ROOM AT THE TABLE
Sermon
A Meal For The Road
14 Sermons On The Lord's Supper
One of the treasured pictures we have of Jesus in the gospels
is that of him feeding crowds that came to hear him teach in
remote places about Galilee. Another is of him socializing at
table with people others counted unworthy, "tax collectors and
sinners," as the religious people disdainfully called them.
(Matthew 9:11) There was always room at Jesus' table for
everyone. Not so with the Pharisees, who thought themselves
somehow made impure by association with the common people. Who
you ate with was a serious matter in that culture, for it implied
acceptance, covenant and friendship.
That Jesus found the smugness of the religious elite
unacceptable was driven home in his Parable of the Great Banquet
where the invited guests failed to appear and replacements were
found in "the highways and hedges." (Luke 14:23) It was Jesus'
way of saying that there is room for everyone at God's table and
that it is to the elite's chagrin that they fail to understand
this. It is a failure to understand the impartiality and grace of
the God whom they claim to honor and serve.
In light of this major implication of Jesus' ministry, it is
ironic to note that when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, there
15
was no room for the Holy Family in the inn. While others partied
inside, Joseph and the expectant Mary were relegated to a cow
stall out back! Luke suggests that the only people who noticed
them and showed hospitality to the new-born child were a few
"common people" -- the shepherds who had been tending someone's
sheep outside the city. We can envision them bringing what dried
figs and nuts that they may have carried as provisions for their
night-time vigil. The Holy Family's first hosts, then, were
humble, common folk, rejected by the religious elite as cavalier
in their religious practices.
Sadly, the poor reception that Jesus received at his birth
from the majority continued until his crucifixion at their
instigation! Not only had he been expelled from their tables but
from their synagogues (Luke 4:28-29) and their temple (Luke 22:1-
2), as well. The ultimate rejection came when they chose Barabbas
over Jesus to be crucified. (Luke 23:18)
The inhospitality did not go unnoticed by Jesus. As would-be
followers came to volunteer, Jesus reminded them that "foxes have
holes and birds their nests but the Son of Man has no place to
rest his head." (Matthew 8:20) And he later warned 70 followers
getting set for a missionary journey to anticipate that they may
have to expect many inhospitable receptions:
Whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go into
the streets and say, "Even the dust of your town that clings to
our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this, the
kingdom of God has come near." -- Luke 10:10-11
John records the world's inhospitality to Jesus when he
writes, "... the world came into being through him; yet the world
did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people
did not accept him." (John 1:10-11) One cannot help but sense the
sadness in John's voice as he makes that observation.
Our human perception is that when people experience rejection
through life, they become suspicious and, in some
cases exhibit anti-social behavior. How many tragic stories have
we heard of how rejection in childhood and young adulthood
resulted in criminal behavior? Those dealt with inhospitability
have, more often than not, become inhospitable themselves,
reflecting the behavior of the persons or societies that have
rejected or looked down on them.
Not so with Jesus. The narrower his enemy's tables became the
broader his became. One contemporary hymn captures this inclusive
hospitality of Jesus in a remarkably vivid and artful way:
One table spread, throughout the whole wide earth -- The King's
own feast. From every nation they will come to share, from west
to east. Come, all is ready now, our host invites us in. Both bad
and good are guests. Let us begin!1
"Both bad and good are guests," and that is what irked the
religious elite of Jesus' day. The temptation to judge the
"worthiness" of recipients of Jesus' hospitality did not die with
the Pharisees. I was saddened a few years back when a young
elder, in a church I was serving briefly as interim pastor, came
to me after a communion service to say that his experience of
communion had been spoiled by an inadequately repentant young
woman's partaking of communion a few seats from him. He refused
the elements for himself in his irritation with the woman. My
response? "You were right not to take communion, feeling as you
did. Go home and read Matthew 5:23-24" (i.e. Jesus' teaching
about leaving your gift at the altar until you are reconciled
with your brother or sister).
Jesus even sat at table with Pharisees! The gospels take
special note of this, to be sure. Luke 7:36-50 describes one of
these meals in great detail, because it confronts a Pharisee with
an "unworthy" woman in a most dramatic way. Jesus not only
welcomes the woman to the table but accepts her ministry of
footwashing and anointing, to the chagrin of the discourteous
host who failed to provide the usual services for a guest.
