The Vision (5.24.19): Come and dine

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on John 21:1-14.

Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine (John 21:12a).

Let’s return to that last statement of the risen Lord to the seven disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, “Come and dine.”

Many interpreters have found in this invitation overtones of the Eucharist, or the Lord’s Supper, as a means of grace, even though the food here is not the bread and cup, but the bread and fish.

That’s possible, but rather than an invitation to the Lord’s table I think we can see it more broadly as a general invitation to discipleship, to join in having that nourishing and soul-satisfying communion with Christ, which includes being part of God’s people, that fellowship which Christ has built and to which the apostles and those who have come after have added in his name.

Come and enjoy. Come and be fed. Come and be ministered unto by the risen Christ himself. Christ satisfies the hungry soul. Christ fills the empty life. Christ gives rest to the weary. Come and dine.

Christ’s statement might be described as the New Covenant equivalent to Isaiah 55:1: “Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat: yea, come buy wine and milk without money and without price.”

And to Psalm 34:8: “O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.”

And it anticipates that ultimate communion which is to come: “Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb” (Revelation 16:9).

Come and dine.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle