The Lord’s Table

Jude’s Angry Letter

Jude 1-13

Do you know the incredible story of Jude? No, I am not referencing the Beetles Song "Hey Jude," but the younger brother of James and Jesus named Jude. If you don’t know much about the story of Jude that is okay, most people know nothing about him.

We know so little about Jude because there is not much to know. We know he and the rest of his brothers initially thought Jesus was out of his mind, and Jude was not one of Jesus early disciples (Mark 3:21, 31; John 7:5). That did change. Jude was there in the upper room after the resurrection of Jesus (Acts 1:14). Jude was also one of the first missionaries who traveled around and preached the Gospel (1 Cor 9:5). An early writer named Julius Africanus tells us that Jude preached the Gospel starting in Nazareth and in the Trans-Jordan region (Samaritans). And Jude was hospitable to enemies. In Acts 9, Paul while still blind is taken in by a man named Judas who lives in Tarsus. This is before Ananias was sent to him (Acts 9:11). Unfortunately, our English texts don't translate his Greek name [Ἰούδας] correctly as Judas. English editions of the Bible opted for Jude instead of Judas because people might think that Judas Iscariot wrote this little letter. That has hindered our knowledge as well as eschewing his rich Jewish background. Later writers also tell us that Jude’s grandsons were instrumental in leading the Jewish Christians during the terrible years of Emperor Domitian and they were probably martyred by Emperor Trajan. We may not know much but we know Jude inspired Jews and Samaritans to wholeheartedly follow his oldest brother, Lord Jesus.

We know something more about Jude from the little letter that he wrote. We know something he cared about deeply the salvation of Jesus that is celebrated at the Lord’s Table.

Let’s Prepare our hearts to receive God’s Word Today (Jude 1-13)

Ha-Foke-Bah

Ha-Foke-Bah

De-Cola-Bah

Ha-Foke-Bah

Ha-Foke-Bah

Mashiach-Bah

Turn it, and turn it, everything you need is in it.

Reflect on it, grow old and gray with it.

Do not turn from it.

Jude 1–13 HCSB

Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ and a brother of James: To those who are the called, loved by God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ. May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. Dear friends, although I was eager to write you about the salvation we share, I found it necessary to write and exhort you to contend for the faith that was delivered to the saints once for all. For some men, who were designated for this judgment long ago, have come in by stealth; they are ungodly, turning the grace of our God into promiscuity and denying Jesus Christ, our only Master and Lord. Now I want to remind you, though you know all these things: The Lord first saved a people out of Egypt and later destroyed those who did not believe; and He has kept, with eternal chains in darkness for the judgment of the great day, the angels who did not keep their own position but deserted their proper dwelling. In the same way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them committed sexual immorality and practiced perversions, just as angels did, and serve as an example by undergoing the punishment of eternal fire. Nevertheless, these dreamers likewise defile their flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme glorious ones. Yet Michael the archangel, when he was disputing with the Devil in a debate about Moses’ body, did not dare bring an abusive condemnation against him but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” But these people blaspheme anything they don’t understand. What they know by instinct like unreasoning animals—they destroy themselves with these things. Woe to them! For they have traveled in the way of Cain, have abandoned themselves to the error of Balaam for profit, and have perished in Korah’s rebellion. These are the ones who are like dangerous reefs at your love feasts. They feast with you, nurturing only themselves without fear. They are waterless clouds carried along by winds; trees in late autumn—fruitless, twice dead, pulled out by the roots; wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shameful deeds; wandering stars for whom the blackness of darkness is reserved forever!

This is God’s Word for us Today (Jude 1-13)

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Jude’s letter is unmatched and unparalleled in his anger and disgust. We can tell just how angry Jude is by the way he writes. Of all of the letters contained in the New Testament, this letter is the angriest in tone and most Jewish in form. Jude knows his Bible. Jude also knows a lot of other literature that was very popular in the first century like the book of Enoch and the assumption of Moses. His argument style is midrashic, which means he sees the Scriptures as the story that explains his current story, his current situation. His vocabulary is exceptional if not exquisite. He uses 14 words that are not found anywhere else in the New Testament. Where Jude really shines is his use of Triads.

