What are you feasting on this Christmas? The Christmas feast is a closely held tradition for countless families. Succulent ham, soft buttery rolls, heaps of mashed potatoes, and all the sides one could hope for cover the banquet table on the day of Christmas. Then, friends and family gather around the table to celebrate the coming of their Lord and His abundant blessings.
But Spurgeon calls his listeners to feast on Christmas, not just with a physical meal, but the spiritual supper prepared for all believers, “[…] I invite you to the best of all Christmas fare—to nobler food than makes the table groan—bread from heaven, food for your spirit. Behold, how rich and how abundant are the provisions which God has made for the high festival which he would have his servants keep, not now and then, but all the days of their lives!”
First, Spurgeon urges all Christians to meditate on the feast Christ has created through His death, burial, and resurrection. All sinners are welcome at the table. No one is too dirty to partake, for the only requirement for a seat at the banquet is faith in the one who prepared it. “Come hither, all ye whose spiritual tastes are purified by grace, and feed upon this choice provision, which shall be sweet to your taste, sweeter, also, than honey and the honeycomb.”
Second, consider the banquet hall. This place of dining is the church gathered together to glorify their Messiah. Although there are distinctions among the body of believers, whether by ethnicity or geography, all who truly hold to Christ are united. “There is but one church in heaven and earth, composed of men called by the Holy Ghost, and made to live anew by his quickening power; and it is through the ministry of this church that an abundant feast is spread for all nations, a feast to which the nations are summoned by chosen herald, whom God calls to proclaim the good news of salvation by Jesus Christ.” Our local gatherings are a foretaste of that grand gathering of the universal church when Christ returns.
Finally, Christian, remember the guests invited to the table. Guests from all walks of life can come and dine. Under Christ, there is no exclusion owing to race, class, or sex. Jesus will never shut the door on those who desire to come and feast with Him. “Still is it true, ‘Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.’ Some very odd people have come to him, some very wicked people, some very hardened people, but the door was never closed in any one’s face.”
So, as you gather this Christmas with your loved ones to dine, see a picture of the eternal banquet prepared for you in the halls of heaven. Those banquet doors, which have now been thrown open for you, were opened with the coming of a baby boy, the incarnate deity, Jesus Christ the Lord.
Excerpt:
If you believe in Jesus Christ, all these things are yours. Come, poor trembler, the silver trumpet soundeth, and this is the note it rings, “Come and welcome, come and welcome, come and welcome.” The harsher trumpet of the law which waxed exceedingly loud and long at Sinai had this for its note, “Set bounds about the mount: let none touch it lest they die.” But the trumpet for Calvary sounds with the opposite note; it is, “Come and welcome, come and welcome, sinner, come! Come as you are, sinful as you are, hardened as you are, careless as you think you are, and having no good thing whatsoever, come to your God in Christ!” O may you come to him who gave his Son to bleed in the sinner’s stead, and casting yourself on what Christ has done, may you resolve, “If I perish, I will trust in him; if I be cast away, I will rely on him.” You shall not perish, but for you there shall be the feast of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined. The Lord bless you very richly, for his name’s sake. Amen.