Who's at Your Table?

Uh my wife and I take date night just about every Thursday night, unless there's some reason we can't, we do every Thursday night.

And um when we go out, I try to create the conversation, at least to get it sparked and going.

It all often will take on a life of its own and we end up on rabbit trails and everything.

And uh that's how we bond primarily is just through communication and sharing our thoughts and ideas.

And so I try to come up with a good question or a good conversation starter.

So I'm gonna share with you this past Thursday, so like a few days ago.

This was our um we went to North Star.

Okay, anybody like North Star?

North Star, huh?

The Townsfair salad?

Anyone?

No, no?

Boota bowl?

All right, anyways, um, we go to North Star, and uh this was our combo at North Star.

If you could know when and how you were going to die, would you want to know?

We had a spirited conversation on that subject.

I want you to think about that.

Like, if God showed up and gave you the option, was like, you can know when and how you're going to die.

Would you want to know that?

Um, I wouldn't, by the way.

It's a long story, but I wouldn't.

Um imagine you did know.

You knew the exact day, the exact time, the exact way.

What would you do the night before?

Chances are you probably would gather the people closest to you and have a really meaningful moment and a very important conversation.

Right?

Most people they go so quick, they didn't have time to say the last things they wanted to say.

But if you knew this is your last night, you got your kids or your sister and brother, your family, your parents, whoever, you got them around you, your friends, and you you would have an important conversation.

I'll bet you wouldn't waste a word.

I'll bet that everything you did, even the symbolic things you would do to make sure that they remembered the most important things.

That you connected every single dot.

Now think about this.

What do you want people to remember about you?

If you think of the progress of going from immaturity as a person to the process of maturity, this is an oversimplify oversimplification, but you get the idea.

Like when you start out immature, your whole life is about proving something.

I gotta prove, I gotta prove I'm valuable, I gotta prove that I'm lovable, I've gotta prove that I'm a winner, I gotta prove.

And so immature people are all about proving, proving.

I gotta, I got something to prove.

In fact, we do have sort of a it's cringy when you see someone who's 40, 50, 60, 70 years old still trying to prove something.

Maturity is going from trying to prove something to trying to improve something.

And the way you make that progression is when what needs to be proven has been proven.

And this is, by the way, uh the huge advantage to getting right with God and getting through Jesus.

That we understand that actually our proof, our value, our purpose, all of that has been declared by God.

So whether you validate it or not doesn't really matter because only the one who created me has the right to name me, to declare my purpose, and to determine my value.

So when I get that from God, society or culture or community may try to invalidate me, but they're not capable of that because they didn't create me.

I get that from God.

So I have my validation, everything I need proven is proven, and now I can focus my energy on improving something.

If it was your last night and you were trying to get people to remember you, and all of your, like, hey guys, don't forget I was a winner.

Hey guys, don't forget about all my success.

Hey guys, don't forget about my trophies.

If that was what you would be saying, like a testament of your greatness, you'd probably be a that'd be a pretty shallow approach.

The deeper approach wouldn't be about all the battles you won, it would be about what you were fighting for.

What was important?

What do you want to last?

What do you want to leave behind?

How would people live their lives in a way that was different, that was better in the world because of the way you lived yours?

That would be the important stuff, and you would make sure you connected all those dots.

That's exactly what Jesus did.

He knew he was going to die and he knew how he was going to die and when.

And so the night before, he does this exact thing.

This is why I'm gonna preach on Easter about the Last Supper.

Because I think the Last Supper and the cross are so interconnected.

It's actually Jesus' sermon about the cross, he preaches at the Last Supper.

And so today that's what we're gonna look at.

Um, okay, Luke 22 tells the story of the Last Supper, and look at this, verse 15.

Jesus said, I have been very eager to eat this Passover meal with you before my suffering begins.

Notice that he says, I've been excited about this meal, I've been anticipating this moment.

He said, and I want to do it before my suffering begins.

Why?

