Table Tales: Sunday Supper

This past summer a friend of ours was going through a really rough time and just really needed companionship…and some comfort food. I decided to invite her over for a Sunday pot roast and cherry cobbler because who doesn’t feel better after some cobbler? My parents ended up in Richmond that day so we invited them and my sister, Ellie, to join us for the meal as well. I was so excited to show them the newest addition to our family, the table!

Our friend came to church with us before the meal and I could tell some things from the sermon didn’t sit right with her. During lunch, she admitted she didn’t know much about the whole Jesus thing except for the judgmental attitude she had experienced from his so-called followers. As she told us her experiences, my heart broke. She shared that she felt shameful and assumed God hated her for her sin and was punishing her with a sad and lonely life. She asked us if Jesus was like the “Christians” she knew. Relieved to shed some light on her mounting guilt, I began to explain the Jesus I know. 

I told her Jesus only ever showered the poor and brokenhearted with love, not judgment or hate like so many have falsely done in his name. I told her I was so sorry for all those people and their judgment. Sadly, no one can say they aren’t guilty of judging someone or insulting him behind his back. I will be the first to admit it. We’ve all messed up and have failed to live the perfect lives of love God intended for us. Since we have judged, hated, and slandered our brothers and sisters, God says according to his law this is equivalent to murder. And you know what he says we deserve? Death. This is punishment for breaking his law. Just as a king would act justly and punish one of his subjects if he committed treason, God works the same way. I deserve nothing from God for breaking his law, except death.

"For I, the LORD, love justice; I hate robbery and iniquity.” Isaiah 61:8

She hung her head low as I spoke so I said, “That’s not the end of the story!”

When he said he loved justice, he wasn’t lying. He was so serious that he sent his son to be fully God and fully human. And because of our innate brokenness, Jesus lived the perfect life we aren’t capable of living. When Jesus died, God accepted his death as payment for all sin—past, present, and future. And now when I believe that Jesus is my “Savior,” I’m saying that he lived and died in my place. By his grace, I’m free from the heavy weight of guilt. Not because I’ve done enough good things, but because when God looks at me, he sees me like he sees Jesus and then smiles and says, “You are perfect, Hannah.” I can confidently say that when I get to heaven, I will be welcomed into the gates with a hug, not a pitchfork.

My friend had lots of questions and was wary of believing too quickly. The one thing she knew she could believe right then was the way we loved her like Jesus would have. As we finished up our cobbler, my mom asked if we could pray for her situation and direction in her life. As my mom prayed, she asked God to overwhelm her with his great, big love. Tears just spilled and spilled from her eyes.

I drove her home and on my way back all of a sudden I realized God had heard me when I first asked for a table! Yeah, yeah…of course he heard me because we now had a table. But the part of the prayer I didn’t really expect to see right away was what surprised me. I had asked him for opportunities to share his love at the table. I didn’t realize that very thing had just happened till it was all said and done. For our very first meal at the table, his plan of redemption for all creation, including this woman, was proclaimed! I thanked him for being faithful and inviting me to share in this life with him.

“When you were dead in your sins…God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”  Colossians 2:13-15