When David invited King Saul’s grandson, Mephibosheth, to dine at his table, he was living out hesed – fulfilling his covenantal promise. That took integrity – doing the right thing for the sake of doing right. Because of David’s integrity, Mephibosheth’s life was restored at David’s table. When we choose integrity, the relationships in our lives can also be restored.

“Shepherd” was a title often used for kings in the Ancient Near East, and even for God himself. As the shepherd of his people, God provided and protected them. He invited them to feast at his table in peace, even though they may have been surrounded by enemies. God can do the same for us today, offering peace at his table.

God began to draw his creation in through his covenant with Abraham. He takes his relationship and expectation of Israel to the next level as He calls them to be a Kingdom of Priests and a Holy Nation. We have that same calling to be a part of His blessing to His creation.

Chapter 20 closes John’s gospel by recounting the events of Resurrection Sunday. John clearly intends his story to point people to belief in Jesus. When you get to the resolution of a good book, you want it to go on and on. Yet, it inevitably ends. For people who follow the signs to believe in Jesus though, our stories can go on and on in perfection forever.

John 12 closes the public ministry of Jesus. Even after all the signs he had performed among them, the crowds still did not believe in him. We too can be just as obtuse today, ignoring the signs in many areas of life. When it comes to faith though, ignoring the signs leads to disaster.

When Jesus healed a blind man, he faced intense suspicion from the Pharisees. While we often mock the Pharisees today, we too can often be just as skeptical. God’s signs are meant to be seen though, and when we are confronted with something that may be the work of God, we can respond by humbly suspending our judgement.

When the news gets out about Jesus, crowds start to chase after him. Even so, it seems like the people were more excited by Jesus’ miracles than they were to really follow Jesus himself. In response, Jesus tells them to do the work of his father. Today we can often be the same way – following Jesus for what we can get rather than for who he is.

The first sign that John records in his gospel is a confusing one: when Jesus turned water to wine. But John recorded it with purpose – to remind us of who Jesus is and of what he has done. God is active in our lives today, and we need to share with others the good things God is doing. Our stories of God’s action can also serve to remind others of who Jesus is and of what he has done.

It’s not strange to talk about what you love. Because we love Jesus – and because he is King – we shouldn’t hesitate to share the good news about him. Instead, we should be bold, because we represent the KING.

Jesus takes time to pause and engage Zaccheaus, a rich and short chief tax collector that Luke tells us about. Jesus asks to stay at his house. Zaccheaus responds with repentence and restitution for the wrongs he has done. Jesus comes to seek and save the lost. Are we seeing the people in the trees and engaging them to see Jesus? Or are we Zaccheaus, in need of someone to call us out? Even more, are we the crowd, lost in our faithfulness and religious activity that we dont't see the people in the trees? Time to get busy reaching out to seek and save the lost!