Chairs of Remembrance: Embracing Presence and Absence

In the Jewish tradition, the seder meal, which is a time to remember God's Deliverance, God's bringing his people out of bondage and slavery and his being with them, that was the primary characteristic that would distinguish them, Moses said, was that they would be with God. God's presence would go with them. [00:04:32]

And so when people gather together around the table, they do this as families that say the real, and they drink the wine and they eat the bread, but they will leave one chair empty, and that's called the Elijah chair. And that's a reminder, the very final words of the Old Testament in the Book of Malachi, are those words about Elijah that he will come. [00:04:51]

You might remember in the story of Elijah, he did not actually die. He was taken up in a chariot to be with God, and so there was that yearning, that longing that we all have, oh God, oh God, I need you to set right what I cannot fix. And so when they would see that empty chair to this day, when they see that empty chair, it's a reminder. [00:05:18]

We need the help of heaven. We need the presence of God. I can't, God can. That's the ache and the longing of the empty chair. And then one more chair, Jesus made quite a remarkable statement when he was involved in his ministry and he was talking about John the Baptist. [00:05:29]

The writer of Hebrews talks about the human condition and how in the Tabernacle, there was a lot of furniture. There was an altar for sacrifices, there was a wash basin, there was a table, there was a lamp, but there was no chair in the Tabernacle because the work of the priests was never done. [00:07:09]

Because a fresh sacrifice for sin would always have to be offered because sin keeps going on. And I want to say a word about that too. You know, we're talking about being with God and I will talk about the goodness of it sometimes as though I always want to, but I don't. [00:07:24]

Every priest stands, they keep standing and performs his religious duties again and again. He offers the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. That about Jesus, but when this priest Jesus had offered for all time on the cross one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. [00:08:30]

And since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. There is a chair in heaven and it is a throne and there is one who sat down on it and that one is Jesus. And what that means is that our guilt, our failures, our inadequacy, our insufficiency no longer has to be the last word. [00:08:55]

I can rest in what he did and you can do, and when he came to begin in that little major at Christmas time, grew to Ultimate and remarkable and mysterious fulfillment on that cross and then he sat down, and he still does. So today when you look at a chair, I want to invite you to think of that life with God. [00:09:13]

When you go to sit down in a chair at your work, invite Jesus to be with you as you sit there. When you go to sit down at a table to eat, invite Jesus to be there with you. When you look at the other chairs around the table and you see an empty chair and you think of the person that you love who is no longer here or who does not want to sit in that chair. [00:09:36]

You bring them before God as well. When you look at an empty chair, you think about the people that have gone before you that spoke into your life, parents or grandparents or teachers or siblings, others who have loved you. Thank you God, thank you God, thank you God that you are with me, that you have been with me through these people. [00:09:57]

The cherish of our lives and the people who have sat in them are an unbelievable blessing and expression of the presence in favor of our God, and especially of Jesus, who has now taken care of letting us know that we have been fully accepted by God and he sat down so sit down today and rest. You Are Not Alone. [00:10:23]