Christ Our Light and Hope: Reflections for Advent

Kindness at the Table: Remembering Christ’s Hospitality

By Kimberly Cummings

Being a bit of a dish maven, I absolutely love a beautifully set table. I could spend hours making a table look like something straight out of a “tablescaping” contest when the mood strikes, but time constraints keep me from going completely table décor hog wild most days. I often joke with friends that perhaps my job in heaven will be setting banquet tables with the Lord’s dishes. My friend says I may have a “dish disease.” I prefer to call them my “ministry tools.”

Truth be known, it is the time spent around the table with loved ones that I cherish most. Laughing, sharing, and partaking in God’s provision brings delight to my soul. Time around the table can be precious, though not always easy. We have all experienced awkward conversations and perplexing relationships that are part and parcel of holiday gatherings. But even amid the dynamics and complexities, the table remains a place where the kindness of Christ can be poured out.

Living in a sinful world means we rarely have to look far beyond the four walls of our own homes to find someone in need of kindness, someone who could be invited to join us at our table this season. Personally, living far from all of our family has given us countless opportunities to share our table with those outside our bloodline. I can think of missionaries from lands afar who gathered around my junk store Duncan Phyfe table, sharing their heart for the Lord and their ministry within ear and headshot of my now grown littles. I can recall occasions where the gospel was shared and received over a simple dump cake. These times are priceless because it is not the dishes or décor on display but the Everlasting.

Christ’s Guest List

Jesus was often found at tables with sinners. He did not invite them into His own earthly home, and we see why in Luke 9:58. Instead, He chose to use the homes and tables of others to work against the grain of the culture and to show His eternal kindness. He used the tables of Pharisees, tax collectors, and numerous women, to name a few, to teach us valuable lessons about this exceptional kindness.

Zaccheus had to climb down from a tree to let Jesus in his front door. Christ came under harsh scrutiny over healing on the Sabbath when dining at the Pharisees’ table (Luke 14:1–6). He observed a frantic heart when He made His way into Martha’s kitchen (Luke 10:38–42). And His last earthly supper was spent in an upper room with the twelve, one being Judas, His betrayer, as well as the eleven others who bailed on Him at the cross. He chose then to use the homes and tables of sinners, people like you and me.

Today, Christ is still letting us have a part in the process of displaying the fruit of His kindness abiding in us by telling us whom we should consider for our guest list:

Luke 14:12–14
“He also went on to say to the one who had invited Him, ‘When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, otherwise they may also invite you in return, and that will be your repayment. But when you give a reception invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, since they do not have the means to repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.’”

This holiday and every day, you can be at ease and not cause a kerfuffle over the cuisine and the perfect tablescapes because Jesus tells us in the very next parable of a future dinner, “everything is ready now” (Luke 14:17). Christ has completed the work most necessary. He has perfectly planned since eternity past and completed the work for salvation. We simply get to participate in the activities of inviting others as willing servants to this wondrous work.

The most hospitable act in history, Christ leaving His heavenly home to die for our sins so we could receive a heavenly home, can be displayed and verbally shared at our own tables if we purpose to keep a gospel mindset regarding those we invite.

This displays a kindness that we should be willing to open our hearts toward. Oh, this extent of kindness may involve pain, inconvenience, and even rejection. But, by placing these possibilities before our kind God, He will enable us to focus on the outstanding picture of His glory. Praise God, we can rest easy when it comes to the particulars, as God has already lovingly ordained the most important detail of details, that being the salvation of many.

We. Simply. Invite.

Kindness Takes Place Long Before the Extra Place Setting

It begins with a transformed heart.

God opened the doors of our hearts, His enemies, welcoming us to partake of His kindness, beginning at salvation, allowing us to show the same towards others.

Titus 3:4–5
“But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.”

Romans 2:4
“…the kindness of God leads you to repentance.”

Table for Who

Oh, that we would have hearts like David, who actively looked for his enemy’s family, Saul, to show kindness to. Yes, he took in crippled Mephibosheth, the grandson of his enemy Saul and the son of his friend Jonathan, to eat at the king’s table “regularly.”

2 Samuel 9:1
“Then David said, ‘Is there yet anyone left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan’s sake?’”

What a beautiful picture of salvation and eternity built around a heart of kindness for this magnificent future table. We are the undeserving Mephibosheth who have been shown an eternal kindness and will dine with our Lord and Savior forever.

Isaiah 25:6
“The Lord of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain; a banquet of aged wine, choice pieces with marrow, and refined, aged wine.”

Are you using your own table regularly with a motive and desire that Christ’s banquet table may someday be filled? We do not know who the “many” are (Luke 14:16) who have been invited. We are just called to show this beautiful kindness toward all.

Jerry Bridges, “Kindness is the inner disposition, created by the Holy Spirit, that causes us to be sensitive to the needs of others…”

It is this type of kindness that we are graciously allowed to bestow upon others for the sake of their eternal destination. We had no claim to this gift of kindness as enemies of Christ, but it was freely given to us because God and His Son are intrinsically kind. We have the privilege to show this kindness that flows from agape love because it is what is best for those who are, as we once were, enemies of God.

A Heart Purposed in Kindness

A transformed heart will be purposeful in kindness, as it is a heart being led by the Spirit and not by the flesh. It will be a heart that takes risks, showing kindness by speaking the truth to those who do not know about the banquet table of Christ.

Proverbs 3:3
“Do not let kindness and truth leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.”

When this type of kindness is bound around our necks and hearts, we are shutting out the most wicked selfishness, which shows no concern for the spiritual well being of others. Yes, this selfishness is perfectly content to continually feast on the kindness of our God and never share a morsel of this transforming kindness with others.

J. C. Ryle said, “A person’s religion may well be suspected when they are content to go to heaven alone.”

Praise God, you have tasted the kindness of the Lord today (1 Peter 2:3).

Ask yourself how you can use your holiday table this season to display this radical type of kindness to those needing to taste what you have been feasting upon and will feast upon for all eternity. Let us open our mouths to fill them with temporal food and speak of the Bread of Life.

Martin Luther, “Take heed then, to embrace…the love and kindness of God…and to daily exercise our faith therein.”

For more from our latest series please visit: Christ Our Light and Hope: Reflections for Advent