Seat at the King’s Table: Mephibosheth’s Story of Grace - Sermon PM 1st March 2026

G'day, thanks for joining the Heights Church podcast today. We hope you enjoy our message.

If you're in the Sydney area, be sure to join us at the Heights Church at Ghostsong

Road, Cornsley Heights, Summings, Fairly.

David asked, Is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show

kindness for Jonathan's sake?

Now there was a servant of Saul's household named Zeba.

They summoned him to appear before David, and the king said to him, Are you Ziba?

At your service, he replied. The king said, Is there no one still alive from

the house of Saul to whom I can show God's kindness?

Ziba answered the king, There is still a son of Jonathan. He is lame in both feet.

Where is he? the king asked. Ziba answered, He is at the house of Mekir, son of Amiel in Lodabah.

So King David asked him,

brought to Lodabah from the house of Mekir, son of Amiel.

When Mephibosheth, son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David,

he bowed down to pay him honor.

David said, Mephibosheth, at your service. He replied, Don't be afraid, said David.

To him, for I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan.

I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul,

and you will always eat at my table.

Mephibosheth bowed down and said, What is your servant that you should notice a dead dog like me?

Then the king summoned Ziba, Saul's steward, and said to him,

I have given your master's grandson everything that belonged to Saul and his family.

You and your sons and your servants are to farm the land for him and bring in

the crops, so that your master's grandson may be provided for.

And Mephibosheth, grandson of your master, will always eat at my table.

Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants. Then Ziba said to the king,

Your servant will do whatever my lord commands his servant to do.

So Mephibosheth ate at David's table like one of the king's sons.

Mephibosheth had a young son named Micah, and all the members of Zeba's household,

were servants of Mephibosheth.

And Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem

because he always ate at the king's table. He was lame in both feet.

Thanks, Harlan. As I said, Andy preached this morning, and I'm hoping that in

some ways that this evening is sort of an Old Testament part two to Andy's New

Testament part one this morning.

I have a few objectives this evening as we reflect on those words.

One is I'm hoping to show you how cool of a story is the story of Mephibosheth.

That's my objective number one. My objective Number two is to maybe make us

think a little bit about what it means for us to receive something from God.

And number three, I want to sort of challenge us a little bit about not just

giving, but I want to challenge us about when we give something,

when we do something, the way or the attitude or the heart that we do that with.

They're my three goals, okay? And goal number four is finish before the gorge

closes. That is for sure. Yeah, big.

That's the most. And he was skeptical the first three. I got him at the fourth one. Fantastic.

Mephibosheth is a story that occurs in 1 and 2 Samuel. And it's not just a story of Mephibosheth.

It's a story about his dad and his grandfather and the way that God and a new

character called David interacts with this three generations.

We're told about King Saul that he was strong and handsome.

There's a lot of people here I know that can identify with what it's like to

live as someone who is both strong and handsome.

To top off that, he was charming. He was charismatic. People liked him.

He held the attention of every room that he was in.

He was an extrovert. He was good at stuff. And people looked up to him in more ways than one.

And so when the people of ancient Israel wanted to be like the other nations,

when they said, We want to be like them. We want a king as well.

When it was decided that it was Saul who would be the first king,

it was in many ways an obvious choice but in the end it didn't work out that great for saul.

The the brief version of saul's story is that,

he began to believe a little bit too much,

in his own power he began to believe a little bit too much of his own hype and

so what he first received from god he started to believe he had earned through his own greatness.

This culminates in a story where essentially there is a job,

a role, a task that God said only an ordained priest can do this task.

But Saul thinking, well, I'm the king. I'm tall. I'm handsome.

I'm charismatic and charming and people like me.

Why can't I do that as well? In fact, I'm going to. And this story represented

the way that Saul departed from God. And we're told that in the end,

as a king, God rejected him.

And then we're told that another was anointed. And this other person,

this new king, was different, very different. In fact, we're told that David,

was both scrawny and unimpressive. It's.

And there's no one here that knows what it's like to be both scrawny and unimpressive.

Maybe one, but David lived with both, scrawny and unimpressive.