Well, when you're in intense suffering, and of course Jesus knew he was gonna go uh to the cross, he was gonna be beaten within an inch of his life, they're gonna open up his body, he was gonna be bleeding out, um, his humanity, he would become so feeble, he couldn't carry his own cross, he was gonna have to get help.

And so, as he's being tortured and abused, that is sensory overload for everyone.

Maybe the disciples, as much as Jesus, even though he's going through the pain to watch him go through that.

So when you're in that sort of sensory overload, traumatic experience, it's really hard to connect to the big picture because you're just overwhelmed by the suffering.

And so Jesus is like, listen, before I suffer, let me explain all the dots and how they connect and what I'm really here to do so that you'll be able to connect it, and your sensory overload won't won't keep you from really uh missing, won't won't cause you to miss what I want you to get.

Verse 17, he says this.

He took the cup of wine and he gave thanks to God for it, and he said, This uh take this and share it among yourselves.

So he takes the cup.

What does the cup represent?

The cup represents the blood of Jesus.

The cup represents the sacrifice that Jesus made, which is inextricably linked to not just his sacrifice, but to his purpose.

And he knew that the shedding of his blood was going to be extremely difficult, which is why in verse 42 of the same chapter, when he's in the garden, remember when he's like, Father, please let this cup pass from me.

Like if you have a plan B, I would totally listen.

Because this is gonna be really hard.

Yet when he's before the disciples and he's in front of them and he's trying to get them to remember the right thing, he thanks God for the suffering.

He thanks God for the purpose connected to the suffering.

And he said, now notice what he said, don't miss this detail, because I don't think he, I don't think there was one accident in what he did.

I think it was all very intentional.

He said, Hey, take this cup, he said, it's for you, but share it with each other.

Jesus wanted them to know that the his blood and his sacrifice and what he was doing was for them, but it was also for the other 11 people at the table.

Now think about this now.

Uh is Leonardo da Vinci's picture above me.

That whole thing he painted, right?

The Last Supper.

Um this is an artist's rendering of Jesus' disciples who were this hodgepodge group of people.

It's it's it's a table, it's a group of people that don't come together on their own.

You have Simon the Zealot who hates Rome.

And you have Levi the tax collector who's in cahoots with Rome.

They're at the opposite ends of the political spectrum.

You have people, uh, you have rich people at the table, you have poor people at the table, you have people of all different professions, different personality types, all different.

I mean, this table does not assemble without Jesus at the center of the table.

But he brings them together and he gives them each individually the cup, but he says, share it with each other.

And he says, Do this in remembrance of me.

Two big things.

First is you belong at the table, but the second, huge part of it is so do they.

Because what happens when you have this catalytic person?

Maybe you've seen this happen before.

You have somebody that assembles a table, most people wouldn't assemble, right?

Because they're all connected to him or her.

But when that person dies and leaves, what happens?

Everybody leaves, the table dissolves.

We never reconvene, we never come back together because I didn't like you to begin with.

I'm only here because of him.

I'm only here because of her.

And Jesus is absolutely drawing the connection between his love for you and his blood that's for you.

But he's like, look down the table, pass this, the person you're passing it to.

It's for them too.

So he's dying for the individual, but he's setting a tone and example for what we do with the gospel, what we do with this transformed life.

And it changes the way the zealot and the tax collector view each other.

So he's like, keep doing this.

Don't stop once I leave the earth.

I'm gonna send my spirit to live inside of you, but you've got to keep doing this.

This is why I'm here.

It says the second thing, um, I believe it's verse uh 19.

He says he took some bread and he gave thanks to God for it, and he broke it in pieces, giving it to the disciples.

This is my body which is given for you.

Do this, it says, in remembrance of me.

So Jesus is doing like a sermon illustration in front of them.

He's like, I'm gonna get, I'm gonna be beaten, I'm gonna have a crown of thorns, my body's gonna go through it, and it's gonna be overwhelming.

It's gonna be emotional.

You you're gonna you're gonna see it, you're gonna cringe, you're gonna, you're gonna be afraid, you're gonna hide.

Okay, and he said, but just understand that I'm doing this for you.

I'm doing this because I love you, but he's giving it to everyone.

