“Come and dine” – Sunday Thought For The Day

In his Gospel the Apostle John shares a poignantly beautiful moment between the resurrected Christ and His disciples.  It’s found in John 21:12 KJV.  To be perfectly candid, I find the 21st chapter of John’s Gospel one of personal endearment for a plethora of reasons, notwithstanding the tenderness of our Lord’s entreaty to His disciples to “Come and dine.”

It’s important that I note there is much more going on in this chapter of scripture than Jesus calling the disciples to come and have breakfast.  But, as I indicated, it’s the tenderness of the moment John conveys out of his fellowship with Christ that permeates the reciprocal love and warmth.

All else taking place notwithstanding; it’s the call of Christ my Lord to “Come” that so blesses my soul.  I think to myself, my Lord only extends the invitation to come (and in this instance dine with Him at breakfast), to those who belong to Him; to those who have metaphorically spent the darkness of night in obedience to Him.  And as the brightness of the dawn of the new day arises, my resurrected Lord beckons me to “Come and dine.”

Yes, to be sure there is much that takes place both exegetically and expositionally in the final chapter of John’s Gospel; but, it’s the tenderness of my resurrected Lord and Savior’s voice calling me to “Come and dine” with Him and my brethren that so warms my heart.

However, I/we can only receive the invitation to “Come and dine” if I/we have accepted His invitation to accept Him as propitiation for my/our sins.  All the more reason my love for the old Hymn: “Softly and Tenderly (Jesus Is Calling)” written in 1880 by Will Lamartine Thompson (1847-1909).

“Softly and Tenderly (Jesus Is Calling)”
Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling,
Calling for you and for me;
See, on the portals He’s waiting and watching,
Watching for you and for me.

Come home, come home,
Ye who are weary, come home;
Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling,
Calling, O sinner, come home!

Why should we tarry when Jesus is pleading,
Pleading for you and for me?
Why should we linger and heed not His mercies,
Mercies for you and for me?

Come home, come home,
Ye who are weary, come home;
Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling,
Calling, O sinner, come home!

O for the wonderful love He has promised,
Promised for you and for me!
Though we have sinned, He has mercy and pardon,
Pardon for you and for me.

Come home, come home,
Ye who are weary, come home;
Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling,
Calling, O sinner, come home!

Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling,
Calling, O sinner, come home, come home, come home,

Come home!