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In 1986 I graduated from MS with a degree in Telecommunications. I wanted to work behind the scenes producing Christian TV programs but when I couldn't find a job in Christian TV, I decided to move to Los Angeles and try to get any job in the TV industry. This was not a well thought out plan. I traveled from CT to CA with some friends and when I arrived in LA I had no car and no idea how to get around the sprawling city and suburbs.
I was able to stay with some relatives in Studio City, but after a few weeks I had quickly used up all my money, I had no leads on a job, and no idea of how to move around the city let alone move forward with life. My time there was a disaster and I knew I needed to return home to CT, but had no money to make that trip. I ended up calling my parents for help and I asked if they could send me some money to fly back to CT so I could start over again.
I don’t remember all the words of that phone call, but I remember how I felt when it was over. I felt blessed and relieved. You see, they didn’t shame me. My parents didn’t tell me that they knew it was a bad plan from the start and that I shouldn’t have gone in the first place. They didn’t ask how I was going to pay them back or what job I was going to get when I got home, they just said, how can we get you the money? I didn’t deserve their grace. I hadn’t done anything to receive it and there was no way I could pay them back. But their grace was there. I remember what that felt like. I felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my chest. I could breathe again, sleep again, eat again. I had hope and a future. I didn’t deserve it and I couldn’t repay it, but grace was there.
Have you ever had grace extended to you when you didn’t deserve it? Have you ever had people not look back at the poor choices that you made and say, I told you so, but simply look forward and give you a hand to start over again? Have you ever been forgiven for something that you truly never deserved and felt that terrible weight lifted off your chest and heart? Receiving grace is humbling and it can be difficult. Because we don’t deserve it we often try and figure out how to pay the person back or be worthy of their blessing. But grace isn’t earned, and it isn’t repaid. We don’t try to make things right on our own, we simply open ourselves up to receive the grace and love that is offered.
God’s grace is absolutely big enough to cover every mistake we have ever made and every sin we have ever committed. God’s love can forgive everything we are struggling with today and the sin that clings to us so closely. God’s grace and love is even able to repair and restore our relationship with God. Our sin separates us from God and there is nothing we can do to bridge that gap, but God's grace draws us close to Him once again. God’s grace sets us back into a relationship with the living God. We know God’s grace is sufficient for all of this and more because of one specific dinner with Jesus.
What we know as the last supper was actually a Passover dinner that Jesus celebrated with His disciples. Every year the people of God would gather in their homes to celebrate this dinner that retold the story of how God liberated His people from Egypt. For 400 years, the people of Israel lived as slaves in Egypt. When things got really difficult and the oppression of God’s people got severe, God sent Moses to lead the people out of Egypt and into the Promised Land. The Pharaoh of Egypt, however, had other plans.
The Pharaoh was not going to let God’s people go, so God sent plagues upon the Egyptians in hopes that the Pharaoh would change his mind. Plague after plague came upon the Egyptians, but the Pharaoh would not let God’s people go. God finally sent what would be the final plague and this was a plague of death. The first born in every family was going to die and the people of Israel were going to be caught up in this plague unless they put the blood of a lamb on the door frames of their homes. When God’s people did this, the angel of death would “pass over” their homes. The blood of a lamb saved God’s people.
It was after that plague that the Pharaoh finally let the people of Israel go and they made their way to the Promised Land. Every year after that, God told his people to celebrate a meal that would remind them that it was by His power and His grace that they had been saved.
As part of the meal there was to be a lamb bone to remind the people of the sacrificial lamb whose blood saved them. There was parsley, or bitter herbs, to remind them of their bitter time in Egypt and salt water to remind them of all the tears they had shed. There was a mixture of apples, nuts and wine called charoset that looked like the mortar they used when they were forced to build the buildings, and they put that mixture on matza bread that reminded them of the unleavened bread they took with them when they fled Egypt. There was also an egg that symbolized the new life God had promised.
Everything in this meal reminded the people of their difficult situation and how God alone was the one who rescued them. They didn’t get themselves out of the bitter situation on their own - it was the blood of a sacrificial lamb. They didn’t enter into the Promised Land by their own strength, it was by the grace of God. This was and is today a meal of grace. We are saved by God’s grace alone.
During this meal, 4 cups of wine were consumed, and each cup stood for a promise God made in Exodus 6:6-7. I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God.
The first cup celebrated the promise that God was going to bring the people out from under the burden of living in Egypt.
The second cup was to remember God’s deliverance and that He was the one who set the people free from slavery.
The third cup told the people that it was God who redeemed them by the power of His outstretched arm alone, and the last cup celebrated that God took these people as His own and that He was their God.
Each cup was a sign of God’s grace and power and it reminded the people that their deliverance and salvation was the work of God. They hadn’t done anything to earn God’s favor, they didn’t deserve God’s deliverance, and they couldn’t repay God for what He had done. It was all by God’s grace. This was and is a meal of grace.
Israel was saved and redeemed by the grace of God alone and each year the people remembered that in this meal. It was this meal that Jesus celebrated with His disciples and we think it was when Jesus picked up the third cup, the cup of redemption, the cup that talked about how God redeemed His people by His outstretched hand, that Jesus said, this is my blood which has been given for you. As often as you drink this, remember me.
The power of God’s hand had saved Israel and now it was going to be the blood of Jesus that would save the world. The outstretched arm of Jesus, an arm that was stretched out and nailed to a cross, this arm would now save the world. Jesus was not only redefining the cup of redemption, but He was also redefining the sacrificial lamb. The sacrificial lamb whose blood saved God’s people was now Jesus. John the Baptist said of Jesus, behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The sacrificial lamb is Jesus. The perfect lamb whose blood saves us all is Jesus, and we don’t deserve this grace, but it is shown to us and given to us in this meal.
