In Mark 14:10–26, the institution of the Lord's Supper is deliberately framed by treachery and failure. Mark opens with Judas slipping away to bargain with the chief priests (vv. 10–11) and closes on the road to Gethsemane, where Jesus has just warned that every man at the table will fall away. Between those bookends sits the meal itself—the Passover prepared, the betrayer exposed ("one of you will betray me, one who is dipping bread into the bowl with me"), and then bread broken and a cup poured out as Jesus names them his body and his blood of the covenant, shed for many. The supper is not staged for the righteous or the steadfast. It is set before the very men who will deny, scatter, and betray. That is the scandal and the comfort of the table.

"A Supper for Sinners" presses that point home: the company Jesus keeps at his last meal is a  ...