Turning our thoughts to those who ‘lay the table’ during Holy Week

Psalm 23 is often chosen by families as the psalm to be included in the funeral liturgy. There are some beautiful images in the psalm; God as the Good Shepherd with the comfort of the shepherd leading the sheep through difficult places as well as along quiet rivers and green pastures. The one image that holds an ambivalence is the welcoming image of God setting the table, amongst the hostility of those who are enemies. It used to jar when I read it aloud at funerals, as though I had to play up the first part of God’s generous hospitality and downplay the attendance of the aggressive onlookers. That is until I heard its resonances in the drama of Maundy Thursday. I could imagine Jesus speaking the Psalm about God the provider and Shepherd and as God setting out the feast “in the face of those who trouble me.”

For Luke tells us that the chief priests and the scribes were looking for a an opportunity “to do away” with Jesus (Lk 22.2). And when Jesus gives instructions for the disciples to prepare for the feast he has already spoken earlier in his ministry about the elders, chief priests and scribes wanting to put him to death (Lk 9.22). In celebrating the feast he says to the disciples “I have ardently longed to eat this Passover with you before I suffer, (Lk 22.14). On Maundy Thursday we can see how the God of Psalm 23 resolutely continues setting the banquet out even in the face of those who want to destroy the participants at the feast.

To read it in this light is only half of the story. I have been so accustomed to hear the provider of the feast as God the Father, that it came as a shock and revelation to hear John Bell of the Iona community point out that the job of the one who lays the table and sets out the food is, nearly universally, the role of the woman. Is the psalmist giving us a glimpse into the feminine aspect of God, as the one who provides food and invites us to eat?

When we allow for this image of the feminine, other resonances from Holy Week come into focus. On Monday of Holy Week we hear the gospel of John 12. 1-11, the meal at Bethany six days before the Passover. It is now Martha who is the host, setting out the table and serving (“diekonei” in Greek) Jesus. She too is in a similar place to Jesus on Maundy Thursday, for at the end of the Gospel reading we hear that there are many who come to the house to see Lazarus. Possibly amongst their number are the same chief priests who decide to kill Lazarus, as his rising from the dead has caused many followers to leave them and follow Jesus. Martha is literally laying the table in the face of those who “trouble” her and her family.

Mary’s role too has resonances from Psalm 23 as she anoints the feet of Jesus with costly perfume, an action that the “Lord” of Psalm 23 performs for the speaker, “You have anointed my head and my cup will be full”. It is the second half of the same verse where the table has been laid. Martha and Mary together act out verse five of the psalm in a way that has echoes of Jesus eating with his disciples and washing their feet on Maundy Thursday.

The image of God in a feminine role in Psalm 23 laying the table and preparing the food has a contemporary and chilling aspect. Many women today are collecting firewood and food in the face of those who trouble them. A report in 2023 by the UNHCR found that many women are raped and sexually assaulted as they collect fuel to make a meal for their families. This gender based violence is so widespread that it is now known as “firewood rape”. Women and girls are especially vulnerable where there has been displacement due to war or famine.

As we take part in the services of Holy Week, we might turn our prayers and thoughts to those who will lay the table in the face of those who trouble them. When the priest or deacon sets up the altar it will mirror the image of many women all over the world who are laying the table and setting out the food for their families. For some of those women, their actions of service, like Jesus, will cost them their lives.

Rev’d Caroline Worsfold is an Anglican priest who worked as a chaplain in the NHS for over 30 years. She work now as a psychotherapist in private practice and continue to work in local parishes as a priest. She lives in Stockton on Tees.