17
The contrast between the inclusive Jesus and the exclusive
religious person could not be more vivid! Jesus makes the
sobering observation, "The [one] who has little to be forgiven
has only a little love to give." (Luke 7:47, JBP) The sardonic
twist is not to be missed!
It is many miles from the inhospitality of the inn at
Bethlehem, the exclusive smugness of the Pharisee, and the world
that "received him not" to the Table in the Upper Room! The
sacrament of grace, when it is repeated in the spirit and memory
of the Master, includes all those who may be blessed by its
graces. We have but to recall the words of the master of the
great banquet, as Jesus proposes them in his parable, "Whosoever
will may come."
The menials, the shepherds, were the first to perceive the
breadth and the greatness of this entrance of God's grace in the
person of an infant in a cow shed in Bethlehem. They were
supposed to be the most receptive when an angel was sent to tell
them of the birth of a Savior, a Messiah, a Lord:
Do not be afraid; for see -- I am bringing you good news of great
joy for all the people; to you is born this day in the city of
David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord ... -- Luke
10:11
The rules for the meal were drawn thus to prefer those who
could humbly accept their need for the grace of God. The term
"the people" is particularly significant in light of the way the
superior and self-righteous religious elite used the term. It
became a blanket term for all those who could be discounted
because they did not share the elite's regard to the Midrash, the
Pharisees' voluminous "law about the Law," the fastidious
observance of ritual and special days and seasons. When they
criticized Jesus they said, disdainfully, "See how the people go
out to him." (John 7:12)
To the people's credit, they recognized that Jesus taught with
a wondrous authority, "not as the scribes," (Matthew 7:29) and
they brought him their sick for their healing and
18
their children for his blessing, and they hung on his words as he
taught in village and on hillside.
There is, in many ways, still little hospitality in the world
for the inclusive and gracious Jesus. Our society is ripped by
division and intolerance. When we come at Christmas to the Table
of him whose introduction to the world was an inn in which there
was no room, we should recognize that where there is little need
in a heart for the forgiveness of God, there is little room for
loving others. Let us be moved by the grace and inclusiveness of
this Table. We can experience acceptance and forgiveness here and
learn the ways of love. "Let us begin!"
1-Hymn One Table Spread, Dalton, E. McDonald, copyright 1972.
(The Westminster Press)
19
is that of him feeding crowds that came to hear him teach in
remote places about Galilee. Another is of him socializing at
table with people others counted unworthy, "tax collectors and
sinners," as the religious people disdainfully called them.
(Matthew 9:11) There was always room at Jesus' table for
everyone. Not so with the Pharisees, who thought themselves
somehow made impure by association with the common people. Who
you ate with was a serious matter in that culture, for it implied
acceptance, covenant and friendship.
That Jesus found the smugness of the religious elite
unacceptable was driven home in his Parable of the Great Banquet
where the invited guests failed to appear and replacements were
found in "the highways and hedges." (Luke 14:23) It was Jesus'
way of saying that there is room for everyone at God's table and
that it is to the elite's chagrin that they fail to understand
this. It is a failure to understand the impartiality and grace of
the God whom they claim to honor and serve.
In light of this major implication of Jesus' ministry, it is
ironic to note that when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, there
15
was no room for the Holy Family in the inn. While others partied
inside, Joseph and the expectant Mary were relegated to a cow
stall out back! Luke suggests that the only people who noticed
them and showed hospitality to the new-born child were a few
"common people" -- the shepherds who had been tending someone's
sheep outside the city. We can envision them bringing what dried
figs and nuts that they may have carried as provisions for their
night-time vigil. The Holy Family's first hosts, then, were
humble, common folk, rejected by the religious elite as cavalier
in their religious practices.
Sadly, the poor reception that Jesus received at his birth
from the majority continued until his crucifixion at their
instigation! Not only had he been expelled from their tables but
from their synagogues (Luke 4:28-29) and their temple (Luke 22:1-
2), as well. The ultimate rejection came when they chose Barabbas
over Jesus to be crucified. (Luke 23:18)
The inhospitality did not go unnoticed by Jesus. As would-be
followers came to volunteer, Jesus reminded them that "foxes have
holes and birds their nests but the Son of Man has no place to
rest his head." (Matthew 8:20) And he later warned 70 followers
getting set for a missionary journey to anticipate that they may
have to expect many inhospitable receptions:
Whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go into
the streets and say, "Even the dust of your town that clings to
our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this, the
kingdom of God has come near." -- Luke 10:10-11
John records the world's inhospitality to Jesus when he
writes, "... the world came into being through him; yet the world
did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people
did not accept him." (John 1:10-11) One cannot help but sense the
sadness in John's voice as he makes that observation.