I'm doing this for you and I'm doing this for them.

I'm doing this for you and I'm doing this for them.

And so this, it's it's during this remembrance, it's like, don't forget this.

This is why I came.

It's during this that that really petty argument breaks out.

The disciples show exactly how immature they are, they show how much they still have to prove.

It says in verse 24, they begin to argue among themselves as to who would be the greatest.

They're still trying to prove something.

And Jesus is going, I'm so glad you brought this up here, because now I can connect my purpose to your immaturity to help you take a step.

And so he's saying, Okay, guys, let me help you move from trying to prove to trying to improve.

He says, Um, in your world, great men lord over people, like they selfishly use their power and their prowess and their influence.

He said, In your world, that's what people do.

He said, But who's greater?

The one who sits at the table, the one who serves at the table, right?

Who's greater?

The one who is so important that they have people serving them, or the ones, the nameless, faceless people that are in there serving, and we don't even really look at them.

We don't even know their name.

Who's greater?

He's like, Well, of course, the one sitting at the table.

He's like, That's not how I do leadership, that's not how I want you to do leadership, that's not how I do power, that's not how I want you to do power.

So he says, I'm among you as one who serves.

And what he's teaching them is how to sit in every seat at the table.

Because if you think about it, you think about community, there are communities and then a bazillion subcommunities, right?

Like, think about we have a city within our city, we have a bunch of schools within schools, we have a bunch of classrooms.

So there's a subcommittee at the school, and there's a subcommittee at the rotary, and there's a subcommittee within the government, and there's a subcommittee on the ball team, you got a sport team, or you've got a um you've got a band, or you've got a drama club, or you you've got we've got clubs and communities.

We have families.

Our families have a table.

And each of these communities, you go to work, you're on a team, and all throughout the many tables of your life, the communities, sometimes you sit where Jesus sat at the Lord's Supper, you sit at the head of that table, and you are the most powerful one at that table, in your home or on your team or wherever you are.

And Jesus says, Look, this blood and this body is for you to redeem you to God, but it's also informs and teaches how you practice this in everyday life.

Right?

Like, think about the word orthodoxy.

The or the orthodoxy are the concrete things that you believe.

Then there's a word orthopraxy.

Orthopraxy is how you practice what you believe.

Often when we think about the cross, we start, and we, as we should, with orthodoxy, what we believe, but often it's to the exclusion.

We don't follow through to the orthopraxy.

Not just what did Jesus want us to know and memorize academically, but what did Jesus want us to do behaviorally?

So Jesus is bringing the two together.

He's saying, if you sit at the head of the table and you're powerful, I want you to lead like me, instead of to be served, to serve.

And then he's saying also at another table, you're gonna sit apart from a tax collector or a zealot.

You're gonna sit as one of the eleven.

And he said, When you do that, make sure you understand that at this table, nobody gets more or less body and blood.

No one gets more or less grace.

I'm giving the same.

You're equal at my table.

I see you the same.

The rich, the poor, the haves, the have-nots.

And so Jesus said, When you do this, do this in remembrance of me.

Remember not just what I did for you, but what I did for others as well.

So, what Jesus introduces is a ritual.

Rituals are only valuable if they stay connected to reasons.

Often we keep doing rituals long after we've forgotten the reason.

And Jesus puts the ritual in place so that the reason won't be forgotten, but the reason ended up being forgotten.

So they the transition is from the Last Supper, which now becomes the Lord's Supper, because this informs what we believe about God and what we believe God wants us to do with one another.

And so, if you fast forward to the book of Corinthians, all of the early church would practice the Lord's Supper.

And it gets to the Corinthians, and the Corinthians have made a critical mistake.

They've done the opposite of what the Lord's Supper was intended to do.

Here's what the Lord's Supper was intended to do: to take the table and have the table calibrate us to how we go in the world.

So, in other words, if you own a business or you lead anything, you're in charge of a family, whatever, the table sets the tone for how you go out and use your power.

The table sets the tone for how you see the people around you.

And we take that into the world.

