Meditations for Difficult Days - No. 22 - A Feast for Friends
Pastor’s Blog - By Pastor Roy Summers
Friends for Jesus
Preparing for Palm Sunday recently, I was struck by how wonderfully God provided friends for Jesus in the last week of his earthly life - and in the most hostile place on the planet: Jerusalem.
A friend provided a donkey on the Sunday before his crucifixion, other friends provided him and his disciples accommodation just outside the menacing city. On Thursday friends provided Jesus with an upper room to eat Passover in, and on Friday a friend loaned him a tomb (A short and temporary loan, it may be said, but a crucial part of Jesus' earthly work was to be buried.)
Since Jesus was surrounded by enemies during his last week, I could not help thinking that our verse today was in some way an echo or prophecy of the Last Supper:
"You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies." (Psalm 23:5)
A sheep or a friend?
At this point in Psalm 23, we have to make a decision. Is king David, the inspired psalmist, still talking about sheep and shepherds, or has he moved to friends and friendship?
The rest of the psalm would work very well with "friends." In other words, David has now ended the shepherd / sheep analogy and wants the psalm to end on more intimate terms. The pastoral analogy has served its purpose well, now it is time to "get real" - for after all we are not sheep, and the Saviour is not a "Shepherd.
But then I read shepherd MacMillan! And he thinks that we're still out in the pastures! He feels that the practice of putting grass on raised tables for the sheep, to prevent parasites on the ground contaminating it, is what David has in mind.
I don't want to disagree with such an eminent writer lightly, but it seems to me that David has exhausted the pastoral analogy and wants his readers to move up a gear, and into reality. So we bid our kindly shepherd guide a gentle and respectful farewell and charter our own course!
If it had not been for my preparation for Palm Sunday, I might not have seen it, but I believe that this verse is first a prophecy and second a comfort to us.
A Prophecy: The Father's Provision for his Son
How perfectly this verse suits the Passover Meal, the Last Supper! Jesus is in Jerusalem. To help readers gauge the hostility of the place perhaps imagine Osama bin Laden returning to ground Zero the day after 9/11: he would be "torn to pieces" we might say.
The religious leaders hated Jesus with a vengeance. Why? First they were jealous of his popularity. Second they were envious of his gifts, and thirdly they resented his holiness: he did nothing wrong. For the last few years they have sent their emissary-spies around the land, following Jesus, listening to him, picking up "evidence," trying to trip him up in his words!
And since Sunday and Monday the temperature of their hatred has increased seven fold! On Sunday he rode into Jerusalem claiming to be the Messiah-King and on Monday he really upset the apple-cart (plus a lot of other carts) in the Temple.
They were seething with rage! Secret meetings! Nods and winks. You can picture the scene.
Of course Jesus is perfectly safe. Until his hour has come, no-one can lay a hand upon him. But Jesus, would no doubt have had moments of anxiety, for he was a real human being, like us.
And so on Thursday evening he gathers his disciples for one last meal! Today his enemies would have tried (unsuccessfully) to bug the room with microphones and cameras.
God prepared a table for his Son in the presence of his enemies - right smack in the middle of Jerusalem!
The Great Shepherd of the sheep became a sheep himself, under the protection of his Father, so that he could understand the deepest trials of the sheep he came to die for. And also so that he could experience the loving protection of the Father in the midst of threatening hostility. So that everyone who has experienced an unfriendly situation, and everyone who has experienced persecution, can know that their Good shepherd understands the sheep from the inside.
A promised Comfort: God's Kindness in a Hostile World
But this line in Psalm 23 is more than a past prophecy, it's a current comfort too. To prepare a table for someone is the same today as it has always been. We invite friends over because we enjoy their company, we value their friendship. To lay a table is to welcome, to love, to honour, to celebrate another.
And this laying of a table is metaphor for God's amazing kindness to us in the midst of a hostile world.
For some people members of their own household are the enemy company they have to suffer day after day. For other people it's their place of work. For others a neighbourhood and for others the state.
For a select few their enemies are found behind prison walls. Many church pastors have been to prison and are now in prison. The Chinese pastor Wang Yi was put in prison last December for 9 years, because he preached the Gospel.
Whenever authorities put a pastor in prison, always envious of his influence, they spread lies about him. They told lies about Wang Yi. In the past godless authorities said that Watchman Nee had committed adultery with numerous women, Pastor Krivolapov had killed a three year old while Christians sang hymns around him, bishop Ordass was a black marketer. As the Master so to the servants.
For all of us, there is the arch enemy, Satan and his legions of damned helpers (I mean exactly what I say for their doom is writ) who prowl around looking for ways to tempt and trip up God's people.
We are all in the presence of at least one enemy, but are we aware, alert, and living as children of the day?
But here is the promised comfort: God will prepare a table before us in the very presence of our enemies! A spiritual feast of joy and peace and love and communion with God.
Richard Wurmbrand, already seasoned by years of prison in the former USSR said to his son,
“Michael, you know that in prison I had no Bible... but these things I know for sure. First, there is a living God and he is our loving Father. Second, Jesus Christ is the Saviour and Bridegroom of our souls. Third, the Holy Spirit works in us to make us more and more Christ like. Fourth, there exists beyond question an eternal life. And lastly, love is the best of ways. This is what I have learned in prison.”
A divine table of the finest of foods, in the presence of Richard's enemies!
Summing it all up
All believers live in a hostile world. We know that. The apostle Peter calls Christians "strangers in the world" (the old word was "aliens", but space fiction has made that word unusable today). Everything we believe and the lifestyle we live is at loggerheads with the world and its passing values.
But we need not fear, for the Lord God will prepare for us - he has promised to do it - a feast in the very presence of our enemies! He will be with us, he will encourage us, our great Shepherd-Friend.
A SONG FOR THE DAY
Our song today always features highly in any table of well-loved hymns. Today we hear it sung by a quintet (We like variety at this blog!)
What a Friend we have in Jesus,
All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit,
O what needless pain we bear
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer!
Have we trials and temptations?
Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged,
Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful
Who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness,
Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Are we weak and heavy-laden,
Cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Saviour, still our refuge—
Take it to the Lord in prayer;
Do thy friends despise, forsake thee?
Take it to the Lord in prayer;
In His arms He’ll take and shield thee,
Thou wilt find a solace there.
Joseph Scriven
You can hear it here:
A PRAYER FOR THE DAY
Loving Father in heaven,
We thank you for this beautiful warm day. We bless you for the beauty of your creation and the longer days which gladden our hearts and lead us to worship you, the mighty Creator.
We pray, every day, for our needy and connected world. We pray that the present suffering will not be in vain, but ask that you will work out your sovereign purposes and bring good out of evil.
We thank you that we are never alone. We thank you that in the midst of a hostile world, you bless us with innumerable blessings, both material and spiritual. Thank you for the table set before us.
We pray for all those Christians persecuted around the world today. We pray for Pastor Wang Yi locked up in China simply for preaching the Gospel.
We thank you that the Friend of sinners has become our friend too.
We pray these things in Jesus' Name
Amen
Pastor's Blog
This post is taken from our Pastor Roy Summers’ blog, where he discusses and comments on a wide range of current subjects and issues both in the world and in the church.