The Scriptures teach us that this is a spiritual meal, but we must exercise great caution as we think of it this way. This is not because there is a problem with how the Bible describes it—obviously not—but rather because a number of false assumptions about the nature of spirituality have crept into our thinking …
What Are They Doing Here?
Jesus regularly redraws religious boundaries, and He does so by means of table fellowship. But when we do what He has commanded, and we observe what He has established—as we are doing right now—there is a constant temptation to reestablish the old boundaries, the boundaries that He abolished. This is a table for cleansed sinners. …
Joy and Exasperation
Thanksgiving is this coming Thursday, and it is a time—all over our nation—when people sit down to a feast with people who are dear to them, and who are also exasperating to them. This is why holidays like Thanksgiving are often filled with joy, and with tension. This is why our reunions contain both laughter …
Fussers and Ladder Kickers
We have a strong religious tendency to get things backwards. We have a strong religious tendency to keep things exclusive. We have a strong religious tendency to want to climb up on the high platform of grace, and then to kick the ladder away, so that the riff raff cannot follow us up. This tendency …
Spiritual Dropsy
In Luke 14, we read an account of a time when Jesus was invited to share table fellowship with Pharisees at a Sabbath meal. He accepted the invitation even though they arranged to have a man with dropsy there, a man with an unquenchable thirst. They did this as a trap at a meal of …
The Table as Winnowing Fan
In Romans 16, the apostle Paul tells us to note those who cause divisions, and to mark and avoid them. He says in the next breath that one of the things that such divisive people do is “deceive the hearts of the naïve” (Rom. 16:18). This kind of smooth (and sophomoric) talk is very easy …
Dangerous Grace
The Supper before us is a dramatic meal, at least if we understand it correctly. Jesus eats with us here, and He sits in the mercy seat. He offers His body, broken for us. He offers His cup, the cup of the new covenant in His blood. In the Old Covenant, the Holy of Holies …
Sunday by Sunday
The world as it will be unfolds slowly. The leaven works through the loaf slowly and quietly. The mustard seed grows silently and takes its sweet time. The world to come is in fact coming, but not on our timetable. There are two kinds of unbelief. One doesn’t want the new world to come at …
All Encompassing Food
The bread and wine on this Table are simple fare. But appearances can be deceiving. In the course of His ministry, Jesus declared all foods to be clean. Just as the two great commandments encompass all the law and the prophets, so also this bread and wine encompasses every form of food found in the …
Holiness and Hospitality
This is a holy Table, to be sure, but it is the holiness of hospitality—not the holiness of separation and distance. The Bible teaches us both kinds of holiness. In the Old Testament, the first lesson was the lesson of consecration and holy separation. Holiness was set apart; holiness was not contaminated with common things. …