At a business dinner, the most efficient or highest-ranking employees sit at the executive table. But at the table of God, it is our spiritual filiation that gives us a place of honor.
It has always been so. During great majestic feasts, it was the strongest or the richest who sat at the king’s table. The sick or the poor were not even invited to the feasts. This state of honor sought to reward the most valiant, but also to give brilliance to the sovereign who demonstrated that his entourage was imposing. That is why the story of Mephibosheth (2 Samuel 9) is so moving. He was the grandson of the king’s enemy in a way, and he was handicapped. He should never have been in the spotlight, and never should have been invited to eat at King David’s table. But because he was the son of his friend Jonathan, David gave him this honor.
The same goes for us. We are invited to the table of the King of kings despite our past. Even if we are physically handicapped or emotionally broken, even if we have experienced failures or have no wealth to present. We are invited into the intimacy of the King because of our (spiritual) family ties. “The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father” (Romans 8:15 NIV). Jesus also used the same image to invite to His table all those who didn’t feel honorable. “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests” (Matthew 22:8-10 NIV).
Being a gathering of imperfect humans, the church also sometimes tends to favor members with a title. And those who get a big responsibility are often married couples or married men. Single people, divorced people, can sometimes feel excluded. Since the church is a religious setting, these singles may believe that God is doing the same to them. This lie of the enemy pushes them to stay away from the presence of God. While on the contrary, our King invites us all to be ever closer to Him and very active in the growth of His Kingdom. In short, do not compare your experience inside your church with what is happening in the Spirit. The pastor has no better seat than you at the High King’s table!
But beware: if our past does not prevent us from sitting at the head table, then we must keep our place by showing respect and thankfulness. If Mephibosheth had started to do dishonorable acts against David, he certainly would not have stayed there. As was the case for one of the guests quoted in the parable of the wedding. “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless. “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 22:11-13 NIV). Now that we are invited to the head table, let us be grateful enough to change our worldly ways and put on the finest clothes: Christ Himself (Romans 13:14).