Serving up satisfaction and sacrifice …

Throughout human history, people have loved feasts.

Whenever and wherever people gather to spend any time together, someone usually brings food. Whether it’s a co-worker who brings into the office their freshly made favorite recipe, or almost any event “at church,” we like to eat when we gather together.

No more so than on Thanksgiving Day. It’s the one day of the year where everyone indulges mightily without any sense of guilt. It’s a day when feasting is part of the celebration of sharing our gratitude.

It’s interesting that scripture doesn’t record many times when Jesus “gave thanks,” but there are a couple key examples. Both are giving thanks at a meal.

One is recorded in Matthew 14. Jesus had spent much of a day healing among and caring for a crowd of more than 5,000 people. By evening time, the people needed food. The problem? Hardly anyone brought any food! But there were five loaves of bread and two fish … more than enough when Jesus is the one serving out the portions:

“17 They said to Him, ‘We have here only five loaves and two fish.’ 18 And He said, ‘Bring them here to Me.’ 19 Ordering the people to sit down on the grass, He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, He blessed the food, and breaking the loaves He gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds, 20 and they all ate and were satisfied. They picked up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve full baskets,” Matthew 14:17-20.

On Thanksgiving, as we gather around tables covered with more food than we could possibly eat at one sitting (which results in those delicious Thanksgiving leftovers), we can see how God continues to bless us with what we need like Jesus did the crowd: “… and all ate and were satisfied.”

When we partake of what Christ serves to us, we can be satisfied.

The other text is Matthew 26:26-30 and is a very different setting:

“26 While they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, ‘Take, eat; this is My body.’ 27 And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you; 28 for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins. 29 But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom. 30 After singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.”

Jesus knew how forgetful we are, even about the things we should be most grateful for. So he created a simple meal (we refer to it as Communion), prefaced with a blessing, to help us remember the thing for which our gratitude should have no end: His sacrifice for our sins.

As Jesus mixed food and the giving of thanks, my prayer is that you will do likewise as you celebrate with family and friends a feast of Thanksgiving. And like Jesus, my prayer is that you’ll recall there’s something greater than the food to be thankful for …

Have a blessed Thanksgiving Day!

Scotty