Breaking Bread: Dining Like Jesus


In Jesus’ day, meals were about more than just the bread, olives, grapes, figs, and occasional fish. They were a way to make a statement and to send a message. For most meals, the point being made centered on what did it mean to be a child of God, or more to the point — a Jew. Meals established identity both socially and religiously. In Jesus’ world, Jews used meals to reinforce the belief that they were separate from all others and special in God’s eyes. This was the point of both the content of the meal and the manner in which it was served. The meal drove home the message that there are people who are insiders and people who are outsiders to God’s care and love. In many ways, the meal was the center of Jewish identity. It is not surprising then, that the table became the place where Jesus delivered some of God’s most direct, and for many Jews, stomach-turning revelations. Through the dozen or more meals that Jesus shares with others in Luke, Jesus shares the revelation that God welcomes the very people that Jewish teachers had cast out. These include those who have been stigmatized by mainstream religion. Jesus brings God’s divine hospitality in the form of meals that are marked by joy, generosity, forgiveness, inclusivity, the rejection of status, and most importantly — the experience of Jesus’ presence. Jesus reveals a God who is the divine host who nourishes and welcomes all the people.

This five-week series, from the Gospel of Luke, Pastor Mike will examine stories of Jesus having a meal. Along the way, we will seek to learn more about the person of Jesus, his mission, and what his dining habits mean for our everyday faith.

Pastor Mike Brown
Breaking Bread: Dining Like Jesus

Living Like Jesus

Luke 22:7-13

Then came the day of Unleavened Bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. So Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover meal for us that we may eat it.” They asked him, “Where do you want us to make preparations for it?” “Listen,” he said to them, “when you have entered the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you; follow him into the house he enters and say to the owner of the house, ‘The teacher asks you, “Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?”’ He will show you a large room upstairs, already furnished. Make preparations for us there.” So they went and found everything as he had told them; and they prepared the Passover meal.

Pastor Mike Brown
April 03, 2022
Pastor Mike Brown
Breaking Bread: Dining Like Jesus

Connect with God’s Power

Luke 11:37-41

While he was speaking, a Pharisee invited him to dine with him; so he went in and took his place at the table. The Pharisee was amazed to see that he did not first wash before dinner. Then the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You fools! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? So give for alms those things that are within; and see, everything will be clean for you.

Pastor Mike Brown
March 27, 2022
Pastor Mike Brown
Breaking Bread: Dining Like Jesus

Finding & Giving Forgiveness

Luke 10:38-42

Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”

Pastor Mike Brown
March 20, 2022
Pastor Mike Brown
Breaking Bread: Dining Like Jesus

The Power Within Your Mistakes

Luke 9:10-17

On their return the apostles told Jesus all they had done. He took them with him and withdrew privately to a city called Bethsaida. When the crowds found out about it, they followed him; and he welcomed them, and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed to be cured.

The day was drawing to a close, and the twelve came to him and said, “Send the crowd away, so that they may go into the surrounding villages and countryside, to lodge and get provisions; for we are here in a deserted place.” But he said to them, “You give them something to eat.” They said, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish—unless we are to go and buy food for all these people.” For there were about five thousand men. And he said to his disciples, “Make them sit down in groups of about fifty each.” They did so and made them all sit down. And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. And all ate and were filled. What was left over was gathered up, twelve baskets of broken pieces.

Pastor Mike Brown
March 13, 2022
Pastor Mike Brown
Breaking Bread: Dining Like Jesus

How to Find Your Place at the Table

Luke 7:36-50

One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and took his place at the table. And a woman in the city, who was a sinner, having learned that he was eating in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment. She stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to bathe his feet with her tears and to dry them with her hair. Then she continued kissing his feet and anointing them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him—that she is a sinner.” Jesus spoke up and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” “Teacher,” he replied, “speak.” “A certain creditor had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he canceled the debts for both of them. Now which of them will love him more?” Simon answered, “I suppose the one for whom he canceled the greater debt.” And Jesus said to him, “You have judged rightly.” Then turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has bathed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.” Then he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” But those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

Pastor Mike Brown
March 06, 2022
Pastor Mike Brown
Breaking Bread: Dining Like Jesus