The Place Of Healing

While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

—Matthew 9:10–13

We tend to believe that what we’ve done is too bad—that our sins and mistakes are beyond repair, and our faults and failures too deep and ugly. That’s what shame tells us. But if we take a chance and come to the table, and if there we are treated with respect and kindness, then that voice of shame recedes for a little while, enough to let the voice of truth, of Christ himself, get planted a little deeper each time. The table becomes the place of healing.

When the table is full, heavy with platters, wine glasses scattered, napkins crumpled, dessert plates scattered with crumbs, candles burning low—in those moments I feel a deep sense of God’s presence and happiness.

When you offer peace instead of division, faith instead of fear, when you offer someone a place at your table instead of keeping them out because they’re different or wrong somehow, you represent the heart of Christ.