The Lord tells us that he loves his children many times.
The Lord shows us that he loves his children in many ways.
One of the more shocking ways, and perhaps the most comforting way we find in Hosea chapter 3.
Hosea 3:1-2 And the Lord said to me (Hosea), “Go again, love a woman (Gomer, your wife) who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods.”
Go again and reclaim her. Hosea was earlier told by God to marry a woman who would break his heart, and in the end give herself to many other men. In fact, she is most likely a temple prostitute now.
Go again. Buy her back from slavery and degradation.
Go again, and make her your wife a second time.
Go again, and reestablish a relationship of love with her.
Go again, and assure her, at great cost, of your love for her.
Why does God command this?
Because, God’s bride, the church, is like Gomer, chasing after other gods. And God, in the depths of His love, will buy her back. God, out of the great love that He has for her, will make her His very own again. Even great sin cannot quench my love for my bride – my people.
Grace is love poured out on the undeserving, the lost, the fallen, the broken, the rebels.
Jesus, like Hosea, is married to a fallen woman. And he will go again, and buy her back at great cost. He will reestablish a relation of love with her even by the shedding of his own blood. He will receive her back to his table, to his home, to his heart.
That is what the Lord’s table speaks to us. We are Gomer, having chased after other gods and turned our backs on our full and lasting delight in the love of God.
The great grace of God is given freely to the rebels and the outcast, the stained, shamed, guilty and broken. This love, this grace is free.
Do this in remembrance of me. Remember my love. Remember my sacrifice. I have come again, to embrace you, to forgive you, to make you my very own.
If you are Gomer, and know that you are greatly loved. If you can remember the gospel fact that Jesus has come again for you on the cross. You are welcome to this table.