He was the youngest brother.

He was the unexpected one.

And so when David was chosen to be the next king, unlike when Saul was made

king and everyone was relieved and like, yeah, we're happy with that.

Not a vote, but if it was, that's our vote.

When David was ordained, it was more a case of, who's David?

Who on earth is this David? And a rivalry began to develop between Saul and

David, the current king and the ordained next king. And I say a rivalry,

it was a one-sided rivalry. I don't know if you've ever been in a one-sided rivalry with somebody.

I have. I've had the experience of learning that for a year,

someone that was my friend actually thought that we were in a heated rivalry.

And certainly there were instances where they didn't understand my tone in my

jokes and thought that anyway we're all been young once one side or rivalry

where only one person really knows,

or has a stake in going against the other person and saul became jealous of david.

And what happened essentially was, in the story of David and Goliath,

amongst many things, that's when not only had God ordained David,

but now the people of ancient Israel also gathered around and got excited about a new hero.

And I say all of this because you're thinking to yourself, wait,

didn't Harlan just do a Bible reading about Mephibah something?

Yes, but this is where the story gets really good. You see, amongst all of this,

a close friendship began to form. A close friendship formed in an unexpected place.

And this friendship formed, this really close friendship formed between David,

the new king, and Saul's son, whose name was Jonathan.

And spoiler alert, Jonathan is my favorite character in this story.

One of my favorite characters in all of scripture. Jonathan is fantastic.

Jonathan is an example of somebody who is willing, who is able to let go of

power. Who's able to say, I thought I was going to be the one who would be getting

glory and fame and power.

But it's actually okay and good if my friend gets it instead.

And that is one of the most difficult things, I think, for humans to be able to do.

This friendship forms between David and Jonathan.

And for so long, Jonathan did something that many of us do in order to keep the peace.

He put his head in the sand when it came to the damage being caused by someone

in his home, in his family. See, Jonathan had his friendship with David,

but he also, of course, loved his dad.

And he sort of didn't manage to put it together that the dad that he loved and

was obedient to hated his best friend.

He refused to believe it. David would drop comments like, hey,

just sort of like, okay, I think your dad literally wants to murder me.

And Jonathan would be like, no, no, that doesn't, I don't think that.

I think you're overreacting. I think you're going a little bit too far.

In fact, I think he loves you, David. He loves you. Gets you to play the harp. It's a whole thing.

Eventually Jonathan learns the truth we're actually told that he conducts a

test and through this test,

He realizes in a painful moment of clarity that his father, King Saul,

was actually full of the violence and intent that David had told him about.

And in fact, we're told in that story, Jonathan realized eventually that his

father's end game was the intention to murder his best friend, David. It was true.

So what do you do? What do you do when you have to choose between your family and your friend?

What do you do? It's a tough choice. It's a difficult choice.

Most teenagers say it's not a tough choice. You choose your friend every time.

What's there to debate about?

Well, in the end, that's actually what Jonathan did, but he didn't follow maybe,

the rules of modern day teenagers.

Jonathan followed a general rule, which I think is always helpful in these situations,

which is if one of the options is planning to murder, go with the other option.

So Jonathan betrays his father to warn David. And there's this beautiful story

between two close friends, and it ends with David having to go into hiding.

It's confirmed for him, and Jonathan gives him the heads up.

And before they depart, these two best friends who, in fact,

after this moment, never see each other again, Jonathan says to David,

I need you to make me a promise, David. You need to make me a covenant promise, a serious one.

And what happens is David promises his best friend, Jonathan.

He promises him that no matter what happens, no matter what will occur in the

future, no matter what is going to happen to Jonathan or David, no matter what, that,

David would, and he promised this with a covenant, he promised that he would

never, ever cut off his kindness from the members of Jonathan's family and all

of Jonathan's descendants,

from this day until his last day.

He made a promise that if you were related to Jonathan, I will not cut my kindness off from you.

And a little while after, while David, the future king, is in hiding,

we're told that Saul and Jonathan go into battle, and we're told that Saul and Jonathan die in battle.

