At the Same Table: Romans 14:1-12

Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters.

The table was set in Prisca and Aquila's house. Bread, oil, olives. Some fish. The Lord's Supper would follow the meal.

But tension crackled before anyone sat down.

One person's faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables.

Marcus had arrived with a plate of roasted pork. He was a Gentile convert, raised worshiping Jupiter, now baptized into Christ. He had never kept kosher. Meat was meat.

Shimon saw the pork and felt his stomach turn. He was Jewish, born in the Judean hills, raised on Torah. He had kept kosher his entire life. The prohibition against pork wasn't disputable to him—it was woven into his identity.

The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them both.

Marcus rolled his eyes. These Jewish scruples. Christ had declared all foods clean. Why were they still clinging to shadows when the substance had come?

Shimon's jaw tightened. These Gentiles with their casual disregard for God's law. Just because they never had standards didn't mean they should abandon all restraint.

Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.

Prisca intervened. "Both of you are servants of Christ. Neither of you is the other's master. Save your judgments."

One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind.

The calendar was another flashpoint. Shimon observed Sabbath, Passover, the feasts. Marcus worshiped on the Lord's Day, the first day of the week, and saw no distinction between Tuesday and the Day of Atonement.

Both were Christians. Both loved Jesus. Both would die for the faith if required.

And they could barely share a meal.

Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God.

Aquila spoke up. "Shimon, when you abstain from pork, you're doing it for Jesus, right? Not just habit?"

Shimon nodded. "I offer my eating to Christ. My restraint is worship."

"Marcus, when you eat freely, you're doing it for Jesus? Not just appetite?"

Marcus paused. "I... give thanks. I thank God for the freedom Christ bought."

"Then you're both serving the same Lord. You just serve him differently at the dinner table."

For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone. If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.

We belong to the Lord. Shimon belonged to Jesus. Marcus belonged to Jesus. Their eating habits, their calendar preferences—these were expressions of belonging, not conditions of it.

For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.

Christ died for both of them. Rose for both of them. He was Lord of Shimon's kosher kitchen and Marcus's Gentile freedom. Lord of the living—both of them, still breathing, still worshiping. Lord of the dead—their ancestors, their martyrs, their future selves.

You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or why do you treat them with contempt?

Marcus felt the rebuke. Contempt—that was the word. He had looked down on Shimon's scruples. Seen them as weakness, immaturity, Judaism that should have been outgrown.

For we will all stand before God's judgment seat.

Shimon felt it too. He would stand before God for his judgments. Every eye roll at Gentile carelessness. Every assumption that his way was the only way. He would give account.

It is written: "'As surely as I live,' says the Lord, 'every knee will bow before me; every tongue will acknowledge God.'"

Every knee. Jewish knees. Gentile knees. Marcus and Shimon, side by side, bowing to the same Lord. Acknowledging the same God.

So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.

Not an account of each other. An account of ourselves. Each person answering for their own choices, their own judgments, their own contempt or grace.

The meal began. Shimon ate vegetables and bread. Marcus ate the pork, moving his plate to the far end of the table out of consideration. The wine was shared. The bread was broken.

And at the table of the Lord, weak and strong sat together.

Because Christ had died for them both.