Table Jesus built~ Altar (could this also be the same table the office-in-charge at the flogging sat at?)
A friend of mine pointed out to me how Jesus sits upon the table he is building, making it an altar, and I had to kick myself for not noticing that. He also said that this scene has the one true joke in this painful story: when Jesus shows the Blessed Virgin the "altar," she quips "It'll never catch on."
But the table the Roman soldier has is smaller and more crudely built. Christ's table has some simple detailing done on the skirting; the soldier's table has no detailing.
It is altar and more than altar.
The apocryphal “come to dinner” scene with Jesus and Mary has become one of my favorites. Though I was initially uneasy with the scene I have come to love its inconography.
I like the whole idea of the table imagery, which is so rich, on so many levels. The table signifies the altar -- and Who plops Himself down upon it, of his own free will?
And still more: being a carpenter, it's Jesus's craft to make things from wood. He avails himself of a thing that's supposedly known, a tree, with a finite life and meaning, which he transfigures into something else. The Incarnate Logos orders "woodness" to a new and permanent life, informed with meaning. "Resurrected" as Table, the wood is saved from fire or corruption, and acquires a new life.
The scene ends with a vivid evocation of the Asperges, with specific application IMHO to the Immaculate Conception. It is a scene that keeps on giving, the longer you look.
Also a reference to Psalm 22 -- "I can count my bones."