And in the ancient world, history tells us over and over again that when a king

died and a king from a new family line came into power, the descendants of the previous king,

would flee as far and as quickly as they could because new kings were often

in the habit of disposing of any person related to the previous king.

And they did this so that there could not be an instance where some rando would

pop up and say, actually, I think I should be king because well.

My uncle was the king or my dad was the king or my grandfather was the king.

And this king is a fake one. I'm the real one.

So many expected that's what David would do. All of Saul's family would be gone

so that his legitimacy as king would be strong.

And so when the news of this started to spread, we learn in the story that Jonathan

had a son and his son was just five years old when Jonathan passed away in battle.

And Jonathan's son's name was Mephibosheth.

And so the news reached Mephibosheth's home of Saul and Jonathan's death,

and we're told in this short little bracketed section that occurs well before

the reading that Harlan brought us it's sort of just like a little like side

mention that Jonathan's son Mephibosheth.

Was in a panic, picked up or moved or attempted to be transported by his nurse or the family nurse.

And amongst that panic, amongst that chaos, amongst the attempt to flee, there was an accident.

And the result of that accident was that Mephibosheth never walked again.

And as you know, because you now have got the context, David would never have

and was never going to attempt to kill Jonathan's five-year-old son.

And so not only was Mephibosheth paralyzed and disabled, he was paralyzed and disabled for no reason.

And you can only imagine in the course of his life how despondent that would

make you feel, that it wasn't even based on truth. It was just based on something

that sometimes happened.

And he disappears from the story until he reappears in 2 Samuel 9,

when David is desperately trying to find any remaining living member of his

dear friend Jonathan's family so that he can just show them kindness.

The friend who he loved, whom he made a promise to, he wanted to just find somebody

who was related to him so he could show him kindness.

And that's why it says that David asked, is there anyone still,

anyone, anywhere, still left of

the house of Saul to whom I can just show kindness to for Jonathan's sake?

And they find one. His name is Mephibosheth. And we're told that David was told,

he's at the house of Mekir, son of Emel in Lodabar.

And Mephibosheth, son of Jonathan,

who was the son of Saul, came to David the king and he bowed down.

And the part of the story that I really love is David says, Mephibosheth,

with an exclamation mark.

And I don't know about you, but I can imagine the tone of that.

It's familiar. It's friendly. It's unearned familiarity and friendliness.

And so you've got Mephibosheth bowed down, unable to walk.

And you've got David being like, looking at him like it's his long lost son,

but it's not. It's his friend's son.

And Mephibosheth is really confused. That's why he says, why are you noticing a dead dog like me?

And at the end of the story, Mephibosheth ate at David's table like one of the

king's son, and he always lived in Jerusalem, and he always ate at the king's table.

And the story ends that he was lame in both feet.

And so what's going on in this story that I want to bring to your attention?

Well, I hope that I've achieved objective number one. It's a pretty cool story,

if nothing else. I think it's a fantastic story with great characters and great

intergenerational stuff going on.

It's a story that involves love and danger.

It's a story that involves accident and tragedy.

And it culminates in this despondent, disabled man being brought before the table of the king.

David's first words to him are, do not be afraid. You see, what we need to learn

here is that this is not David being sort of swept up in a passing mood of generosity.

This 2 Samuel 9 is not like David being brought as king and like going,

you know what, I'm going to just like go and do a good deed.

It could be good strategy, good for my perception, might get my numbers bumped up.

No, we know because of the story that there's a deep ache inside of David.

There's something deeper within him that nobody else actually understands.

No one alive understands, but he's acting out of that. And he's acting out of

a covenant promise that he made to his best friend.

And so the kindness that he shows to Mephibosheth isn't just David being a nice

guy. It's not just him thinking to himself, well, this is going to be useful to me.

It's not him thinking, well, Mephibosheth, he's going to be good for me.

He's going to be helpful to my cause.

He's strong. He's powerful.

No, there's no advantage to Mephibosheth. None.

But the reason he does this is because it's based on something else and something

deeper. It's based on Jonathan. It's based on Jonathan.

