{"id":357,"date":"2015-04-08T15:21:03","date_gmt":"2015-04-08T14:21:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=357"},"modified":"2015-04-08T15:21:03","modified_gmt":"2015-04-08T14:21:03","slug":"who-ate-the-last-supper-with-jesus-john-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=357","title":{"rendered":"Who ate the Last Supper with Jesus? John 13"},"content":{"rendered":"

John 13:21 After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, \u201cI tell you the truth, one of you is going to betray me.\u201d
\n26 Jesus answered, \u201cIt is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.\u201d Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, son of Simon. 27 As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him.
\n\u201cWhat you are about to do, do quickly,\u201d Jesus told him, 28 but no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him. 29 Since Judas had charge of the money, some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the Feast, or to give something to the poor. 30 As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night.<\/p>\n

In the time of Jesus, as it is in the middle east still today, eating together meant much more than it does to us. In the busy west eating has been hijacked. Either it is about fast food, just trying to take more than enough calories to survive. Or else it is about fine dining, where all the attention is on the flavours and the textures and most people couldn\u2019t care less who they are sitting next to.
\nIn first century Palestine people ate together for much more important reasons than that. You wouldn\u2019t eat with strangers \u2013 they might break all kinds of dietary laws and that would render a religious Jew ritually unclean. So sharing food became a sign of fellowship and closeness and unity. Conversely refusing to share what was called \u201ctable fellowship\u201d with another person marked them out as somebody you considered to be an outsider.
\nAnthropologists tell us that, ‘to know what, where, how, when and with whom people eat is to know the character of their society.’
\nIn the social world of Jesus\u2019 day, meals together had four basic functions:
\n\u2022 To support kinship \u2013 to create solidarity. One ate with the clan and by doing so established the boundaries of who was \u201cin\u201d and who was \u201cout.\u201d Meals reminded the household where their loyalties lay.
\n. \u2022 To enforce boundaries \u2013 hierarchy, status, and gender \u2013 especially through seating arrangements. During these meals the social group was reminded who sat at the head of the table and who was at the foot
\n \u2022 To perpetuate social values, especially through religious meals
\n\u2022 To gain honor through hosting banquets or and clever conversation. The wealthy were able to show off as well as demonstrate benevolence to guests. The guests were able to show deference as well as entertain their host and other guests with wit or wisdom.
\nSo meals were complex social events for building community. Eating together and who you shared table fellowship with was very important. There are no less than 19 references to eating together just in Luke\u2019s Gospel and in Acts. So it is highly significant that in the Gospels we find Jesus time and again breaking with those Jewish conventions and sharing table fellowship with tax collectors and prostitutes. Even eating at the homes of Matthew and Zacchaeus who were both despised tax collectors. Connecting with the poorest and the lowest of society and defining who Jesus\u2019s true family are.
\nSo we come to the last and most important meal of Jesus\u2019s life \u2013 the Passover meal on the night before he died. And one question fascinates me.
\nWHO ELSE WAS AT THE TABLE?
\nJohn \u2013 the disciple Jesus loved. But he was by no means perfect! It was John and his brother James, \u201cthe sons of thunder\u201d who wanted to be given the places of greatest honour in the Kingdom of God, seated on Jesus\u2019s right and on His left. So John wasn\u2019t perfect!
\nPeter \u2013 who would disown Jesus. Within hours, before the cock crowed, Peter would deny that he knew Jesus not once, not twice but three times, to a servant girl and to a slave.
\nThomas the twin \u2013 who would question the resurrection. Who wouldn\u2019t believe until he had seen with his own eyes.
\nAll the other apostles \u2013 who would run away and hide leaving only the women who would stay at Jesus\u2019s side.
\nAnd Judas \u2013 who would betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. Judas who would hand his Master and his Friend over to the Temple Guards, who would hand Jesus over to Pilate who would hand Jesus over to be crucified. And Jesus does not merely share the bread with Judas. Jesus actually dips the bread into the shared bowl and placed it into Judas’s mouth! Table fellowship indeed!<\/p>\n

Who Jesus chose to share table fellowship with is immensely significant. And at the Lord\u2019s Supper it was not the priests and the Pharisees. It was not the important people. It was his disciples who had been with him through three years. But more than that, it was ALL His disciples. Even Peter who was about to deny Him. Even Judas who was about to betray Him.
\nThese are the kinds of people Jesus invites to His table. Which is just as well, because these are just the kind of people we are too!!
\nRomans 5 6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John 13:21 After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, \u201cI tell you the truth, one of you is going…<\/span><\/p>\n

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