A Place At His Table: Mercy

Mercy

“Don’t be afraid,’' David said to Mephibosheth, "since I intend to show you kindness…

I will restore you…and you will always eat meals at my table.”

2 Samuel 9:7

September 1998, a young couple walks into a church, nervous and unsure.  Recently married and just out of college, they had moved to a new city for his job.  They ended up at this place after accepting an offer to go “church shopping” with a woman they had just met.  At the end of the service, a beautiful blonde twenty-something approached them and cheerfully introduced herself.  Kalyn Vogelmann had the biggest, brightest, warmest smile of anyone they had ever met.  After some chit-chat about life, to their surprise, Kalyn invited the couple to join her and her husband for lunch in their home.   Realizing at that moment how much they needed a friend, the couple accepted the invitation.  After driving out into the country to a sweet little house, Kalyn served chicken and rice to the young couple.  The conversation around the table was polite, and the young couple enjoyed the fellowship.  

Even though they were unaware, this invitation to come to the table was a merciful wake-up call from God.  In college, they had turned their back on Him, and lived life their own way.  Even still, God was passionately pursuing them.  That night after returning home from Kalyn’s house, the new bride couldn’t sleep.  She was intensely aware of a pressure, a weight, a burden on her chest.  The events of the day swirled in her mind.  That single, radical act of love from Kalyn---to invite a total stranger into her home!—was just what God used to usher in His presence.    Becoming aware of her great need for a change in her life, the young woman called out to God from her bed and He answered in love.  Just a few weeks later, the young man felt that same burden and then found freedom on his knees at the altar of that very church, when he gave his life to Jesus Christ. 

This is our story.  An invitation to come to the table.  To sit at a place we didn’t deserve or earn.  The King of Creation had found us in our brokenness and reached out to us in love, through a plate full of chicken and rice.   That was when restoration began.

David asked, “Is there anyone left of Saul’s family that I can show the kindness of God to?” Ziba said to the king, “There is still Jonathan’s son who was injured in both feet.” So King David had him brought from the house of Machir son of Ammiel in Lo-debar.   

Mephibosheth son of Jonathan son of Saul came to David, bowed down to the ground and paid homage. David said, “Mephibosheth!” “I am your servant,” he replied.

 “Don’t be afraid,” David said to him, “since I intend to show you kindness because of your father Jonathan. I will restore to you all your grandfather Saul’s fields, and you will always eat meals at my table.”

So Mephibosheth always ate at the king’s table. His feet had been injured.

~from 2 Samuel 9~

Put yourself in Mephibosheth’s place for a moment.  When he was five years old, his grandfather Saul--the King of Israel--died and David took over the throne.  In those days, it was customary for the new king to slaughter anyone connected with the prior dynasty—especially since Saul had made himself an enemy of David.  Out of fear for their lives, Mephibosheth’s caregiver fled the royal residence and in her haste, she dropped him, injuring both legs and crippling him for life.  They went into hiding in the the town of Lo-debar, where he remained for many years.  Now an adult, he is suddenly summoned by King David.  Mephibosheth was surely afraid that he had finally been discovered.   Trembling, he is carried to the foot of the throne, unsure of what was to come.  To his surprise and surely his delight, King David was seeking to show kindness, not revenge. 

While it’s unlikely that Mephibosheth was served chicken and rice that evening at the table of the king, he must have stood in awe and wonder that someone would show him such mercy.   His fear kept him in hiding for many years, but we see him now restored and given a place at the table.  Unworthy of the position, broken and crippled from a fall, Mephibosheth was shown mercy from the King.      

I think we can all discover a little bit of Mephibosheth in ourselves.  Do you feel totally crippled and broken?  Are you unable to stand on your own?  Are you still hiding in fear?  Do you find yourself trembling at the feet of the king, expecting punishment?  

There is good news for you.

We have a loving King who shows us this same kind of kindness and mercy.  We have no right to sit at His table; yet He invites us still.  We, too, are crippled from the fall, and for far too long, our sin keeps us hiding in fear.  But in His great love, He summons us to His side.  And because we are utterly unable to stand on our own, He picks us up and carries us to the table.