Triads were used in the Jewish world when an author really wanted to build his case. Like in music theory, the Triad pulls together three notes that make a harmonious tone, a distinguishable sound. This was how Jewish writers made the sound of truth. For example, in another first-century Jewish document called Pirke Avot when a Rabbi wanted to sing a truth that was timeless and unbreakable, he would introduce his quote like this:

Akavia ben Mahalalel said: Reflect upon three things and you will not come into the grip of sin. Know where you came from, where you are going, and before whom you must give account. - m. Pirqe Abot 3:1[1]

This is a harmonious triad that can’t be broken, it is timeless and true. The triad has deeper roots in the Torah as acknowledged by Jesus in the Gospels:

But if he won’t listen, take one or two more with you, so that by the testimony of two or three witnesses every fact may be established. – Matt 18:16; cf. Deut 19:15

Jude’s letter is built upon 14 different Triads. Eight of those triads are marshaled against a group of wolves dressed as sheep who have infiltrated the colony of heaven and are feasting at the Lord’s Table. Jude gathers 8 sets of 3 witnesses from all of biblical history to testify against these wolves feasting on the Lamb’s body and drinking from the Lamb’s blood. Jude is calling together 24 Elders, just like the 24 Elders in the Book of Revelation, to pass judgment on those wolves eating the Lord’s body and drinking the Lord’s blood.

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We know Jude is angry about the abuse of the Lord’s body. How do we know that? When a Jewish author composes a list of items, the item in the middle is the most important. Jude has a list of 14 Triads and that means that Triads 7-8 are the most important. Those two Triads give us the concrete situation of the Lord’s Table (Jude 12-14)

These are the ones who are like [1] dangerous reefs at your love feasts. They feast with you, [2] nurturing only themselves without fear. They are [3] waterless clouds carried along by winds; [1] trees in late autumn—fruitless, twice dead, pulled out by the roots; [2] wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shameful deeds; [3] wandering stars for whom the blackness of darkness is reserved forever! - Jude 12-14

All six of these metaphors are witness to the character of these wolves. Have a hidden agenda like a hidden dangerous reef can wreck a ship. They are wolves who nurture only themselves. Make themselves look like they have something, a waterless cloud when they have nothing. We expect fruit but they are dead like autumn trees. They claim to do amazing things but their actions are reckless and deadly. They look brilliant as a star but they are heading to a black hole of darkness.

Jude is thinking about a concrete situation. Jude calls this event the “love feast” or agape-feast. In the ancient Jewish Christian Colony of Heaven, the Lord’s Table was not separated from a community meal. The Lord’s Table was like a Passover meal but a Passover meal that was being celebrated sometimes weekly or monthly. These wolves are eating the flesh of the lamb and drinking the blood of the Lamb that belongs only to his disciples. These wolves feasted “without fear” on the Lord’s body. There is no greater statement of judgment than this statement: he ate the Lord’s body without fear.

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No one – and I mean no one – expresses this kind of outrage today over participation in the Lord’s body. On the one hand, the Lord’s table has become a footnote to our spiritual life instead of it being the Thesis, Main Idea, Controlling Thought of our spiritual life. And on the other hand, there is a good chance a Pastor or Rabbi would become the latest victim of cancel culture if he or she sat someone down and said, “Listen here you wolf, you will not eat at this meal.” Social media would explode about intolerance, lack of empathy and a committee would be formed, board members called in, another Pastor forced to resign, and the reckless waves would destroy another colony of heaven from the inside out. The building would stand but just a hollow shell of what it once was.

What I want to say is this: we don’t guard the Lord’s Table the way we should because we don’t know why it is important. Yet, it is one of the three indissoluble graces given to every follower of Jesus: your new identity in baptism, your salvation at the Lord’s Table, and your mother tongue of prayer.

