Series Summary:
WEEK 1
Weekly Summary:
The story of Zacchaeus is a literary and theological “plot twist.” A wealthy, despised tax collector climbs a tree in curiosity, only to be called down by name and welcomed into fellowship with Jesus. Instead of condemnation, he receives invitation. Instead of judgment, he experiences transformation. In the cultural context of the first century, tax collectors were symbols of betrayal and exploitation. To eat with one was unthinkable. Yet Jesus not only acknowledges Zacchaeus, He declares that salvation has come to his house. This week, we’ll explore how grace meets us where we are, invites us before it expects us, and transforms us into people of radical generosity.
Day 1 – Striving for Significance
September 22
Read: Luke 19:1–4; Psalm 139:1–4; Ecclesiastes 2:10–11
Reflect:
Zacchaeus was rich, powerful, and despised. As chief tax collector in Jericho, he had risen higher than most Jews of his time, yet he still climbed a sycamore tree. In the honor-shame culture of the first century, wealthy men did not run, much less climb trees like children. His action reveals desperation and emptiness. He longed for significance beyond wealth. The Hebrew Scriptures echo this futility: the Preacher in Ecclesiastes calls earthly striving “vanity,” and the Psalms remind us that God already sees and knows us. Zacchaeus’s climb embodies humanity’s endless attempts to grasp what only God can give freely.
Questions:
1. In what ways are you climbing trees of achievement or recognition today?
2. How might resting in God’s knowledge of you (Psalm 139) release you from striving for significance?
Day 2 – Religion Climbs, Grace Comes Down
September 23
Read: Luke 19:4; Romans 10:3–4; Ephesians 2:8–9
Reflect:
In the Jewish imagination, righteousness was often pictured as an ascent; climbing Sinai, ascending the Temple Mount, and going up to Jerusalem. Religion always demands more steps, higher climbs, stricter effort. Zacchaeus in the tree is a vivid picture of this human pattern. But salvation does not meet him at the top; it comes down when Jesus stops, looks up, and calls his name. Paul later declared that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. Zacchaeus’s tree could not save him; only the grace of Jesus, coming down into his life, could. The gospel is not about humanity climbing up, but God descending to us in Christ.
Questions:
1. Where do you still believe you must “climb higher” for God’s approval?
2. How would your daily walk change if you truly embraced salvation as a gift and not an achievement?
Day 3 – The Scandal of the Invite
September 24
Read: Luke 19:5–7; Luke 15:1–2; Revelation 3:20
Reflect:
Table fellowship was not casual in the ancient Near East. To dine with someone was to share solidarity and extend acceptance. That is why Pharisees were enraged when Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners. When Jesus declared, “I must stay at your house today,” He was extending Zacchaeus not only hospitality but covenantal friendship. The crowd’s grumbling reflected their theology: sinners must repent before they belong. Jesus flips the order. Grace invites before it expects. He knocks, as Revelation says, and dines with those who open the door. Zacchaeus’s table became the setting for scandalous grace.
Questions:
1. Why is it so hard to believe that belonging can come before behaving?
2. Who in your life might need the gift of invitation before they experience transformation?
Day 4 – Grace for the Wrong People
September 25
Read: Matthew 9:9–13; Luke 7:36–39; 1 Timothy 1:15–16
Reflect:
Zacchaeus was the wrong kind of person in every way. He worked for Rome, cheated his neighbors, and lived in wealth built on injustice. Yet Jesus singled him out by name. The Gospels repeatedly show this pattern: Levi, the tax collector, called to follow, a sinful woman weeping at Jesus’ feet, and Paul, the persecutor, turned apostle. Grace aims for the people others think are beyond hope. It is offensive because it levels the ground. In the Roman world, power and patronage determined who belonged at the table. In God’s kingdom, the outcast finds a seat first. Paul confesses he was “the worst of sinners,” yet was shown mercy so that Christ’s patience might be displayed.
Questions:
1. Who do you struggle to imagine sitting at Jesus’ table?
2. How does your own story reflect the scandal of being chosen by grace?
Day 5 – Grace Flips the Question
September 26
Read: Luke 19:8; Leviticus 6:5; Philippians 3:7–8; 1 Timothy 6:17–19
Reflect:
Zacchaeus’s response is astonishing. The Law required restitution plus twenty percent. In cases of violent robbery, the penalty was fourfold. Zacchaeus voluntarily offered both radical generosity and maximum restitution. This was not legal obligation; it was the overflow of grace. Paul captured this reversal when he wrote that what he once considered gain he now counted as loss for Christ. Grace changes what we cherish and what we chase. It flips life’s fundamental question. The world asks, “What can I get?” Grace teaches us to ask, “What can I give?” A changed heart always produces open hands.
