Day 42, On The Road To Pentecost: TAKE AND EAT

John 21:12-14 

On the beach the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ took bread and fish and shared breakfast with His disciples.  The disciples, somewhat still in shock, experienced the moment almost as worship.  They were just beginning to get their minds around the most remarkable event in all of human history.  Jesus really was alive.  Yet, on the beach they experienced a Jesus who just sat down with them to have breakfast.  It was almost as if Good Friday had never happened; but, make no mistake about it, it happened. They knew it happened.  Now they were having breakfast with Him.

Truth is that the meal along the beach that morning was a sacramental feast.  It was Jesus who took the bread.  It was Jesus who took the fish. It was Jesus who invited them to the campfire.  I suspect that breakfast was one they never forgot.  How could they?  For the third time after that fantastic Sunday morning, Jesus showed up. 

Deep down in my very own being Jesus has shown up a thousand times or more, and invited me to sit and have breakfast.  He sets the table.  He prepares the food.  He breaks the bread.  He prays the blessing.  He hands me a plate, and I feel like I’m doing all the receiving and He’s doing all the serving.  He says “take and eat,” and I do.  

Tucked away in my memory is a story by the late, Bob Benson.  He shares,

Do you remember when they had old-fashioned Sunday School picnic? It was before air-conditioning. They said, "We'll meet a Sycamore Lodge in Shelby Park at 4:30 Saturday. You bring your supper and we'll furnish the tea."

            But you came home at the last minute and when you got ready to pack your lunch, all you could find in the refrigerator was one dried up piece of baloney and just enough mustard in the bottom of the jar so that you got it all over your knuckles trying to get to it. And there were just two stale pieces of bread. So you made your baloney sandwich and wrapped it in some brown bag and went to the picnic. And when it came time to eat you sat at the end of a table and spread out your sandwich.

            But the folks next to you - the lady was a good cook and she had worked all day and she had fried chicken, and baked beans, and potato salad, and homemade rolls, and sliced tomatoes, and pickles, and olives, and celery, and topped it off with two big homemade chocolate pies. And they spread it all out beside you and there you were with your baloney sandwich.

But they said to you, "Why don't we put it all together?" "No, I couldn't do that, I just couldn't even think about it." you murmured embarrassedly. "Oh, come on, there's plenty of chicken and plenty of pie and plenty of everything - and we just love baloney sandwiches. Let's put it all together."

And so you did and there you sat - eating like a king when you came like a pauper. (Come Share the Being, by Bob Benson: Impact Books, 1974)