Here is why the Lord’s Table is important: it is the definitive fear-of-the-Lord practice that keeps Jesus in us as the Savior of our Souls and as sinners in need of being saved.

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We are always in danger of succumbing to the widespread danger of setting-aside the primacy of the Lord’s table because of following the modern crowd or due to ignorance. We need the authoritative direction of the Scriptures if we hope to develop a passion as deep as Jude’s. The scriptures guide us in this definitive fear-of-the-Lord practice by directing us to three areas: Sacrifice, Sharing, and Shape.

The Lord’s Table is a meal, it is the extension and completion of the Exodus Passover meal. If you ever separate the Lord’s Table from its Passover origin then you will not rightly understand its significance. When you understand it is an extension and completion of Passover then you know it is a Sacrificial Meal. Then you know, sacrifice is at the center of the work of salvation. Sacrifice is God’s way of dealing with what is wrong in the world, in history, in our lives. It is God’s way of dealing with our personal sin. Our typical way of dealing with sin is by

· By Policing – trying to contain and arrest it

· By Educating – trying to enlighten and inspire

· By Entertaining – trying to find a distraction or diversion

· By Economics – trying to find a better, more comfortable life

· By Therapy – trying to understand you inside of you.

None of these are without their own merit. All of them, in one way or another, can help make the world a better place. But none of them are God’s way of accomplishing salvation. God’s choice is sacrifice.

Sacrifice always involves the material. In the Hebrew Bible that was flour, grain, lambs, goats, pigeons, bulls, oil, incense, salt. The worshiper did not make the material suitable for worship, his job was to identify the best of the best of the material to offer in worship, and hope that God felt the same way about it. The offerings, sacrifices do not really represent our best, they represent the best that we can identify for God. So we place our best on the altar and see what God can do with it. We let go of our best and give it up. So what happens next?

A priest builds a fire under the offering and burns it up. The fire transforms our gift (our lives) into smoke and fragrance that pleases God. Our lives, whether well-intentioned or rebellious, our inadequate and sin-flawed are changed as we hear the good news that we are forgiven.

And Jesus takes the guesswork out of finding the best sacrifice. He points to himself as the sacrifice at the Passover (Mark 14:22-24):

Mark 14:22–24 HCSB

As they were eating, He took bread, blessed and broke it, gave it to them, and said, “Take it; this is My body.” Then He took a cup, and after giving thanks, He gave it to them, and so they all drank from it. He said to them, “This is My blood that establishes the covenant; it is shed for many.

In the course of their meal, having taken and blessed the bread, he broke it and gave it to them. Then he said, Take, this is my body. Taking the chalice, he gave it to them, thanking God, and they all drank from it. He said, This is my blood, God’s new covenant, Poured out for many people.

Offered upon the altar of the cross as a sin offering in our place, he became our only hope for salvation.

Typically, secularized salvation stories are hero stories. A strong person from the outside arrives and saves from catastrophe, the trouble a person is in. But, drinking the cup and eating the bread is a forever reminder that Jesus works from the inside, enters our sin-filled hearts, washes it clean, restores the person internally to God’s covenant, and transforms their life for salvation.

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You remember the old maxim your parent or school coach told you, “You are what you eat.” Well, we become what we receive. In receiving the Lord’s Table, we are affirming a great mystery, Col 1:27

Colossians 1:27 HCSB

God wanted to make known among the Gentiles the glorious wealth of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

The mystery, in a nutshell, is just this: Messiah is in you [me], the hope of glory!

Every time we receive the Lord’s table we are sharing, participating in the salvation drama of Messiah’s Passover. This is why the Lord’s table is the definitive fear-of-the-Lord practice.

Paul tells us that when we share in the Lord’s table two things take place: a remembrance of Jesus and a proclamation of Jesus (1 Cor 11:24, 26).

