“At the cross there is free forgiveness
for poor and meek ones, and ample blessings that last forever; the blood of the
Lamb is like a great river of infinite grace with never any diminishing of its
fulness as thirsty ones without number drink of it.”
Picture, if you will please, a fine dining
restaurant with luxury cars in its valet parking lot, with sophisticated
patrons coming and going. Inside is a Matre’d, a sommelier, a place to check
coats and hats, white tablecloths, and attentive servers. The menu has words
that most of us don’t use every day, some are in French, others in Italian, and
the wine list is a maze for many – some will admit this, others won’t.
Some of the patrons frequent this
restaurant on a regular basis, others are there for a special occasion; some
are about to spend more than they can afford. The elegance, the (let us hope)
superior food, the service, the atmosphere, comes at a price; for some patrons
the cost is inconsequential, for others it is manageable, for still
others…well, perhaps they should have commemorated their special event
elsewhere so that they could also enjoy financial piece of mind.
Adjacent to the fine dining restaurant
is a study in contrast, it is only there because it was there first and its
owners will not sell their property. While there are a few luxury cars in the
parking lot, most cars and pickup trucks and SUVs and motorcycles are
unremarkable; the ones that are remarkable attract notice because of their age,
they are old, some are rusted, some are banged up and need body work, and some
have bald tires. As we ponder the parking lot, a transit bus stops and
passengers get out and head to the door of the building next to the fine dining
establishment.
This second building is also a place to
eat, but all the money in the world cannot purchase a meal, for all meals are
free. Why would those driving the few luxury cars in the parking lot, those who
could dine anywhere they wanted to, who could dine next door with the wealthy,
want to be found inside this unpretentious eatery? It is certainly not because it
is free – these people can afford anything they want, well…almost anything.
They cannot purchase forgiveness or
peace with God, nor can they do anything to earn peace with God or His forgiveness.
But they can eat at the table with Jesus, they can eat with those He has
redeemed, who have come to Him, and in doing so they sit at Table with rich and
poor, young and old, educated and uneducated, people of all colors and
languages and cultures. The meal is simple, yet not so simple.
It is bread and wine, it is His Body and
Blood – and it is shared among all who enter. All patrons receive it from His
hands, and they share it with one another, breaking the bread, breaking it
again, and breaking it again; they are One Bread in Jesus Christ, One Loaf (1
Cor. 10:16 – 17).
Only the “poor and meek ones” may dine
with Jesus, those who have repented in sorrow and surrender and who have taken
up their cross to follow Him; those who have renounced their lives to live by
His life, those who no longer belong to themselves. Only these can sing Calvary’s
Anthem, only these can dine at the Master’s Table.
There are restaurants that require a coat
and tie, restaurants that have a dress code. Jesus also requires a dress code
to eat at His Table, and this dress code means that we cannot tell by one’s
attire whether the person is rich or poor, we cannot tell from clothing what
nation or culture people are from – we cannot tell anything about others in
terms of their earthly lives (2 Cor. 5:16).
For the dress code of Jesus is the
raiment of repentance, the clothing of humility and meekness and awareness of
both sin and cleansing, of filth and purity – of joy and relief and peace that
comes from drinking at the river of infinite grace. This means that we
all look the same, in Jesus Christ we all look the same – we are all brothers
and sisters of the same heavenly Family, drinking from His River, partaking of
the Bread and Wine which is Jesus Christ.
As I ponder this admittedly poor image
and illustration, I wonder why we attempt to make the “church” look like the
world? Why do we market the Gospel with the world’s ways and methods, appealing
to the consumerism of the world? Do we not know that the Gospel is foolishness
to the natural man, that the Cross is an offense, and that until a man or woman
or young person confronts the Christ of the Cross, that our cotton-candy
religion will simply lull them into a false sense of spiritual security in
which they can never have peace of mind or peace with God? (1 Cor. 1:17 – 2:5).
The world and the earthly church may not
value the meek or the poor, but Christ Jesus bids them come to His Table and
drink of His River, and that, my friends, is all that matters. O yes, it also
matters whether you and I are among them.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven…blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit
the earth” (Matthew 5:3 & 5).
“He made Him who knew no sin to be sin
on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor.
5:21).
Where are we dining today?
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