“Eating at the King’s Table”
“Eating at the King’s Table”
2 Samuel 9
A. The story of Mephibosheth in 2 Samuel 9 contains principles that are very applicable to
the Lord’s Supper, which is our topic today, even though 2 Samuel 9 has nothing to do with
the Lord’s Supper.
B. Sometimes funny things happen in church even in regard to serious things like communion.
1. Dick Crabtree tells the story of a couple he invited to worship. They arrived late and the
only seats left in the house were down front. They came down front right before
communion was being served. In this particular church, their communion bread was all
one piece and you broke off a small piece from the one loaf. Crabtree said the first-time
guests were not familiar with taking communion. When it was passed to them, the lady
picked up the bread and started eating it. He said, “About that time a woman across the
aisle noticed what she was doing and she blurted out, ‘she’s eating all the communion
bread.’” He said that lady looked over and she saw another person break off a small piece
and she was embarrassed! He said they never became regular worshippers in their church.
2. I remember some humorous stories that surround communion and serving it, but the
subject of the Lord’s Supper is as serious as any subject.
C. Let me give you the background of the story of Mephibosheth.
1. Saul was the first king in Israel. His son Jonathon and David were as close of friends as
any two men could be. David said in 2 Sam. 1:26 “Your love to me was more wonderful
than the love of women.” King Saul fell away from God as the King of Israel. Therefore,
God replaced him with Jonathon’s best friend David. In the process, Saul tried to kill
David, but through it all David and Jonathon remained close friends, because blood wasn’t
thicker than water with Jonathon.
2. Saul fought David and God to the bitter end until the Philistines wounded him and he
ended up committing suicide by falling on his own sword. In that battle, Jonathon and two
of Saul’s other sons died too—they died with their boots on. David went on to become
king of Israel, but he wanted to show kindness to the household of Saul for the sake of
Jonathon his friend. Jonathon had a crippled son named Mephibosheth that King David
honored for the sake of Mephibosheth’s father, Jonathon.
4. The story of Mephibosheth provides tremendous application for the Lord’s Supper.
D. There are three principles from this story that I want to examine today.
I. THOUGH UNWORTHY HE ATE AT THE KING’S TABLE.
A. When King David called Mephibosheth to come into his presence, Mephibosheth likely
thought that he was going to be put to death because he was Saul’s grandson.
Mephibosheth knew that his grandfather Saul hated David and tried to kill him on many occasions. It’s reasonable to believe that Mephibosheth thought David was going to solidify his kingship by eliminating the last known relative of his enemy, Saul.
2. The door opens and Mephibosheth with his crippled feet falls down before King David and
he says, “here is your servant.” The king says, “Don’t be afraid Mephibosheth I’m going
to give you all of your grandfather’s land and you are going to sit at my table regularly”
and it’s all for the sake of your father Jonathon.
3. You know what you call that? You call that grace! Mephibosheth was not worthy to eat at
King David’s table because he was a relative of the enemy. Nevertheless, King David
treated him in a way that he did not deserve.
B. Communion is a demonstration of grace.
1. Grace is being treated in the opposite manner of what is deserved. It’s like finding
someone stealing money out of your wallet and you instead of calling the police you give
them the money. You treated them in the opposite of what they deserved—that’s grace.
2. Look around for a moment? Do we recognize where we are? Ask yourself this question,
“How did I get in here?” How did I get a ticket to this celebration of the life, death, and
resurrection of Jesus?
3. When it comes to the Lord’s Supper, we like Mephibosheth, are not worthy to eat at the
the King’s table. Even if we don’t do it literally, when we come to the Lord’s Table
we should fall on our face in spirit in the presence of the King Jesus like Mephibosheth
did before King David.
4. Who among us is worthy to lift up the cup? Could we not say with Mephibosheth as we
look at the King’s table, “God, why would you invite a dead dog like me to eat and drink
in your honor?” The Lord says, “You are not here because you are worthy, you are here
because I love you.”
5. The person who says, “I didn’t take communion today, because I just didn’t feel worthy
doesn’t understand the Lord’s Supper.” When did we ever become worthy of the body and
blood of Jesus
6. 1 Cor. 11:27 “Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an
unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.”
In that verse, Paul was not talking about whether we are worthy to take the Lord’s
Supper or not. He was talking about our attitude and our actions when we take
communion because the Corinthian church had the problem of being flippant with
communion—some were drunk!
b. Paul Butler former professor at Ozark Christian College said, “Sin should not keep us
away from communion—it should drive us to it so that we may get the right attitude.”
II. THOUGH UNRELATED HE WAS ADOPTED AS A SON.
A. Mephibosheth was of the tribe of Benjamin and David was of the tribe of Judah, but that
didn’t matter to David because he took in Mephibosheth just as if he was his own son.
1. Whatever privileges that Solomon, Absalom, and Adonijah had at David’s table as his
biological sons, those privileges were also extended to Mephibosheth—the adopted son.
2. A man doesn’t have to be a biological father to be a dad and David proved that because
Mephibosheth lost his dad when he was a small boy.
a. Adoption can be a wonderful thing for those who recognize what they have been
given.