Do this in remembrance of Me… For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death - 1 Cor 11:24-26

Remembrance of me does not mean “the history of me.” Like we are reciting facts from the past. Nor is remembrance a way of saying, “Don’t forget I did this thing for you.” Remembrance is built upon the Jewish idea of seeing yourself as part of the ancient Jewish story. As Passover, we are not just supposed to remember Israel coming out of Egypt but we are to see ourselves as being brought out of Egypt. We remember Jesus by seeing ourselves there in Jerusalem, there in the courtyard with Peter, there at the scourge of the whip of the Romans, there with the crowds calling for his death, there with his mother at foot of the cross, there when he looked down from the cross and said, “Father, forgive them.” We see ourselves there as the sinners who put him there but also found forgiven there. We at that moment are never more lost and simultaneously more found.

Proclaim the Lord’s death. What are we proclaiming? That salvation has gotten deep inside of us, personally come into us and changed us. We are proclaiming that the Lord’s death has granted us new life. We are proclaiming that we are not the hero of our own stories. We are proclaiming that policing, educating, entertaining, economics, and therapy does not save us from sin but Jesus has become a sin-offering in our place, sacrificed himself so we can go free. We declare we are no saviors, and we have no saviors but Jesus alone.

It is hard to get through our heads, but we are not in charge of salvation and we can add nothing to it. All of our attempts to deal with sin and achieve self-salvation are like minimum payments on a credit card with a 3-million-dollar debt. Enough to maybe relieve some temporary anxiety but not good enough to satisfy you completely nor eternally. Salvation is a way of life for us, not just a one-time commitment. At the supper, we renew our obedience and understanding of Jesus’ salvation. We cannot do it on our own, we can only receive it.

When the Lord’s Table is received in the fear-of-the-Lord, its remembrance and proclamation keep salvation rooted and grounded in Jesus and only Jesus. Just as keeping the Sabbath protect the creation from being run over by us mortals, so the Lord’s Table protects salvation from being dominated by pseudo-saviors, projects, pretenders, and feelings. Whatever we do in this world as Jesus followers must be rooted in His World of salvation. Receiving the Lord’s table keeps us grounded in this salvation.

Jude was angered by those at his congregation who were eating the Lord’s Table without fear. Without any respect for the sacrifice and for the sharing in the salvation life of Jesus. They were pretenders just empty clouds, pseudo-saviors like Balaam, reckless waves, pseudo-saviors like Cain, only wanting pleasure and not sacrifice like the people of Sodom. Their lives, actions, words were a contradiction to the Lord’s Table and they had no fear of the Lord. They were not eating out of humility but eating to make themselves look better to others. We see I hope more clearly why Jude was angry.

The Lord’s table is the definitive practice that keeps us grounded in our salvation, keeps Jesus as the focus and center of our faith. By eating and drinking this material bread and wine pulls us into the life of Jesus. It should humble us, terrify us, and comfort us. Without this practice as our focal point, it is easy to just forget who Jesus really is to us. It is easy to just think of him as a good teacher, rugged rabbi, social justice warrior, maybe a great saint to be inspired by but not a Savior you desperately need.

Without this practice, it is easy to start seeking other saviors. There are many trying to win your soul. Plenty of politicians want to be your Savior. Plenty of moralists out there that want to give you a maxim to live by. There quite a few who call themselves rabbis and pastors who want to inspire and educate you, get your feelings all worked up so you can save yourself. There are lots of bright shining stars heading straight for a black hole, lots of dangerous reefs lurking beneath the waters. Our practice of the Lord’s Table helps us to not get shipwrecked, sucked in, or by into a pseudo savior. It stops our minds from entertaining the thought that salvation comes from anyone but Jesus alone. The Lord’s Table says “no” to all of that.

