ISAIAH 58: 9B-14/LUKE 5:27-32

So what’s with Jesus eating and drinking all the while? Consider this; His public ministry began in Cana at a wedding feast and ended in Jerusalem at the last supper. Both were meals! He was at Lazarus home, there were meals for the four thousand and five thousand. He was eating in the house of Zacchaeus, the home of the Pharisee and on the road to Emmaus. Some scripture scholars jokingly say that Jesus ate his way through the gospels.

And then there was the criticism of where He ate and with whom He ate. Shockingly, joining the never ending chorus of complaints from the Pharisees were the disciples of John the Baptist. “Your disciples do not fast!” they complained. In general, they were more than uncharitable to Jesus when they called him a glutton and friend of drunkards. How did He react? Simple, He ‘memorialized it,’ forever! “Take”, He says to us at every Eucharist, “and eat, for this is my body.”