Let’s think about this particular dinner with Jesus. At the table with Jesus were people who didn’t deserve His grace. Judas was there and he was going to betray Jesus in just a few hours. Peter was there and he was going to deny Jesus. Andrew, James and John were there and they were all going to run away. None of them deserved the grace of God, but Jesus invited them to the table and stretched out His arm for them. He poured out His blood for them. His grace was for them, and His grace is for us.
We have all failed to be faithful. We have all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. We fail to walk with Jesus and to walk in the way of Jesus. We fail to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and we really fail to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. We fail and we don’t deserve God’s mercy and we can’t repay God for His grace - but here it is for us. It is given freely to us. The sin that separates us from God has been forgiven. The punishment for our sin has been paid and we are able to live in God’s presence and experience God’s love once again. This is a meal of God’s grace. It’s a meal that tells us that we are forgiven.
What does it mean for you to come to this table and share in this meal? I’ll be honest, every time I come to the table, I am reminded of my sin and that on my own I cannot love God the way I want to. I remember the sin that I never seem to be able to move beyond, and the attitudes and actions that I hate but never seem to overcome. When I come to the table, I am reminded of all those things and yet it is here that I also hear God say, you are forgiven. I am reminded that like the disciples, I am fed and even washed clean at this table. I am reminded that God’s grace is free and open to me and that I can trust in the blood of Jesus to save me. Jesus is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus is the one who redeems me and brings me back into relationship with God.
Just as there was nothing I could do to repay my parents when they reached out to lift me out of the depth of my despair, there is nothing I can do to repay God for His grace. What does this meal mean for me? It means my sin is not held against me. It means Jesus doesn’t remind me of my failures or shame me in order to change me. I am simply forgiven. It’s all grace.
Let me share this grace of God looks like when it shows up in someone’s life. I don’t want this to be just another hearing of a familiar story, I want you to put yourself in the story and allow God’s grace to speak to you. John 8:2-11
At dawn Jesus appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?”
They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
Can you put yourself in this woman’s place? She didn’t deserve God’s grace. She was caught in the act of adultery. Yes, the man should have been there too, and the religious leaders really didn’t care about her or the law, they were just trying to put Jesus into a difficult situation, but the woman was guilty. She didn’t deserve grace. She had broken the law and the punishment was for her to be stoned. Can you put yourself in her position? We are all guilty. None of us deserve God’s grace or forgiveness, but that is exactly what she got. God’s grace. The forgiveness of Jesus. She wasn’t stoned. She wasn’t condemned. Jesus didn’t even lecture her or shame her, He just forgave her.
This is what grace looks like. We are guilty but God offers grace. We deserve to be punished but God provides a second chance. This is grace but notice that God’s grace didn’t lower the standard. Jesus didn’t say that adultery was ok. He didn’t make light of her sin or the sin of anyone else who was there. In fact, He reminded everyone of their sin by writing the sins of the people in the dust.
We are all guilty and while grace doesn’t lower the standard, it does forgive. Grace doesn’t pretend that sin doesn’t exist, it looks sin full in the face and overcomes it.
Sin also doesn’t wipe away the consequences of our failures. The woman before Jesus still had to deal with her family and friends. She still had to endure the hardships and pain she would feel in her community because of her actions, but she had been spared and given a second chance by God. There are times when we are going to have to deal with the consequences of our sin and failures. God doesn’t wave a magic wand and make every problem we have created disappear, but He also doesn’t hold it against us.
Grace doesn’t lower the standard. Grace doesn’t pretend that wrong is right, and grace doesn’t remove all the consequences of our actions, but grace is real and it can set us on a path of freedom and new life. Receiving God’s grace also means that we need to give grace to others. When Jesus tells this woman to go and sin no more, it’s not just go forth and don’t commit adultery again, it’s go forth and truly sin no more. Don’t get up and be filled with so much pride that you start condemning others. Don’t get caught up in looking down on others when they fail, don’t pick up stones to throw at those who wanted to throw them at you. As you have been forgiven - forgive others. As God has given grace to you - give grace to others. As God has loved you - love others.
When we sit down at this table with Jesus and accept His grace and love, we are saying that we will now get up from this table and extend God’s grace to others. This grace needs to shape our attitudes and actions. This grace needs to direct our words, our hearts, and our hands. We now have to get up and set a table of grace and invite others to join us. We don’t do this to repay Jesus, and we don’t do it in an effort to earn God’s love in return for what He has done for us, we do it because we know that God’s love truly does shape us and causes our hearts to beat differently. This meal makes us agents of God’s grace and peace that we now share with others.
Next Steps
Dinner with Jesus - A Meal of Grace
When have you experienced grace and forgiveness from others? What did it feel like? How did it change you?
When have you shared grace and forgiveness with others? What did that feel like? How did that change you?
How is the Passover meal a meal that reflects God’s grace? What do each of these elements tell us about Israel’s history and God’s grace?
● Lamb bone
● Bitter herbs (Parsley)
● Salt water
● Matzah bread
● Charoset
● Egg
What promises do the 4 cups of wine represent? See Exodus 6:6-7
How does Jesus redefine the Passover meal? What does it mean for us to now have forgiveness through the covenant of Jesus’ blood?
When you come to God’s table, what feelings and emotions do you experience? How is it a table of both repentance and grace?
What do we learn about God’s grace from the story of the woman caught in adultery? See John 8:2-11.
● How is her story our story today?
● How can we share this kind of grace with others?
● Who needs you to show them grace today?
● How can you show them grace it this week?