The opposite would be to have the way of the world to inform and impact the way that we do the Lord's Supper.

It's exactly what the Corinthians were doing.

The Corinthians were in a culture that was very, very, very class conscious.

And so people would separate themselves according to class in the world.

And of course, you have haves and have-nots.

We still have that today.

And in the world, when I say the world, I don't just mean everybody outside these walls because sometimes the world is in here.

What is the world?

The world.

The world is ultimately people functioning and living in their flesh.

Right?

What is our flesh?

Our flesh is quite selfish.

My flesh wants to be first in line.

We are flesh.

We are a bundle of appetites that are never fully and finally satisfied.

If I have an urge or I need something, I want it before you.

Our flesh would be on display, by the way, if, like, let's say we all simultaneously needed to use the restroom and there were only two porta potties, you would see flesh in action.

The way the line would formulate.

Nobody goes, you know, the last shall be first.

You know, I'm gonna, I'm gonna go, I'm just gonna go back here.

No, man, you'd be pushing and shoving to the front of that line.

We we see flesh all the time.

We see the world all the time.

The flesh is what is responsible for traffic jams.

You get on 270, no one's like, you know, I just really want to make sure this guy gets home first.

You know, I just don't want this guy to be late to where he's going.

You know, I want this nice lady, you know, I bet she's going somewhere important.

Go ahead, go ahead.

I mean, no, dude, you get on 270, I'm trying to get where I'm going, A-S-A-P.

That's really all I care about.

The rest of it is just Toyotas and Fords and Chevies and whatever.

I don't it doesn't matter to me.

You see flesh, you see flesh every time you get on and off an airplane.

Oh, you know you see it.

You've been a part of it.

If you're like me, and if you ever fly southwest, you are the moment you can check in.

Ha! Ha! I'm sitting there waiting on the second so I can get at least boarding group two.

I have no concern at all whether you get an aisle seat or not.

I don't care.

I have no passion about you getting overhead space.

Means nothing to me.

I need to get my bag in the overhead space because I don't want them checking it and it ends up somewhere.

Okay, I I want to get on.

In fact, God forbid I be in boarding group two and you're in front of me.

I'm checking your ticket.

Let me see.

Are you are you group two?

You're group three, excuse me.

Group four, excuse me, get out of my way.

They'll be calling you in a minute.

All right, you get thee behind me, Satan, okay?

I got I got somewhere to go.

I'm getting on this plane, okay?

God forbid they start unloading this plane and people are slow taking their stuff out.

All right, come on now, but we gotta go.

I got places to be.

Okay, that's flesh.

My flesh wants to be at the front of the line.

My flesh wants to eat first.

My flesh, oh, I don't know about yours.

My flesh likes to feel a little superior, frankly.

My flesh likes to get invited to stuff not everybody gets invited to.

My flesh likes to go places other people can't go.

My flesh likes to be exclusive.

VIP.

Oh, you want to sucker me into an invitation?

Just tell me you only invited a few people.

Call it a round table.

Oh, I'm in.

I'm in.

It's a round table.

That's it.

I'm there.

That's flesh.

Flesh pushes to the front of the line.

So you have the Corinthians who are doing the Lord's Supper.

And Paul writes to him and he goes, Guys, you are messing this up so incredibly bad.

In 1 Corinthians 11, 17, he said, It sounds as if more harm than good is done when you meet together.

It would be better if you didn't gather because of the way you're gathering.

He said, First, I hear there are divisions among you.

Verse 20.

He said, When you meet together, you're not really interested in the Lord's Supper.

In other words, you don't actually care about what Jesus cared about when he gave his speech the night before his death.

You don't really care about that table.

He said, For some of you, you hurry to eat your own meal without sharing with others.

As a result, some go hungry while others get drunk.

So they're gathering for this Lord's Supper, like potluck, it was called an agape meal, basically everyone getting together.

And instead of taking the table, which brings everyone together, we all get the same amount of body, we all get the same amount of blood, regardless of your socioeconomic status, regardless of the pecking order that you're in at work, regardless of what you can afford that others can't, or whether you can't afford really the thing you want.

