Remember Me  – Meals as Jesus’ Model for Ministry

Read: Luke 5:27-29, Luke 9:10-17 Theologians have noted in Luke’s Gospel, that there is not a moment where Jesus is not going to, at a, or coming from a meal. The sinners who knew Jesus, met him as a “friend of sinners” at meals, and Jesus’ enemies were always at odds over the fact that he kept eating with sinners. The famous historian and doctor Luke keeps alive the rhythm of meals and their symbol as blessing or curse. Jesus used meals as a visual display to demonstrate his desire to invite all men, women, and children to his table. However, through each individual’s acceptance or rejection of the eating-fellowship-invitation, we also see a remaining sign in the meal that there were those who were inside and those who chose to remain on the outside of God’s kingdom. The following Diagram shows a bit of Luke’s outline, and demonstrates that Jesus’ method of church planting, kingdom building, and his model for sovereign ministry, replication, maturing, and edification, not only remains consistent with Genesis’ beginnings, but only grows deeper in meaning in Jesus’ work: