Room at the table

"As galling as it might be, Luke is telling us that until we are ready to welcome Malcolm Turnbull and Pauline Hanson to the table — no strings attached, no pre-conditions — we are not yet ready to take our place at the table ourselves. We are saved by grace alone, by nothing other than accepting the free gift of undeserved grace in Jesus Christ, but as long as we are trying to tell God who else is and isn’t worthy to receive it, we haven’t actually accepted the gift ourselves. We’re still buying into the idea that it is for those who deserve it. When we grasp that it is sheer gift, given with no strings attached to people we despise as much as to us, then we will know what it means to accept it or reject it. And unfortunately many will reject it rather than accept that they are no more worthy in God’s eyes than Bill Gates or Donald Trump. This is the table of scandalous grace, offensive grace. Here Jesus offers himself to all, without reserve, to all who will accept him and accept all who come with him.

Finally, the symbolism of this story appeals to me. Zacheus, who is a man like me, with warts and all, cannot see the truth, cannot see above the crowd. So he climbs higher so he can see above all the hubbub and confusion, above the crowd and their perspective, to see the truth in Jesus. Isn’t that our world?"

Laughingbird.net.au