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The Lord’s table grounds our salvation in the sacrifice of Jesus and to share in the salvation, Passover story of Jesus. But there is one last part, the part that makes up this Triad: the Shape of the Meal. I am borrowing this term the “The Shape of the Liturgy” from Dom Gregory Dix. He wrote an outstanding book, 816 pages, that should be required reading for any Elder or Pastor. The book contributes so much to us but one of its major contributions is his observation that there is a fourfold shape to the Lord’s table that has been practiced from the 1st century until now. And, that this fourfold shape was the way the early Jewish Christians structured their own worship services. A fourfold shape based on four verbs that take place at the Lord’s Table (Mark 14:22-24, see parallel stories).

As they were eating, He took bread, blessed and broke it, gave it to them, and said, “Take it; this is My body.” Then He took a cup, and after giving thanks, He gave it to them, and so they all drank from it. He said to them, “This is My blood that establishes the covenant; it is shed for many. - Mark 14:22-24

These four verbs – take, bless, break, give – occur in the exact same sequence in the feeding of the 5,000 and the feeding of the 4,000 (Mark 6:41, see parallels):

Then He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke the loaves. He kept giving them to His disciples to set before the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. - Mark 6:41

Luke includes another meal in his Gospel, the supper at Emmaus, where the identical same pattern of 4 verbs shows up (Luke 24:30-31):

It was as He reclined at the table with them that He took the bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized Him, but He disappeared from their sight. - Luke 24:30-31

Years after the death and resurrection of Jesus Paul uses the same verbs when he is addressing the troubled congregation at Corinth. This fourfold shape gives us a structure to remember and to proclaim Jesus’ salvation.

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Take: Jesus takes what we can give him and does something so much more with it. What we offer in feebleness he transforms into the miraculous and life-giving. He takes the widow’s mite and turns it into a moment of pure devotion (Luke 21:1-4). He takes a little boy's lunch and feeds a village (John 6:9). He takes these bodies we offer as living sacrifices and transforms them into living sacrifices worthy of declaring his praises.

It is more than just the material, it is personal. He takes us as we are not. He accepts us and does not scorn us or scoff at us. Jesus never says, “This is not enough.” The first movement, step into the shape of the Lord’s table, is a step towards sheep acceptance. God takes us as we are and what we bring to Him. God does not outwardly smile but inwardly frown. He is not shady like that. He does not exploit our weakness or laugh at our feeble offerings. He takes us just as we are.

People who are used to performing in a prescribed way to get approval or make their children or students act or behave a certain way to feel loved will have a hard go at this first step. The way we form moral behaviors in children and others until they have internalized those moral habits and responsible behaviors is not a precedent for how God treats us. He spreads out a bountiful Table for us, he leads us to the cross, he invites us to become part of His family. He takes us as we are and offers unconditional acceptance.

He can do this because of the Blood of Jesus. You realize the power that sacrificial blood has, don’t you? The priests knew that life was in the blood (Lev 17:17) but what does that mean? It means that even a hard and steadfast rule like Exodus 33:20:

Exodus 33:20 HCSB

But He answered, “You cannot see My face, for no one can see Me and live.”

But He answered, “You cannot see My face, for no one can see Me and live.”

Is triumphed over by the presence of sacrificial blood. Exodus 23:8-10:

Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, “This is the blood of the covenant...Then Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and 70 of Israel’s elders, and they saw the God of Israel. - Exodus 23:8-10

The “yes” of God to blood over-ruled the “no” of God’s command. He takes us as we are even though sin and the law say “no” to that kind of acceptance because of the blood.

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Bless: What we offer to Jesus, Jesus offers to God with thanksgiving. He does not pull out a microscope and start searching for flaws or reasons to say your offering is average. He does not appraise it, criticize it or reject it. “Two fish? Is that really all you can come up with?” We can’t imagine Jesus ever says anything like that. He takes what we give him with so much joy, unimaginable delight and says, “Father, look at what that gave me. It’s the best two fishes I have ever seen. God bless this.”

