The Lord's Table

 Every ship I visit I will  find two mess ( dining )  rooms. One for the officers and one for the crew. This, I assume,  is a maritime tradition which is very old. You find the same situation in the world's armies and navies. But on one of my recent ship visits  I noticed that there was one mess room with a very long dining table! I asked the steward if this was the officers mess room. His reply was, " no, we have only one mess room  where we all eat together ".Truly amazing, this was the first time in my seven years of ship visiting to see something like this; officers and crew members eating together! I asked the steward if I could join them later for lunch since I did not want to miss the experience. When lunch time arrived a few crew members showed up to eat. I asked them where the rest of the crew was. They answered that the table was never fully occupied anymore since the number of crew members was cut from 24 to 18 due to cutbacks. A little later a few more crew members and a  very sleepy Romanian captain appeared to join for lunch. I used the opportunity to explain how unique this situation was and how I could compare this to The Lord's Table where people from every race, nation, regardless off their status in life, sit together and remember the Lord's death on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins. That is  when we believe in Him and trust him for our salvation! I did not get much response.

But even at this one table where officers and crew members eat together something was different. The officers were sitting on one end of the table and the crew members at the opposite end. Even at this table there was a seperation between people.  You may guess where the steward seated me? Ofcourse, with the crew members and not with the officers. I made sure that after lunch I moved to the officers end of the table. I had to experience ' both ends!'  How ' radical ' the Good News of Jesus Christ is where Jew, Gentile, slave and free sit together at  His table!   Next week we hope to celebrate The Lord's Supper in our church. Are we, as God's people, still in awe  why Jesus had to die on the cross? Why he commanded us to remember His death and that there is no distinction between people at His table....... "for it is  by grace that we are saved "....no favoratism!