This is not just a meal, it is a household meal. It is a family meal. This is a meal for sons and daughters, not for aliens and strangers. This may strike us as odd, because we know that in the Scriptures we are to invite everyone to this meal.
But there is an important qualification that must be remembered. It is true that we invite all strangers and aliens to this meal, but not with them coming in their capacity as strangers and aliens. Rather, we are inviting strangers and aliens to become sons and daughters, and then to sit down with us.
The fact that some stay away and others come hypocritically does not change the nature of the event. We are eating together as a household. We all know the cliché, the family that prays together stays together. Related to this, we have to remember that the family that eats together stays together. One of the reasons why the modern household is in trouble is the infrequency of their common meals. And one of the reasons why the church of Jesus Christ is so fragmented in our nation today is the same reason. The family that eats together stays together.
You are summoned to break bread together, and drink wine together. You are to consider all the saints here together with you, and discern the body. You are to be at peace with one another. For example, as you sit with the bread in your hand, next to the sister you squabbled with this morning, that bread and your faith together say that you should lean over and say, “Sorry.”