“A table for two.” It’s one of my favorite phrases when I have a date with Charmian, my wife. I really enjoy when we go out to eat with the whole family, but at a table for two there is something very special. It’s where we spend a special time alone, she and I; we talk, we laugh, we open our hearts, and we eat together.
The table is a place where we can enjoy good food, good company, and a good conversation. For me it’s a place of intimacy, it’s a place where I can open my heart with friends new and old. But there is nothing that I would want to change when I sit at a table with she who I love the most: my wife.
Jesus knew that the table was a meeting place. He seated himself at the table with different hosts: a Pharisee or a group of good friends like Lazarus, Martha, and Mary. He sat with controversial people: the Gospels register two occasions that he sat at a table of tax collectors. One of these later formed a part of His group of followers and friends, and the other radically changed his way of life after eating with Jesus.
Jesus loved to sit at a table with his disciples. In Lucas 22:15 he said, “With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you…” (NKJV). For Jesus the table was, among other things, a place of: (Luke 22:24-30)
- Discussion (v. 24)
- Teaching (v.25)
- Loyalty/Recognition (v. 28,29)
- Authority (v.29)
- Affection: John, the beloved disciple (v.30)
In Emmaus, after the recently resurrected Jesus met with two of His disciples along the way, He sat at the table with them (Luke 24:30-31). In that moment the table was, for these disciples, a place of COMMUNION (v. 30) and a place of REVELATION (v.31).
Twenty years ago when I began to go out with Charmian, we only went out in groups. So when we went to dinner or to eat something, we almost always arrived at the restaurant and asked for a table for 4 or 5. I took two friends with me as chaperones and she brought a friend. Our conversations were very fun and we had a good time. That is until one day in September of 1998 when I told her that I wanted to invite her to dinner with me. She asked me if she should bring a friend or if it would be just us. I said to her, “Just the two of us.”
Arriving at the restaurant that night it was exciting for me to say, “A table for two, please.” That night was the night that I opened my heart and I declared to my best friend my feelings and my love for her. That night that table transformed for us both into a place of COMMUNION and REVELATION.
Jesus enjoyed sitting with people. He surely enjoyed sitting at a table with His twelve, with three, with four, etc. Further, the Bible tells us the following in Revelation 3:20, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me” (NKJ).
Allow me to propose to you that Jesus has not changed His desire to sit down with us. I believe that His passion continues to be the desire to be alone with you and with me in order to know each of us more intimately. His presence assures us that this place is a place where we can open our heart and be ourselves. This table is a place of joy, security, and peace. And many times it transforms into a banquet that He Himself has prepared in the presence of our enemies.
Jesus is at the door! He is waiting for you! Do you want to open the door? What are you going to do? For my part I am again going to prepare a table for two.
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