All of us come to this table and it's level at Jesus' table.

And instead of taking that into the world, they brought the world into that.

So you had the haves that pushed to the front of the line and over ate and overdrank.

While the people who the world was telling all the time, but you're not valuable, you don't belong there.

You can't get into that school, you can't get hired for that job, you didn't get picked.

You love somebody who didn't love you back.

You look at that price tag, you can't afford that.

The system of the world constantly telling them where they don't belong and who they aren't, and constantly ripping at their value.

Then they go to the church, and the church does the same thing.

Paul is horrified.

He's like, guys, the world does that.

This table, this table is the one place, whether you're a have or have not, that you come and you get put in your place.

If you feel you don't belong, it puts you in your place.

If you feel you're too good for everybody else, you're the one smart person in the world full of dumb people.

If everybody else would just is just as good as me.

If you start getting high on yourself, it brings you to the right place.

It brings everything like this.

And so the Corinthians were doing it wrong.

And so Paul goes in and he says, Guys, let's go back to the beginning.

And so he goes back to Jesus' conversation.

He says, Look, let's get this right.

I pass on to you what I received from the Lord Himself.

On the night he was betrayed, Jesus.

Jesus took the bread and he gave thanks and he broke it into pieces and he said, This is my body given for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.

Remember how you're supposed to sit at the head of the table.

Remember how you're supposed to be a have.

Remember what you're supposed to do with your power and your influence.

He said, and then he took the cup and he said, This is the new covenant between God and his people, agreed uh agreement and confirmed with my blood.

Do this in remembrance of me as often as you drink it.

For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you're proclaiming the Lord's death.

You're testifying the Lord's death until he comes.

The verse kind of rhymes with Jesus' high priestly prayer in John 17 when he says, I'm praying not only for these disciples, but for all those who will ever believe in their message.

I pray that they will be all be one just as you and I are one.

As you are in me, Father, and I am in you, may they be in us so that the world will believe that you sent me.

Now look at this.

Paul's talking to them about the Lord's Supper.

So from the last supper to the Lord's Supper and what this is designed the ritual that's designed to keep us calibrated to thinking and acting and behaving like Jesus.

He says in verse 27 Anyone who eats this bread and drinks this cup unworthily is guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord.

That's why you should examine yourselves before eating the bread and drinking the cup.

If you eat the bread and drink the cup, look at this without honoring the body of Christ, you're eating and drinking judgment upon yourself.

When I was a kid I grew up in in our church they would always read that verse before we took communion.

So I'm sitting there with the grape juice and the wafer and they were like hey look okay anyone who eats this bread and drinks this without examining yourself you're eating and drinking judgment upon yourself.

Everybody close your eyes for a minute and just think about all your sins and make sure you've thought them all up and then ask God to forgive you.

And so I did and I sit there and like my 12 year old self trying to think of my deepest darkest secrets.

You know I'm like oh Lord and oh and I did that the other day.

Lord help me not forget anything because I was worried you know if I didn't think of all my sins and ask God to forgive and then I drank the grape juice a pit of hell's gonna open up and swallow me up and I'm gone.

You know I brought judgment upon myself and so I'd sit there and just try to conjure up like I was cataloging all my sins so I could repent.

Now hey repentance is wonderful.

It's a great thing to do you should do that.

It's actually designed to help you turn away from the thing that's jacking your life up okay it's actually designed to get God's grace to you as quickly as possible so that's great.

But that's not what Paul's talking about.

When he says examine yourself he's talking to these people who are only accepting the last supper the Lord's supper the communion and the grace of God for themselves to the exclusion of other people they had no problem pushing to the front of the line they had no problem coming in and overeating and overdrinking at the expense of another person.

So when he says look at this look look notice the double meaning meant to shock the listener he says he says if you eat and drink the cup without honoring the body of Christ when he says that without honoring the body of Christ what they saw in their mind were two things one the literal body of Christ on the cross being dishonored.

