| Feasting At The King's Table Matthew 22:1-14 In reading this parable, our thoughts are taken in quite a number of directions and there are a variety of topics that would be appropriate to consider using this passage as a text. We could explore Israel's rejection of the Messiah at his first coming. We could look at the contemporary consequences of refusing the invitation of the one who said, "Come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest." We could direct our thoughts toward those who persecute and those who are persecuted for their faith in God. We could even look at our role as Christ's emissaries and ambassador's extending his invitation to the world. All of these are valid and crucial Biblical topics that are worthy of our consideration, meditation, and life-orientation.. But, for our thinking, I want to focus on one of the not so noticeable topics found here and consider what's being served as we "feast at the King's table." GRACE - There's grace being served at the King's table. We may bow our heads and say grace at our tables, but God gives grace at his. We, those who have been garnered from the high-ways and the low-ways, those who are unworthy and can never do anything to earn or deserve the unmerited favor of God, receive grace from a table so full that it overflows, not for a day, not for a year, but in an unending supply. The Apostle Paul said, "God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ - and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God - not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life." (Eph. 2:4-10). This same God who so graciously saves us from sin also invites us to dine at his table and fill ourselves with the elements of his own substance and character until we ourselves are like cups that overflow into the world around us. We may never, this side of heaven, understand and be able to describe how God can be three persons in the Trinity and remain One God. We may never possess eloquent oratory skills and stand before stadiums or auditoriums full of listeners while we extrapolate on the deep mysteries of the faith or be like the great evangelists whose preaching brought thousands to Christ. But we can stay at the King's table feasting on its bounty until these lives of ours are full and overflowing. King David said, "O taste and see that the LORD is good." (Psalm 34:8) While the world, and a large and influential sub-culture of post-orthodox believers as well, seeks after deluding material dainties for pride and prosperities sake, God invites us to taste and fill ourselves with the delights, or graces, of his divinity - delights that will never sour, delights that moths can't consume, delights that the acid rains of life can't tarnish. The day, though long in coming, will come when the peace of God will be finally and forever consummated. The lion will lie down with the lamb. Instruments of warfare will be molded into instruments of health and healing. Nothing will be allowed that will hurt or harm on God's holy mountain. But we're not there yet. We're still here sharing a fallen world with fallen people and with systems of belief that are, more often than not, far less than godly. As this fallen world continues to deteriorate and degenerate, those of us who know and call upon God have two real challenges on our hands. One is filling this vessel of ours with his peace so that our minds and hearts aren't constantly wrestling in the turmoil created by this worlds system. The other is making ourselves available and willing to be used as dispensers peace - the peace of God that transcends and surpasses understanding, the peace of God that guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus - in this mission field that we call the world. The primary mission of the Church is to communicate the Gospel of Jesus Christ and a multitude of valid and valuable ministries surround this tremendous mission. The programs, techniques, and fads designed by the well intentioned to implement and fulfill our purpose as the Church come and go. With each new wave of slick gimmicks we are left feeling a little less equipped, a little less adequate, and a little more undone as the world keeps following the Serpentine Pied Piper piping his intoxicating song while we know in our hearts that the Song of Redemption is the only song that can quench the hungering and thirsting in the soul of man. Where do we begin? Where do we pick up after all the hype and hysteria fades? We start and we also return to the table set before us by the King. His table is both the starting place and the sustaining place for the Church from the inception in Jerusalem all the way to the consummation at the end of the age. We get caught up in following fads while the King desires that we grow fruit. Although important, it's not our theology, methodology, or hymnology that speaks loudest to the world that we live in today. It's sad but too often these are seen and heard by the world as little more than vain traditions and empty words. It's the fruit, fruit that can be observed and felt, fruit that blossoms and grows in our lives as we feast and fill ourselves at God's table, that speaks loudest. The world may be able to flip past the religious channels on the television. It may be able to navigate past the Christian stations on the radio. It may make jokes about the Christian media celebrities that are spending enormous financial resources to keep their name and face in front of audiences in the name of Jesus. It may even be able to steer past all the buildings graced with belfries and steeples. But the world can't deny and dismiss the healing and inviting effect wrought by fruit blossoming and growing in the lives of the children of God as we course our way through the corridors of life touching those whom we come in contact with. Our union and communion with God produces fruit in our lives. Listen to this list that the Apostle Paul gives us in Galatians 5:22. "The fruit of the Spirit (the produce and product of God working in our lives) is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." These qualities of life aren't like heavy metals and other toxins that collect in our bodies and never dissolve or go away. They are more like vitamins and other essential nutrients that have to be continually renewed through a proper diet or infused with dietary supplements. Psalm 1:3 tells us that those who are in union and communion with God are like "trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season" because we are constantly drawing from The Source the elements that produce, sustain, and reproduce life. Thomas Merton said, " ... how can I say that I have found Him and found myself in Him if I never know Him or think of Him, never take any interest in Him or seek Him or desire His presence in my soul? What good does it do to say a few formal prayers to Him and then turn away and give all my mind and all my will to created things, desiring only ends that fall far short of Him? Even though my soul may be justified, yet if my mind does not belong to Him then I do not belong to Him either. If my desires do not reach out towards Him but scatter themselves in His creation, it is because I have reduced His life in me to the level of a formality, forbidding it to move me with anything like a vital influence." (Seeds Of Contemplation, p. 34-35) Someone once said that "we are what we eat." There's a truth here that has an application in both the physical and spiritual realms and if we desire to reproduce the life of Christ in the world then, of necessity, we first have to have the life of Christ produced in us. Christ is the "first fruit" of the Resurrection. (1 Cor. 15:23). We have the "first fruits" of his Spirit. (Romans 8:23). Jesus said to his disciples, "You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last." (John 15:16) Do we desire to see the world filled with love, joy, and peace. Then, in this world, we have to become love joy and peace. Do we desire to see the world filled with patience, kindness, and generosity? Then, in this world, we have to become patience, kindness, and generosity. Do we desire to see the world filled with faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control? Then, in this world, we have to become faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Jesus never said "go into the world and make doctrine-aires." He did say "go into the world and make disciples." And disciples not only learn about their teachers teachings, they also emulate and replicate the life of their teacher. The King has set a table and filled it with all that we need to live abundant and fruitful lives, lives that present an attractiveness and appeal in a world filled with spiritual deprivation and starvation. Unlike us earthly parents who force our children to eat their peas and carrots, God doesn't force feed us the things that are best for us. He sits them on the table and invites us to come and dine until we are so full of him that everywhere we go we offer the world by example "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control," the very things that fill and flow from the King's table, as proof that we know him and are yielded to him as our "Vital Influence." ©David Kralik Ministries, Inc. 2002 Email: matthewfivesix@hotmail.com |
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