I remember an older unnamed member of my family (this could get me in trouble) that had a “formal living room” complete with white furniture covered in clear plastic sheets. I was never allowed to go into it. No one was. When I got older, I asked what it was for. “When we have  important guests over.” This raised my next question which was answered, “Well, we haven’t had anyone that important yet, but we will be ready.”

As opposed to the formality of a room like this, we have a dining room. A place of  feasting and laughter and sharing and loving and even learning, teaching and sometimes correcting. It is everything a “formal” room is not. Personable, approachable, warm, sincere - in other words, everything Jesus was and is.

When we see Jesus in His earthly ministry, it is interesting how often He makes it a point to eat with people. And all kinds of people - religious people and the kinds of people  religious people wouldn’t be caught dead with and everything in between.

This Lent Season, we celebrate the Jesus of the Feast in our sermon series, Dinner with Jesus.

March 2 - The Dining Room of Christ - To understand the significance of all these meals, it is important to understand the etiquette, hospitality, and culture of the Bible as it pertains to sharing a meal with people. Just like today, the act of sharing a meal together is an intimate and caring moment. But, unlike today, the ways it was done and the rationale behind them are very different.

March 9 - Dinner with the Sinners and their Chief - If you were to consider the “dregs of society” today, you would not likely picture the same people that would have fit this bill in the mind of the average Jew in the days of Jesus. (An aside, now that you have that image in your mind - pray for their salvation, for your softened heart toward them, and for your own judgmental spirit. I did kind of trick you into that one.) At this dinner party, Jesus throws popular convention on its head and shows us how to do the same.

March 16 - Dinner with Mary and Martha - In what is perhaps the second best known dinner party that Jesus ever attended, our   focus is quickly pulled from Him to the   squabble  brewing between the two hostesses. Sisters, by all accounts deeply committed to one another and without question deeply committed to Christ, find themselves at odds. It is an area of disagreement that is truly timely and truly timeless.

March 23 - Dinner with the Opposing Team - It is common for High School football teams to enjoy a pre-game meal together. Imagine how odd it would be to invite the opposing team to join you for this meal. In a manner of      speaking , that is sort of what happened on this   particular occasion. The very people most opposed to Jesus, His mission, His message, His very life - invite Him to dinner.   It goes about as badly for them as you would imagine.

March 30 - RSVP: Choose Your Guests Wisely - While not so much an actual meal that Jesus partakes, this lesson revolves around a teaching in which a banquet is the focal point and the illustration Jesus uses to make His point. The question is not unlike that famous question posed to Him on a  different occasion, “Who is my neighbor?”; this drives home the importance of God’s people being unconventional and counter-cultural in the way we seek to show kindness and compassion.