Dinner with Jesus

I plan to return to my series on the church in the next few posts, but before then, here’s a message I recently delivered in chapel.

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Introduction

To get you thinking about having a meal with Jesus, let’s begin with thinking about having a meal with friends. In a minute we’ll do a survey. And the survey question is this: What’s your go-to fast-food spot with friends? Maybe you just go through the Drive-Thru with and eat in the car. If you don’t eat out with others, you can stay seated. But for everyone else, when the logo appears on the screen for your go-to spot, I would like you to stand up. This is going to take courage. Be strong and courageous and stand up for your restaurant: Cook Out, Raising Cane’s, Culver’s, Zaxby’s, Five Guys, Tropical Smoothie Café, Salsarita’s, Chick-fil-A, Chipotle, Starbucks.

Eating with friends is fun. It’s a time of relaxation, bonding, and enjoyment. It’s something we look forward to.

Revelation 3:20

And that brings us to our key verse:

Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me. (Rev 3:20)

Imagine having a meal with Jesus. What would that be like? He knocks, you open the door, he comes in and has a meal with you.

Chapters 2 and 3 of Revelation contain seven letters written to seven different churches. In these letters Christ speaks to each church and he either commends them or corrects them. The seven churches are all located in modern-day Turkey. Revelation 3:20 is part of the seventh letter, addressed to the church of Laodicea. The ruins of Laodicea can still be seen today.

What does Revelation 3:20 show us about Jesus:

1. He’s patient. He stands outside the door knocking and calling, waiting for us to open the door.
2. He’s humble. The Lord of heaven and earth, the King of the universe waits for you and me to open the door. Jesus is the most humble person in the universe. The one who has all power allowed himself to be spit on, whipped, beaten, and crucified by the people he created. This is a humility beyond anything we can imagine. We are proud, full of ourselves. He is humble, he pours himself out. He will not kick down your door or get out a battering ram or use explosives to get inside. He calls, he knocks, he waits.
3. He’s willing to eat with anyone. “If anyone hears my voice and opens the door . . .” If you open the door for him, no matter who you are, he will come in and have a meal with you. This is a very radical promise. Jesus is promising to eat with anyone. In general, our culture is open and accepting of others, so we don’t take offense when we see different kinds of people eating together. But in Jesus’s culture Jews did not eat with Gentiles. And rabbis like Jesus would never eat with tax collectors and sinners.

One of my professors led a group of students on tour of Israel every year. During a trip one of the students went over to a group of Bedouins and started eating with them. (Bedouins are nomads who live in the desert and move from place to place with all of their belongings and animals.) Upon hearing this, the professor became extremely nervous, because he knew the student didn’t understand the significance of the meal. By eating with them, the student was entering into a formal relationship with them, which included a commitment to do certain things for them. What did the professor do? He ran over to the student and pulled him away from the Bedouins.

This background gets us closer to the thinking in Jesus’s time. Now hear his words once again: “If anyone hears my voice and opens the door . . .” “I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me” (Rev 3:20).

4. He wants a personal relationship with you. “I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.” This is personal. You and Jesus enjoying a meal together.

How does Revelation 3:20 match with Jesus’s behavior in the Gospels?

Jesus in the Gospel of Luke

I’ll focus on the Gospel of Luke. In Luke 5, it says:

After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed him.

Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” (vv. 27-30)

Levi hosted a great banquet for Jesus and Jesus accepted his invitation. Levi opened the door to Jesus and Jesus went in and had a meal with him. Tax collectors were considered to be thieves because they often demanded more money than what was required. They were also viewed as traitors because they worked for Rome. So a good Jew would never eat with a tax collector. But in Luke 5 Jesus eats with a tax collector named Levi as well as “a large crowd of tax collectors and sinners.”

By the way, it seems like Jesus had a good time when he ate with people. He says, “The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners’” (7:34). I don’t think he was eating one little chicken nugget then saying he was stuffed. If they called him a glutton and a drunkard, he must have been enjoying the meal.

Who objected to Jesus’s behavior in Luke 5?

The Pharisees and the teachers of the law.

We see this again in Luke 15: “Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, ‘This man welcomes sinners and eats with them’” (vv. 1-2).

The Pharisees were one of the major religious groups in Israel. Their goal was to obey all the rules of the law and they even created their own rules in the process. Jesus said strong things against the Pharisees, but did he ever have a meal with a Pharisee?