B. What David did to Mephibosheth for the sake of Jonathon, God did for us through the Lord
Jesus Christ.
1. Eph. 1:5 “He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ.”
2. John 1:12 “But as many received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of
God, even to those who believe in His name.”
3. 1 John 3:1 “See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be
called children of God; and such we are.”
C. Communion is for orphans adopted by God.
1. When we take the Lord’s Supper, we ought to be reminded that though once we were not
God’s children, we belonged to the devil, but now we are the adopted sons and daughters
of God (John 8:44).
2. Gal. 4:5b-7 “that we might receive the adoption as sons and because you are sons, God
has sent forth the Spirit His Son into our hearts crying, ‘Abba! Father.’ Therefore you are
no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.”
3. In our church, we do not practice closed communion or members only communion
because we have said, and rightly so, it’s the Lord’s Table not ours (President Garfield was
a Christian Church minister. He said, “We neither invite nor debar.”)
4. Having said that, the Lord’s Supper is only for those who have adopted into the family of
God—it is not for those who are not in Christ.
a. I well remember my first communion. How I looked forward to that great privilege
and what that meant to me. I had been passing that tray without partaking to the
person next to me for as long as I could remember and now I was my turn to partake of
the bread and the cup.
b. If a person is taking the Lord’s Supper before they become a Christian, what does it
mean to them? How can you have communion with Christ when don’t know Christ?
How do you discern the body and blood of Jesus when you haven’t experienced
the saving grace of the body and blood of Jesus?
c. I have heard it said, “Kids are going to become Christians and so they need to learn
about and the Lord’s Supper and they come to understand the Lord’s Supper by
taking it. Apply that logic sex. (You don’t have to take communion to learn about it.)
III. THOUGH CRIPPLED HE WAS TREATED LIKE ROYALTY.
A. The question is worth asking, do we know how Mephibosheth became crippled?
When the news reached the camp that Saul and Mephibosheth’s father, Jonathon, had
died at the hands of Philistines, Mephibosheth was a five-year-old boy. His nurse
gathered him up to flee perhaps thinking their lives were in jeopardy too.
a. 2 Sam. 4:4b “And it happened that in her hurry to flee, he fell and became lame. And
his name was Mephibosheth.”
2. Even though Mephibosheth was handicapped, I don’t read where David brought that up to
him by saying, “Mephibosheth it sure is too bad that you are a cripple. Think what you
could have done, boy, with your life if you had two good legs.” His handicap was over-
looked.
B. Communion is for cracked vessels who bow before the King!
1. When we come to the Lord’s Table we too come crippled, but God doesn’t bring up the
fact that we were once spiritually handicapped and lost in sin.
a. He says Heb. 10:17 “And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”
2. Neither does he say, “I knew you couldn’t live it this week, you sorry son!”
C. Eating at the King’s table ought to remind us that we are beggars who found the bread.
1. Phil Young is a preacher in Illinois. He said when I was a teenage boy I used to set in the
choir and look at an older lady named Miss Vesta. Phil said when she took communion
every Sunday she had her Bible open on her lap and she wept every Sunday when she
partook of the Lord’s Supper. Phil said, “I thought this is the silliest, wimpiest thing I
have ever seen. He said, I would glance over every week to see if Miss Vesta was crying
and she was every Sunday. Then he said this, “As I went on to see her life and the
holiness in her life and her influence as a Bible teacher to children, three years later, at the
age of 17 I said, “Lord, let me see the cross at communion, like Vesta.”
2. Though crippled, Mephibosheth was treated like royalty.
CONCLUSION
Who am I that a King would bleed and die for me?
Do I realize that communion is “soul food” that strengthens me spiritually as I reflect upon the body and blood of Jesus?
When I take communion do I feel honored to eat and drink at the King’s table? It’s not about the amount of bread and fruit of the vine I eat because this is a spiritual “meal?”
Do I understand that partaking of communion in an “unworthy manner” is about my thoughts and actions during communion and has nothing to do with whether I am worthy (no one is) to partake of that which represents the body and blood of Jesus?
Could I be spiritually weak or sick because I am not giving the attention to communion that I should by preparing myself to eat and drink with Jesus (1 Cor. 11:17-34)?
Is there anything that I will allow to come between me and remembering Jesus in what He said to do “in remembrance of Me” (Luke 22:19b)? Scripture (Acts 2:42, 20:7; 1 Cor. 11, 1 Cor. 16:1-2) and early church history indicates the Lord’s church took the Lord’s Supper on the Lord’s Day. What would you trade for your appointment with Him?
Do I understand that communion is not where my sins are forgiven, but it is where I am reminded that my sins were forgiven?
Do I need to make some changes in my weekly, personal meditation such as reading a portion of Scripture after I partake to focus my mind on Jesus?
Is there someone I need to forgive because “he does not judge the body rightly” (1 Cor. 11:29a) may mean my relationship with others in the body of Christ—the church?
Who am I that a King would bleed and die for Me?