The Lunch Tray at Table Nine

In 2019, a ten-year-old boy named Christian McPhilamy sat in the cafeteria of his elementary school in Melbourne, Florida, and noticed something that bothered him. A classmate who had bullied him for months — mocking his clothes, knocking books from his hands — was sitting alone at table nine, staring at an empty spot where a lunch tray should have been. The boy's family couldn't afford the meal account balance.

Christian didn't hesitate. He walked to the lunch line, bought a second tray with his own money, and set it down in front of the boy who had made his life miserable. No speech. No conditions. Just a tray of food slid across a cafeteria table.

The bully looked up, stunned. "Why would you do that?" he asked.

"Because you're hungry," Christian said. And he sat down across from him.

This is the economy Jesus describes in Luke 6:27-38 — an economy that makes no sense by the world's ledger. Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Give, expecting nothing in return. It is an ethic that defies every instinct of self-preservation we carry.

But notice what Jesus promises: "Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over." God does not ask us to love recklessly and then leave us empty-handed. He asks us to love recklessly because that is precisely how He loves us — without condition, without limit, without end.

The lunch tray at table nine cost $2.75. What it purchased was beyond calculation.