• When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. (7:36)
• When Jesus had finished speaking, a Pharisee invited him to eat with him; so he went in and reclined at the table. (11:37)
• One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched. (14:1)

We have three examples of Jesus going to eat in the house of a Pharisees and there may have been more.

What’s the point?

Jesus goes where he’s welcomed. He eats with tax collectors, sinners, Pharisees, and fishermen like Peter and John. If you invite him in, no matter who you are, he will accept your offer. This matches with Revelation 3:20.

Did you notice that phrase “reclined at the table”? Back then Jews and Romans didn’t sit up at a table like we do. They reclined on their sides while eating. The setting was relaxed and intimate. Jesus was reclining and eating with the outcasts of society and the Pharisees—the people who opposed him. This means Leonardo Da Vinci’s painting of the Last Supper is inaccurate because he depicted everyone sitting up at a table.

Even after his resurrection, Jesus continues to go where he’s welcomed. In Luke 24 Jesus appears to two of his followers, but they didn’t immediately recognize him. Then it says,

As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther. But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them. (vv. 28-29)

Jesus goes where he’s welcomed.

That means the opposite is also true.

Jesus doesn’t go where he’s not welcomed. When people wanted Jesus to leave, he left.

Then all the people of the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them, because they were overcome with fear. So he got into the boat and left. (Lk 8:37)

Jesus is the most humble human who has ever lived on this planet.

Now what will Jesus talk to you about while you are eating with him? What is on the menu for the dinner conversation, which is another way of talking about prayer.

Dinner Conversation

First, Jesus will encourage you with his love and his power. He will tell you things like, “I’m with you; you’re not alone; I died for you. I have defeated death. Trust me, don’t be afraid.” These kind of encouraging words are found throughout the Bible.

Second, he may tell you what you need to change. In Luke 11 when the Pharisee invited Jesus to his home, things didn’t go well for that Pharisee:

³⁷ When Jesus had finished speaking, a Pharisee invited him to eat with him; so he went in and reclined at the table. ³⁸ But the Pharisee was surprised when he noticed that Jesus did not first wash before the meal.

³⁹ Then the Lord said to him, “Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. ⁴⁰ You foolish people! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? . . .

⁴⁴ “Woe to you, because you are like unmarked graves, which people walk over without knowing it.”

I’m sure you have been at the dinner table, when things got a bit heated, but think of Jesus saying these things to his host: “inside you are full of greed and wickedness,” “Woe to you,” “you are like unmarked graves, which people walk over without knowing it.” In other words, you are full of death. Imagine the awkward silence after Jesus spoke these words.

If you invite Jesus in, you must be willing to hear his correction. He is the Lord of all. He has the right to correct, challenge, or reprimand us. But remember that he is the most humble person in the universe and he corrects us because he loves us. The verse before Revelation 3:20 says, “Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent.” So when you are praying, having a meal with Jesus, don’t be surprised if God brings things to mind that you need to change or someone you need to apologize to.

Third, Jesus is always thinking about others so when you spend time with him you will start thinking more about others. As you are praying, having a meal with Jesus, people may come to mind and you can start praying for them. You may also get ideas for what to say to them or how to help them. In particular, he will encourage you to share the good news of his life, death, and resurrection, with the people around you.

Listen to the words of Jesus in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John:

• Therefore go and make disciples of all nations (Matt 28:19-20)
• And the gospel must first be preached to all nations (Mk 13:10)
• Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. (Mk 16:15)
• repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.You are witnesses of these things. (LK 24:46-48)
• Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” (Jn 20:21)

His mission didn’t end 2,000 years ago. It continues with us. He wants us to share the good news with others. Start small. You don’t have to give a lecture. Talk about your church or your youth group. Let people know that your faith matters to you. Start a small group Bible study and invite people who don’t go to church. I dare you to share the good news of Jesus with someone this summer—someone who you are not sure what they believe.

Conclusion

Jesus wants to eat with you. And if you open the door, he will amaze you with his love, he will challenge you with his truth, and he will send you on a mission to reach others. And the awesome thing is that you can open the door any time. While you are driving your car, while you are sitting in class, while you are washing the dishes, you can turn to him and have a meal with him. Even right now, you can turn to him in your heart while I’m talking. Paul said, “he is not far from anyone of us” (Acts 17:27).

One last time: “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me” (Rev 3:20).