Originally published 4/9/19
When there's no Costco, or QT, or neighborhood Publix to shop for groceries or pick up a quick bite, finding, growing and preparing food becomes much of the focus of life. I can go to Aldi and Nelson's vegetable market once a week, and meal planning and preparation still takes a couple of hours each day. I can't imagine how long it took when you had to catch or grow your food, too. So it's no wonder much of Jesus' ministry revolves around food - though he talks about both physical and metaphorical food. For me, it used to be mostly about what's on the stove, but I have evolved to see the spiritual nourishment provided through a meal as well.
One of our favorite places to have a family meal, the beach. We fry fish, too. But from the Atlantic.
Just down the hill from the Mount of Beatitudes, where Jesus fed the 5000 with just a few loaves of bread and some fish, and down the beach from Capernaum, where Jesus took his disciples from the the literal act of fishing to the figurative work of fishing for men, Jesus appeared to the disciples at a place called Tabgha after he had been crucified and resurrected. Today there's a church and a monastery marking the spot. At Tabgha, Jesus both hosted a cookout and reminded the disciples, Peter especially, whom He wanted them to feed.
Church of the Primacy of Saint Peter is built over the rock believed to be where Jesus served the disciples fish during his third resurrection appearance. "Mensa Christi" means table of Christ.
The last chapter of the book of John (21) tells the story of this third appearance following his resurrection. It may be a couple weeks later, and seven of the disciples are back at their literal work, fishing in the Sea of Galilee. They weren't having much luck, and had caught no fish after having fished all night. A person appears on the shoreline and tells them to cast the net on the right side of the boat. There were so many fish there that they couldn't haul the net in the boat. John then realized it was Jesus on the shore, and Peter got so excited he swam ashore. He left the other six to haul the full nets in behind the boat. Jesus already had a fire going, with fish cooking and bread ready. Still, he asked them to bring the fish to him, and Peter went out to the boat to get the fish, of which there were 153 - a lot of fish, but John notes that the net was not torn. (Remember when Jesus recruited them three years earlier they were mending nets with their dad?? So nets must have been rather lightweight in terms of durability. Yet here they are, with a big haul, and the net holds.) Jesus invites them to breakfast, perhaps at the rock in the picture above. Eating together at a table has become really important to me in the last 15 years. Not just because that's when I met Michael (who has to be fed, often), but as I have seen what sharing food at a table together means in terms of a family. Eating at a table was always a priority in my family growing up. Looking through any Johnson family album, you'll find pictures of us at a table, getting ready to eat.
In Fort Pierce, Florida.
On our deck, Hunting Hollow Road, Greenville.
As a kid, we ate together every morning for breakfast, and every evening for dinner. On Sundays, we ate dinner in the dining room at 3 because, well, we just did. It was Sunday. Then we had a snack cake (remember those? It was a mix that came in a box with a paper cake form?) as we watched Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom and 60 Minutes. Breakfast? You may have stopped reading at breakfast. Yes, we ate breakfast together. My dad read a devotion, during which we did NOT eat, then we prayed, then we ate. EVERY. SINGLE. MORNING. And then at night, my dad walked in the door from work, took off his tie, and we sat down to dinner. I think it might have been 6 p.m. I make dinner at 6; I wonder if that is genetically encoded in me. As adults, when Karl and I wandered off and got married, our family meals were less frequent, though we lived close by. When I divorced, my mom closed ranks and began insisting on bi-weekly meals together, in coordination with my new custody schedule. Renee got tired of the panicky phone call each week about where we would eat, so she set a yearly schedule that began in 2004. The Johnson family returned to regularly scheduled dinners of prayer, food, and conversation. Admittedly, I was not as rigorous about dinner at the table in my young adulthood. I'm not going to lay blame for my familial failures in the center of the table, but sitting at the table with the Johnson family and the Cannon family for the past 15 years sure has added life to our years. It hasn't always been easy, especially early in our marriage, coming into a house with a teenager who had never eaten at the table regularly. (Some of those meals may have actually taken years from my life, but we got through them.) But I know it has brought us closer as a family. Because eating at the table isn't really about eating - though the food does provide vital nourishment to our bodies. It's about being together, sitting together, being still together, looking at one another, seeing one another, talking to one another, and listening to one another. And, if in one of my family groups, praying together. Eating is incredibly personal: we all have likes and dislikes, and we might spit or chomp, cut backwards, or totally neglect the knife. These things could be a source of embarrassment, or they could be the sharing of an intimate habit. At the daily Cannon table, we talk about our day, what's to come, or what happened. At the now-more-sporadic Johnson table we catch up on school events, work updates, personal victories, golf scores, cycling distances and how we can all get to the beach together again. Sometimes, embarrassing topics come up. At the Johnson family table, when my brother's triplets were babies, we always got the poop report. You don't realize how important poop is until you have babies - especially three at one time. Renee had a chart to record their movements for three years; that's how the doctor knew everything was progressing as it should. As the trips got older, we somehow continued to always return to the topic of poop while at the table, so much so that once when the topic was broached a couple of years ago, Charlotte said "Great, we've talked about poop. Now we can leave the table." When you sit down and eat (which often happens rather quickly), the time after the meal is important too. My family has gotten in the habit of remaining at the table, after children have cleared the dishes, to continue talking and sharing. That's when the real stuff comes out. Not because the children have evacuated the room, but because our bellies are full and we are happy and relaxed and ready to share the most personal of things. It was then, after breakfast, that Jesus asks Peter three times to feed people. When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” A second time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep..." John 21: 15-17 So here Jesus tends to their physical need to eat, and then asks Peter specifically three times to tend His flocks. He, like many of Christ's followers in the day (not to mention Christ himself) will suffer a martyr's fate, which Jesus foretells next. Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.” (He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, “Follow me.” John 21: 18-19
Wait. What? Jesus just told him, standing over that rock, picking at the leftover fish, that he is going to be killed too. Even if it is to the glory of God, that is a scary thing to know. Peter did take pause, though, and asked about John's fate.
“Lord, what about him?” Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? Follow me!” John 21: 21-22
Irritated. Jesus is irritated. It's not exactly a conversation about poop. This is serious instruction and a fatherly rebuke to a childish question. But this is how the story ends. I imagine Peter bowed his head in a little bit of shame and a lot of obedience to Jesus' orders. Important things happen at a table where a meal is shared.
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