Jonathan's gone from the story,

but it's based on Jonathan. It's showing kindness for Jonathan's sake.

And this is where I hope you might be able to see tonight, where the story goes

from history into gospel, into reminding us a little bit about Jesus.

Because in the same way, in very much the exact same way, the kindness that

God shows to us, the love that God shows to us, the love that God wants to tell you is yours.

The way that he would want to say your name with an exclamation mark and say,

you are welcome to my table no matter what.

It's the exact same because it's not grounded in. It's not based in us being

useful or strong or helpful.

It's not based in anything that

has to do with our performance or how good we've been in the last week.

It's not God saying, you know what? You're pretty cool. You hold yourself together really well.

No, it's grounded. It's based in something far deeper than we can actually comprehend and understand.

It's grounded. It's based upon Jesus.

You see, Jesus stands before the Father, not merely as just an individual,

but as the faithful son, as the one who stands representing all of us, on behalf of all of us.

And Jesus stands before God, totally righteous, and says, because of me,

love them with your full love, with your full grace, with your full mercy.

And so God's kindness flows to us, not just because God is love,

but because of the delight that he has in his son, Jesus.

You see, we don't drag ourselves to God's table through being morally good.

We are carried there by the mercy of another, by something deeper,

by a covenant that was made upon somebody else.

The text in 2 Samuel is really clear. It says King David had Mephibosheth brought.

David brings him. He carries him, which is why when Jeremiah just said before,

hey, can you carry me during the song? I was like, do you know what my sermon is about already?

I don't think so. He snuck into a lot of things. Never my sermons.

That's coming, I'm sure.

We're told that he is carried.

He doesn't do it based on his own success.

He can't even get there himself you see if god's kindness to us was based on

our performance or usefulness to him that would mean that god's kindness to us would go up and down.

But it doesn't it's steadfast it's strong it's always and that matters deeply

for two reasons and i want to show us just two reasons really quick first of all.

Should enable our generosity, the times in our life where we show kindness or

do good, it should transform it.

You see, we live in a world where,

there are systems of transactional generosity. What do I mean by that?

What I mean is that there are occasions in your life when somebody will do something

for you, they will give you something.

Attached to that are some invisible strings that say, because you've received

my generosity, you now owe me something.

You may owe me a return favor, but you may owe me the fact of honor and respect.

You may owe me being liked. You may owe me being included.

For all sorts of reasons, we are tempted in this life to be kind and good for

reasons that are actually based on our own insecurities.

And so we think to ourselves, if I do this for you, you will do something for me.

You might give me loyalty. You might admire me. You might think actually I'm

a really cool and generous person.

And what happens is often people will give and they do so expecting that the

other person will in some ways change their behavior, will act in a certain way, will do something.

And what transactional generosity does is it creates anxiety.

It creates guilt, it creates stress.

And what happens is the giver is pressured to either have to do it again or

to overtly control the outcome of their gift.

And the receiver then feels the pressure to perform gratitude,

to be like, you are amazing, you are included. You are good.

But see, David's generosity to Mephibosheth is none of that.

Mephibosheth could have done and said anything. David didn't care because it

had nothing to do with Mephibosheth.

It had something to do with something deeper.

It had something to do that couldn't be shaken or rocked by the reaction that

he might have gotten from Mephibosheth.

David doesn't operate from insecurity, doesn't operate from transaction,

he doesn't operate so that people think he's a really cool king.

No, he just loved his best friend.

He loved his best friend and his best friend was gone. And no one living on

planet Earth understood that, but he understood it deep down inside of him.

So he offers generosity in a way that has nothing to do with convention or society.

And so we can be challenged when we give. I wonder, are we giving?

Are we doing? Are we serving so that people include us, like us, respect us?

Are we giving and are we doing that so that people might do that in return?

Are we giving so that we can shape their behavior, so that we can control them?

Or are we giving because that's something that we want to do based on something deep inside of us?

When we receive God's grace, we are set free to give because of something deeper

than the other person may ever understand.