Our human perception is that when people experience rejection
through life, they become suspicious and, in some
cases exhibit anti-social behavior. How many tragic stories have
we heard of how rejection in childhood and young adulthood
resulted in criminal behavior? Those dealt with inhospitability
have, more often than not, become inhospitable themselves,
reflecting the behavior of the persons or societies that have
rejected or looked down on them.
Not so with Jesus. The narrower his enemy's tables became the
broader his became. One contemporary hymn captures this inclusive
hospitality of Jesus in a remarkably vivid and artful way:
One table spread, throughout the whole wide earth -- The King's
own feast. From every nation they will come to share, from west
to east. Come, all is ready now, our host invites us in. Both bad
and good are guests. Let us begin!1
"Both bad and good are guests," and that is what irked the
religious elite of Jesus' day. The temptation to judge the
"worthiness" of recipients of Jesus' hospitality did not die with
the Pharisees. I was saddened a few years back when a young
elder, in a church I was serving briefly as interim pastor, came
to me after a communion service to say that his experience of
communion had been spoiled by an inadequately repentant young
woman's partaking of communion a few seats from him. He refused
the elements for himself in his irritation with the woman. My
response? "You were right not to take communion, feeling as you
did. Go home and read Matthew 5:23-24" (i.e. Jesus' teaching
about leaving your gift at the altar until you are reconciled
with your brother or sister).
Jesus even sat at table with Pharisees! The gospels take
special note of this, to be sure. Luke 7:36-50 describes one of
these meals in great detail, because it confronts a Pharisee with
an "unworthy" woman in a most dramatic way. Jesus not only
welcomes the woman to the table but accepts her ministry of
footwashing and anointing, to the chagrin of the discourteous
host who failed to provide the usual services for a guest.
17
The contrast between the inclusive Jesus and the exclusive
religious person could not be more vivid! Jesus makes the
sobering observation, "The [one] who has little to be forgiven
has only a little love to give." (Luke 7:47, JBP) The sardonic
twist is not to be missed!
It is many miles from the inhospitality of the inn at
Bethlehem, the exclusive smugness of the Pharisee, and the world
that "received him not" to the Table in the Upper Room! The
sacrament of grace, when it is repeated in the spirit and memory
of the Master, includes all those who may be blessed by its
graces. We have but to recall the words of the master of the
great banquet, as Jesus proposes them in his parable, "Whosoever
will may come."
The menials, the shepherds, were the first to perceive the
breadth and the greatness of this entrance of God's grace in the
person of an infant in a cow shed in Bethlehem. They were
supposed to be the most receptive when an angel was sent to tell
them of the birth of a Savior, a Messiah, a Lord:
Do not be afraid; for see -- I am bringing you good news of great
joy for all the people; to you is born this day in the city of
David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord ... -- Luke
10:11
The rules for the meal were drawn thus to prefer those who
could humbly accept their need for the grace of God. The term
"the people" is particularly significant in light of the way the
superior and self-righteous religious elite used the term. It
became a blanket term for all those who could be discounted
because they did not share the elite's regard to the Midrash, the
Pharisees' voluminous "law about the Law," the fastidious
observance of ritual and special days and seasons. When they
criticized Jesus they said, disdainfully, "See how the people go
out to him." (John 7:12)
To the people's credit, they recognized that Jesus taught with
a wondrous authority, "not as the scribes," (Matthew 7:29) and
they brought him their sick for their healing and
18
their children for his blessing, and they hung on his words as he
taught in village and on hillside.
There is, in many ways, still little hospitality in the world
for the inclusive and gracious Jesus. Our society is ripped by
division and intolerance. When we come at Christmas to the Table
of him whose introduction to the world was an inn in which there
was no room, we should recognize that where there is little need
in a heart for the forgiveness of God, there is little room for
loving others. Let us be moved by the grace and inclusiveness of
this Table. We can experience acceptance and forgiveness here and
learn the ways of love. "Let us begin!"
1-Hymn One Table Spread, Dalton, E. McDonald, copyright 1972.
(The Westminster Press)
19
