On Jesus’ last day of life, what does he do? In John 13, he gathers with friends around a table, eats and drinks. He kneels and washes their feet. 

While I’m here, proclaims Jesus, I will pour myself out to you and serve you. We will feast together, on the Passover meal and on the stories of our faith. We will belong together and become one body together. My human flesh is a blessing, a burden, and a gift that I use to enjoy you. A gift that I give to you. Remember me.

“I won’t feel the flowing of the time when I’m gone,” sings Phil Ochs, and he winsomely tells us the highs and lows and mundanes of life that he doesn’t want to take for granted. Mortality makes them all matter, and so he sings of both the pleasurable and the painful: “So I guess I’ll have to do it while I’m here.”

The wisdom of mortality proclaims that even our worries are a gift, because they will not always be – because we will not always be.

There are so many things I take for granted – the 45 minutes of snoozing my alarm and feeling groggy and resentful in the morning. Someday I will not get those 45 minutes.

I even take for granted a rushed and distracted meal during which I’m stressed about the carbs or calories. Someday I’ll have my final meal.

• Two grilled cheese sandwiches
• one pint of cottage cheese
• a hominy-corn mixture
• one piece of peach pie
• one pint of chocolate chip ice cream
• radishes

That was Stephen Wayne Anderson’s last meal before he was killed by lethal injection by the state of California.

• Two cheeseburgers with lettuce and mayonnaise
• French fries with ketchup
• one Dr. Pepper and one Mountain Dew

Is that what you would put on your last menu? Herman Dale Ashworth did.

Odell Barnes Jr. just asked for “justice, equality, and world peace,” but Texas did not put any of that on the table before killing him by lethal injection.

A couple months ago I went to Michigan City, Ind., with my family to keep vigil outside the maximum security prison as our state killed Joseph Corcoran, the first state execution in 15 years. Corcoran requested Ben & Jerry’s for his last meal. When asked if he had any last words, he said, “Not really. Let’s get this over with.”

However you might feel about the death penalty, I bet we can all agree that people should be able to eat what they want for their last meal. Corey Johnson got the pizza and strawberry milkshake he asked for — but not the jelly-filled donuts. Instead the prison guard handed him donut holes. On any other day, I’d turn my nose up to jelly-filled donuts, but on Corey’s last day, jelly donuts were a sacrament, denied.

What’s on your last meal menu?

My favorite foods are berries, dark chocolate, black beans, avocado, saag with mushrooms, corn on the cob, squash. I wonder if I could stomach them if I knew it was my last meal. And yet, why miss the tangy sweet burst of juice in a berry? Why miss the rich comfort of melting chocolate?

Harold McQueen, Jr. shared two cheesecakes with his attorney before Kentucky electrocuted him.

Philip Ray Workman’s last meal menu was a vegetarian pizza to be given to a homeless person in Nashville. The state of Tennessee refused, but many people who heard about Philip’s request carried it out in his honor. 

That sounds like Jesus’ last supper, when he offered himself as bread and cup to his friends. And in John 21, perhaps Jesus’ last meal (after the resurrection) he says, “Do you have anything to eat?” and eats the grilled fish in front of them, his last meal.

The story says that the disciples thought he was a ghost. He asked them to touch him – touch his hands and feet, touch his flesh and bones, touch his wounds. And still they couldn’t believe. So he ate in front of them.

When I read the last meal requests of people about to be executed, I know they are real people, just like me. They are people who eat, people who have bodies that enjoy food, need food. Our bodies are united through eating, especially when we get to do it together. Jesus joins us at the table. He joins us by getting hungry and by eating and drinking — and then enjoying it so much that he is called a glutton and a drunkard! Jesus joins us in the miracle of having a body: a body that feels pleasure and pain, a body that has needs and desires, a body that will not live forever.

But while we are living in these bodies, let us celebrate them!

Recipe: Cookie Dough Hummus

This recipe is filling and basically healthy, but still dessert.

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cups cooked chickpeas or white beans 
• ¼ cup nut butter of your choice 
• 2 tablespoons oats, flaxmeal or flour
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• ⅛ teaspoon baking soda 
• Pinch salt
• Sweetener of your choice, in amount of your choice. This is where the variations can be endless, depending on your preference and dietary needs.
  • 1 tablespoon maple syrup (barely notice the sweet)
  • ½ cup sugar (definitely tastes like dessert)
  • Pinch stevia

• ⅓ cup chocolate chips (sugar-free, vegan, or just whatever you like to use)

Instructions

1. Blend all ingredients, except for the chocolate chips, in a food processor or powerful blender.
2. When smooth, add the chocolate chips.