But of course the second meaning Paul talks about the body of Christ being other people your brothers and sisters other human beings so Paul lays these two meanings over each other and says if you only think about what the cross means to you and think of it to the exclusion of the person next to you're dishonoring the body of Christ and you're eating and drinking judgment upon yourself.

If you're one of these half powerful people that think that God has some special body and blood for you that he doesn't have for other people and you're acting that way he's like check yourself because you don't want God checking you.

You'd be better to calibrate yourself to remember that they belong at the table just like you do.

And the equality that happens at that table.

The Last Supper reminds me that I belong at the table it reminds me that the other 11 disciples belong there too well this speech worked Paul gives this in AD 50 in AD 197 the church is spreading like wildfire and it's growing in the middle of persecution.

They're being persecuted by the Roman government for three big reasons.

One they were being persecuted because they were seen as unpatriotic to Rome because they were citizens of the kingdom of God and all this and people beyond the Jewish people were joining into this community all the time and it was seen as a threat to Rome.

The second is there was a rumor going around that they were cannibals because they were eating flesh and drinking blood so to speak within the communion ritual people thought oh they're they're literally eating flesh and drinking blood and so that rumor was out there.

The third then was because of the influence and the growth of that community everybody with influence and power felt threatened by it.

So in AD 197 a guy by the name of Tertullian Tertullian was a lawyer and a theologian in the early church and he writes it's more than a letter it's 40 chapters but he writes this large work and he sends it to the Roman government and the Roman emperor and it's called the apology the apology don't think like I'm sorry apology think like an apologetic or an explanation and he's like you need to understand these Christians you need to understand why this thing is growing and I'm gonna give you a summary you can go read the whole thing for yourself if you want but I'm gonna summarize it he says the reason this community is growing is because it's better.

He's like it's better.

People know what you're doing.

He's like you guys are taxing the people you're taking their taxes and your your politicians and your powerful people are taking people's hard earned money for taxes and you're not giving it back to help them at the grassroot.

You're not making their life any better with it you're taking it and you're throwing crazy parties and self-indulging and people know it.

And he's like within their community they have piety offerings people he said no one is compelled to give in terms of pressure to people just do it.

If they have some extra they do it and they do it to help people uh children that don't have parents they do it to help people who are in need if somebody's hungry we feed them if somebody's lonely we we come around them we support them he said it's just an incredibly selfless community at one point he says it can't be bought he goes the the community is so rich and so healthy that people are willing to be persecuted to be a part of it.

That's how good it is that's how much better it is and so he's writing to to the government of Rome saying you're not going to stop this because it's better.

I think the correction in 1 Corinthians of a group of people think about a group of people that had the right orthodoxy in terms of what Jesus did for them and yet were in the process of mishandling their practice of that orthodoxy into the way they were treating other people but once they got that right they started changing the world I think it still works.

I think it still works I don't think it was just like a 197AD thing I think that the supper that reminds me when I get a little too high on myself to bring me right back to where I belong and when I get too low on myself it brings me up to remind me I belong at the table.

So do you so do you and so do you it teaches me how to lead where I have power and it teaches me how to be a citizen in a community to look down the table at the zealot and not down my nose at the zealot.

To look down the table at the tax collector and not down my nose at the tax collector see Jesus preached the Sermon of the cross at the Last Supper because he wanted us to know and remember the most important things.

It certainly wasn't hey don't forget about your boy Jesus don't forget about all my wins don't forget about all my victories he wanted you to remember what he was fighting for.

Probably the most legendary Bible verse in Easter history is John 316.

Whoo you can't beat John 316 that's a great verse God so loved the world he sent his only begotten son that I didn't even know the word begotten until I learned John 316.

His only begotten son that whosoever believes in him would not perish but have everlasting life that's for you that's personal that's for you and me.

I just think we should also in tandem every time we say John 316 we should remember first John 316 this is how we know what love is Jesus Christ gave his life for us now we ought to give our lives for our brothers and sisters when you do this when you do this do this in remembrance of me remember what I did for you but when you do this do this in remembrance of me let's bring it all together today and allow the Lord to bring us to his table and to remind us that others belong there too