picture of Jesus at the door of your life the Message is simply this: that Jesus has taken the initiative to arrive where you are. He is knocking, and he wants you to recognize his voice and invite him in, to your table. He will enter whatever is the current condition of your life, and he will share with you all the redeeming wonder of his life. The image of a shared meal, one in which what you have to offer your Guest seems to match in some way what your Guest brings to you, is one of the most peaceful, understandable, and meaningful portraits of our life with Christ on earth.

Do you want a near-perfect prayer?

 Here it is:

Come Lord Jesus, be our guest;

And may your gifts to us be blest. 

I think there is a good chance that

 you have known this all along,

Pastor Jansen