At the Table with Jesus
Posted By: Jim Hoag
My son Zach preached a stunning sermon at church yesterday. He exposited Luke 14, including Luke 14:8-22 and Jesus' banquet table for "the poor and the maimed, the lame and the blind." This is a story about a revolutionary table, set up intentionally for the disenfranchised, those of the back alleys, the highways and hedges - those on the outside looking in. After the sermon we were all moved and for me, I woke up this morning still thinking about it. As I went through my ritual of reading, including posts from other blogs, I came across an article by John Frye that not only affirmed what Zach had spoken but added a "Yes and Amen" to it. I've included some excerpts:
The Aims of Jesus: Gutsy Table Fellowship
I want to focus on Jesus' habit of table fellowship with sinners. The religious avoided at all costs table fellowship with the irreligious. It was considered immoral to be at table with sinners. But Jesus' meal-time practice shattered all religious and social order. His blatant fellowship made a powerful impression and ignited some of the fiercest opposition. This was eating, mind you.
But it was different than even John the Baptist's method. Jesus maintained revolutionary contact and communion with sinners. John required repentance/ conversion first, then communion. Jesus radically (what a pastor!) reversed the order: communion first, then conversion! What was Jesus doing? He fitted his practice to His proclamation. The kingdom of God is here and whoever wants to can enter it...now. All who were considered unblessed (unfit) were now considered blessed: the poor, the tax-collectors, the social riff-raff and maginalized. How can the words of Jesus take on incarnate shape? At His table! Jesus considered his table fellowship a foretaste of the great banquet where Abraham, Isaac and Jacob will dine.
Amazing Grace...How Sweet the Taste!
Jesus believed that welcoming grace had inherent power to generate repentance/conversion. Certainly Zacchaeus is Exhibit A. The grace of God named Jesus initiated communion with Zacchaeus and we know the result. Jesus' mission valued reconciliation both with God and with man. Jesus lived that reconciliation in grace. Were Pharisees and the religious elite welcomed to Jesus' table? Yes, of course; it was a table of grace. Yet the elite, for ethnic, moral and religious reasons refused the table and considered Jesus a blasphemous, rebellious trouble-maker. Oh, had they known.
So What?
Well, many have turned evangelicalism into a new form of Pharisaism by demanding repentance first and then, only then, is communion (at the table) legitimate. How we can do this in the face of Jesus' message and meal-time habits is difficult to fathom...
This Christmas, maybe all of us can set up some sort of "table", a revolutionary table, set up intentionally for the disenfranchised, those of the back alleys, the highways and hedges; those on the outside looking in.
[You can check out more of Jim's stuff at his blog, MissionNow.]
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