But here's the other thing. In the same way, as Mephibosheth was welcomed to

God's table, not because of his performance, we're invited the very same way.

We're invited the very same way. That offer is given to us.

Come and eat at my table. You're welcome. There's a seat there for you whenever you want it.

Can't get there on your own? I'll carry you there.

You are invited. No strings attached. No need to earn it.

There is a seat there with your name on it. If you want to sit there and sit

at the table and converse and be welcomed, you are welcome to it.

I'm not giving it away. I'm not making you earn it. You don't even have to take it.

But it's yours. You're invited.

I wonder what that does for you because sometimes that creates a reaction of

like, good, like I want to receive that.

But sometimes it creates a reaction of like, well, what, what about all that good stuff I did?

Can we just like include that a little bit? Because the good stuff that I did

sort of does make me feel like a bit good about myself.

So let's, why don't we, why don't we say 80% you've invited me to sit there

because you're, you're, you're cool and that. And 20% because like,

I'm one of the people that deserve it.

But I'm one of the people that, that have done some stuff.

Think that's why this story hits so hard because everything about Mephibosheth

takes away that possibility of that story being interpreted like that.

And so God says to us, do not be afraid.

He doesn't merely spare us. It's not that he just has decided not to kill all

of the old regime, but he also restores us.

He doesn't just tolerate you. He includes you.

God's grace isn't just about taking away our guilt but it's about moving us

toward relationship having a place.

And i think often in the church in general people think they've accepted that

but they haven't especially for the young people that are here,

i hope that you you grow up knowing that god's love isn't something that you

receive once and then secretly you've sort of got to work to keep it now you

never stop being invited.

You never have to drag yourself to the table. He'll carry you every single time.

You can go and disappear. And in 10 years, come back to God,

your name is still on that seat.

You never stop being invited. You never have to earn it. Not even a little bit, not even a tiny bit.

The invitation is based not on you. It's based on what Jesus has done for us.

And so the question tonight, and as Heath is going to come up and play a little

bit of music, because we're going to do some communion, and I think it's a really

cool opportunity for us tonight to reflect on just the idea of receiving,

because it's an open table and everybody is welcome to have some.

The question is not whether you can make yourself worthy at the seat of that table.

Whether you can take that seat knowing that you didn't earn it.

Let's pray. God, as we come now to take communion, as we come now to take this

grape juice, which we know represents Jesus' blood shed for us, and as we have,

the bread that we remember represents, symbolizes Jesus' body broken for us.

Lord, we do that tonight because you commanded us to do it from time to time.

And we do it tonight because it's a good thing to do to remember what you have

done for us. But we do so tonight also, Lord, that we might totally remember that we just received.

And help us, Lord, to feel your love, to feel that inclusion.

As we remember Jesus' blood and his body broken for us, may we tonight, God, be a people.

Who also remember that we're included, that we are welcome, that we too have

been in some ways carried to the table.

In Jesus' name, amen. And what I'm going to invite you to do right now is,

the way we're going to do is if you could just, you can come up,

you can grab your own, sit back at your seat, and we're all going to do it at the same time.

So just come on up, no water at it.

If you want a gluten-free option, there's one there. Just take one of each and

sit back down at the table.

You can have yours after. It's pretty multi-talented to be able to play and

eat and drink. But if you do have one, I'll wait for the guys up the back to come back.

Why don't you now take the grape juice? And as you drink it,

remember this, Jesus said, symbolizes Jesus' blood shed for you. Let's drink.

And now i invite you take the bread as you do so remember this jesus body represents

jesus body broken for you.

Lord in a lot of ways we are poor and powerless in a lot of ways we offer Oh, very little.

We thank you for stories. We thank you for the Bible.

We thank you for the way that you invite all of us, the disabled,

the children, the old, the young, the rich, the poor, the strong, the weak.

We thank you for the invitation. Help us, Lord, to be a people who live in a

way that totally accepts that,

and because of that can be transformed to be secure enough to give without strings.

It's a really hard thing, God. We thank you that you model it in the most perfect

way. We thank you for Jesus, his work on our behalf. Amen.