Food is biblical.

Consider how often the Bible uses food to mark a spiritually significant event. Passover commemorates God leading the children of Israel out of slavery in Egypt (Exodus 12.1–20). The Lord’s Supper remembers Christ’s death on our behalf (1 Corinthians 11.23–26). We look forward to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb when Christ returns and raises us to eternal life (Revelation 19.6–9).

In each of these cases—and in many more throughout Scripture—the salvation God provides is celebrated with food, and not skimpy hors d’oeuvres either, but a full feast. Why is that the case? It seems to me that there are at least two reasons: sacrifice and hospitality.

Passover is the role model here in Mark 14.12–31. During Passover, the Israelites sacrificed a lamb and spread a portion of its blood over their doorposts so that the Angel of Death would “pass over” their houses when he executed judgment against their Egyptian slave owners. The Lord’s Supper, which was part of a Passover meal, portrays Jesus as the Passover Lamb whose death takes away the sins of the world. And the Marriage Supper of the Lamb—notice that allusion to Passover—is the eternal celebration of what God has done for us through Christ. In each case, the theme of sacrifice is present.

But so too is the theme of hospitality. Have you ever noticed that you usually reserve meals for family and friends? Although on occasion we must eat with our enemies, we do so as rarely as possible. Why? Because food is something to be savored, and the company we keep something to be enjoyed. It’s hard to savor your food or enjoy your company when you know that the person on the other side of the table has it in for you.

Significantly, I think, Jesus ate the Last Supper with his closest friends, the disciples. And yet, Judas would betray him to the governing authorities. Peter would deny him three times. In fact, says Jesus, “You will all fall away,” indicating that all the disciples would run and hide when Jesus was arrested and crucified. (Although John—alone of the disciples—returned to witness the crucifixion.) Jesus ate this meal with his friends, but they turned out to be his enemies, eleven of them temporarily, one of them permanently.

How tragic that Christ’s last meal with his friends would turn out to be a meal with the very people who would desert him when he needed them most! And yet, how necessary for their salvation, and ours! Of the cup, Jesus said, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.” Salvation comes not to those who are already safe, but to those who are in danger. Christ dies not for the righteous, who don’t need his righteousness, but for sinners, who do.

Christ invites us to share the Marriage Supper of the Lamb with him in eternity. To do so, however, we must stop denying and start admitting that we need a Savior. Only then do we become one of the many for whom Christ poured out his life.