Many messianic, Jews and Gentiles, like to believe they know what the blessing was that Jesus’ spoke. They assume it was the common prayer recited at most Jewish meals called Ha-Motzi. And, maybe that was all it was but maybe it was more. Maybe it was a blessing that felt deeply personal instead of well-worn and rehearsed. Maybe it was the kind of blessing that made them feel ultimately loved and that what they offered really mattered.

There is more. The blessing transforms through the power of the spoken word. Jacob and Esau both knew this and sought the blessing of their father. The blessing puts God’s seal over the offering, puts God’s authority, name on what is offered up. It turns the material into the sacred.

The blessing Jesus spoke over bread and wine, he told his disciples, would always be transformed into something greater. His flesh, his blood that would continue to nurture their souls with salvation. At that altar of the cross, he was also blessing their living sacrifice and transforming them into his spiritual priesthood, his family.

We seek the blessing because the blessing is what transforms us and creates the miracle of salvation.

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Break: Our gifts don’t remain what we bring. We may not like to hear this but we all need a little more brokenness. The reason? We are all very surface, polished, poised performers. Jesus wants access to deep within you and that means he will have to break all of your cover-ups and walls and self-enclosures. This is a good breaking, one that God delights in (Psalm 51:17):

Psalm 51:17 HCSB

The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit. God, You will not despise a broken and humbled heart.

The breaking is unpleasant but joins us with the Messiah. The early followers of Jesus understood in our being broken, we were participating in a small way in the breaking that Jesus went through (Isa 53:5, 10):

Isaiah 53:5 HCSB

But He was pierced because of our transgressions, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on Him, and we are healed by His wounds.

Isaiah 53:10 HCSB

Yet the Lord was pleased to crush Him severely. When You make Him a restitution offering, He will see His seed, He will prolong His days, and by His hand, the Lord’s pleasure will be accomplished.

The breaking is meant to remind us that salvation is not about a “charmed life,” a life that is exempt from hardship, humiliation, rejection, and suffering. There is no hint of self-help, vitriolic hero stances. We discover first the brokenness of Jesus and then we discover it in ourselves.

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Give: The final corner to our shape is give. Jesus gives back what we bring to him, who we are; and we receive what he gives. We eat his flesh and drink his blood and he gives us the hope of glory, deep inside of us, deep beneath all the broken. This is the abundant life that he promised. This is the Triune life of God living inside of each and every one of us.

At the Lord’s Table, we take our seat at a lavishly supplied meal of God. From the outside, it may not look like much but for those who know what it is and what it means. It is a banquet. It is the definitive fear-of-the-Lord practice that keeps Jesus in us as the Savior of our Souls and as sinners in need of being saved. It gives shape to our faith and grounds us in our new identity.

I hope we are now in a place to understand Jude’s anger over those in his congregation by their life and action undermine the beauty of the feast: Jude 12-13

Jude 12–13 HCSB

These are the ones who are like dangerous reefs at your love feasts. They feast with you, nurturing only themselves without fear. They are waterless clouds carried along by winds; trees in late autumn—fruitless, twice dead, pulled out by the roots; wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shameful deeds; wandering stars for whom the blackness of darkness is reserved forever!

It interests me that Jude’s legacy was his defense of the Lord’s table against its abusers. It interests me because I can only imagine what it would have been like for him to come to believe his oldest brother was His Lord and Messiah. I can only imagine the guilt he must have felt as he reflected on those years that he thought Jesus was out of his mind. All that time that he spent as a dangerous reef, empty cloud, reckless wave until he, just like you and me, received his new identity in the Messiah, was born again and baptized. That moment when maybe Peter taught Jude, Jesus’ brother, about the Lord’s Table. That moment when he wished he would have been there but now would give his life to ensure that the memory and proclamation of His brother’s death would not be sullied on his watch.

I want to live this way, the Jesus way. And I want to do it with you.

[1] William Berkson and Menachem Fisch, Pirke Avot: Timeless Wisdom for Modern Life: Translation, First edition (Philadelphia, PA: The Jewish Publication Society, 2010), 193.