A Place at His Table: Grace

Over the past couple of months, I've been sharing about the Table that the Lord provides for us in the midst of the wilderness seasons of our lives.  Scripture teaches us to never forget His benefits (Psalm 103:2), and we have learned that at His table, He has given us fellowship, mercy, and victory.   Yes, there are many good things that come from sitting at the Lord's table.

On this Thursday of Holy Week, let's remember the most undeserved benefit that He provides--the new covenant of Grace that Jesus introduced around the table on this night of His final week.  

Grace

When evening came, He was reclining at the table with the Twelve.

As they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take and eat it; this is My body.” 

Matthew 26: 20, 26

More than 1,000 years had passed since Yahweh had rescued the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and sent them into the wilderness.  On this night—the last night—Jesus reclined at the table with his closest friends and together they remembered God’s deliverance of the Jews as they shared the Passover meal together.  The disciples understood that the Passover feast was rich with historical meaning, but they were not yet aware that Jesus was preparing to fulfill it all through his life and death.

The main course of the meal was lamb to commemorate the lamb whose blood was painted on the doorframes of the enslaved Hebrews in Egypt.  Upon seeing the red doorpost, the angel of death passed over that home, sparing the firstborn and ultimately giving the Israelites their freedom.  The meal also included a side of bitter herbs, usually horseradish.  Just a spoonful would bring tears to the eyes, reminding the Jews that we cannot appreciate the sweetness of redemption without first tasting the bitterness of slavery.

Through the course of the meal, four cups of wine would also be offered, their meanings correlating with God’s promises in Exodus 6:6-7.  The first cup reminds the people that “God will bring them out”.  The second honors the freedom that comes when “God rids them of their bondage”.  The third cup recognizes that “God will redeem you” and was an expectation of the coming Messiah.  The fourth and final cup is a rejoicing over God’s promise to “take you as my people and I will be your God.”

Finally, one of the most well known aspects of the Passover meal involves the unleavened bread.  Once Pharaoh allowed the Israelites to leave, the people knew they needed to move quickly, and they had no time to let the yeast rise.  Therefore their bread was prepared without leaven.  From that point forward, the Israelites were to eat unleavened bread “so that all the days of your life you may remember the time of your departure from Egypt” (Deuteronomy 16:3).  Throughout scripture, leaven is almost always symbolic of sin.  Like a little bit of yeast will permeate a whole lump of dough, sin can easily spread through a person, church, or nation, bringing bondage and death.  The unleavened bread signified not only purity but being in a state of readiness to leave.  As the Jews would celebrate the Passover, they would reflect on the fact that it was only by God’s hand that they were delivered, because He had compassion for them, not because of anything they had done on their own.

So, as Jesus and the disciples celebrated the Passover in traditional fashion, Jesus took the opportunity to bring new life and meaning to the meal as he introduced the new covenant of grace.  “He took the bread, gave thanks, broke it, gave it to them, and said, ‘this is my body, which is given for you.’”  His body, the unleavened bread —perfect, sinless, and without spiritual “yeast”—would shortly be torn by a brutal beating and crucifixion.  “His sacrifice would begin a new exodus in which people were liberated from the slavery of sin” (HCSB notes).  As the meal progressed, Jesus took the third cup—the cup of redemption and the hope of a Messiah—and said, “this cup is the new covenant established by My blood; it is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.”  The shed blood of the innocent lamb had bought the freedom of the people in Egypt, and now the spotless Lamb of God was purchasing the redemption of all mankind.

As they sat around the table in that candle lit room, the disciples were surely perplexed by Jesus’ words as he spoke of this “new covenant”.  For generations, God’s people had lived by the law and made atonement for their sins through the offering of animal sacrifices. As the events of the next few days would unfold, the disciples would begin to understand the words that Jesus spoke as they shared the bread and the wine.  “The Word became flesh and took up residence among us.  Indeed we have all received grace after grace from His fullness, for the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”  (John 1: 14, 16-17)

Grace is unmerited favor received from God.  Jesus’ broken body on the cross is our only access to the forgiveness of sins and fellowship with God. We did nothing to deserve it, yet he gave it freely, because God still desires to sit down for a feast with His people.

Jesus said, “I am the bread of life.  He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty...Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died.  But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die.” (John 6:35, 49-50)

 As you gaze upon the cross this Easter weekend, ponder this:  do you still find His grace amazing?  Or has it become as unappreciated as the Israelites' manna in the desert? 

This is the good news of the Gospel:  Christ’s body and blood are set on the table as an offering, and as a result, “it is by grace that you are saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.”  Ephesians 2:8-9

Praise Him for His amazing grace!