Questions:
1. What do your habits with money, time, and resources reveal about your heart’s priorities?
2. How might God be calling you to embrace generosity as evidence of grace at work in your life?
Day 6 – Decisions, Not Intentions
September 27
Read: Luke 19:9–10; James 2:14–17; Matthew 7:24–27
Reflect:
Jesus declares that salvation has come “today” to Zacchaeus’s house. Not someday, not eventually, but today. Zacchaeus’s decisions revealed the reality of his faith. He did not merely intend to change; he acted immediately. James reminds us that faith without works is dead, and Jesus describes the wise person as one who hears His words and puts them into practice. Salvation is not a vague feeling of sincerity but a tangible transformation that shows up in decisions. The house of Zacchaeus was changed that very day because one man moved from curiosity to surrender.
Questions:
1. Where in your life have you confused good intentions with obedience?
2. What step of decision-making faith is Jesus calling you to take now, not later?
Day 7 – The Table of Transformation
September 28
Read: Revelation 19:6–9; Psalm 23:5; Revelation 3:20
Reflect:
Zacchaeus’s home became a table of grace, but his story points forward to the greater feast. The Bible begins with humanity cast out of Eden and ends with humanity invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb. Psalm 23 promises that God prepares a table even in the valley of shadows. Revelation 3 pictures Christ standing at the door and knocking, ready to dine with those who open to Him. The marriage supper of the Lamb is the final fulfillment, where every redeemed sinner finds a seat at God’s eternal table. Zacchaeus’s table in Jericho was the foretaste; heaven’s table is the feast.
Questions:
1. How does the promise of an eternal seat at God’s table reshape your perspective on present struggles?
2. How might you use your own table (your meals, your hospitality, your home) as a place where others encounter the grace of Christ?
WEEK 2
Weekly Summary:
Mephibosheth’s story shows the shape of covenant kindness in real time. He is dropped in crisis, hidden in Lo-Debar, and written off by the logic of royal succession. David acts out of covenant loyalty to Jonathan, not out of court protocol. That loyalty seeks, speaks peace, restores what was lost, and seats the unworthy as family. Across Scripture, this same pattern emerges. God finds people in barren places, quiets fear with favor, and replaces orphaned identities with the secure status of sons and daughters. This week traces that movement: obscurity to significance, fear to favor, orphan to heir. Your past may explain you, but it does not define you. The King has saved your seat.
Day 1 - Life in Lo-Debar
September 29
Read: 2 Samuel 4:4, 2 Samuel 9:1–6, Isaiah 49:14–16
Reflect:
Mephibosheth’s disability did not come from defiance but disaster. In the panic after Saul and Jonathan fell, a caregiver dropped a five-year-old boy. Years later, he lives in Lo-Debar. The name signals no pasture, no word, no thing. It is a barren address that mirrors a barren season. Yet the first move in 2 Samuel 9 is not Mephibosheth searching for David. It is David asking whether anyone remains to whom he can show covenant kindness for Jonathan’s sake. Grace in the Old Testament is the word hesed. It means God’s covenant love and loyalty. Herein, we see how God’s love looks for the overlooked and calls them by name.
Questions:
1. Where are you living with wounds you did not choose, and how might that place resemble Lo-Debar?
2. What does it change to remember that God’s initiative, not your merit, brings us to His table?
Day 2 – Fear Meets Favor
September 30
Read: Luke 19:4; Romans 10:3–4; Ephesians 2:8–9
Reflect:
Mephibosheth bows low and calls himself a dead dog. In the ancient world, a new king commonly removed family members of the old dynasty. Fear was the rational response for Mephibosheth. David’s first words are the hinge of the story. “Do not be afraid. I will surely show you kindness.” He shifts the courtroom to a dining room. He does not test Mephibosheth. He gives him a permanent seat at the table. Paul says we were God’s enemies, yet were reconciled. And that God’s kindness leads to repentance. The sequence matters. Invitation comes before expectation. Belonging opens the door to becoming.
Questions:
1. Where are you still bracing for judgment instead of trusting the King’s favor?
2. What is an appropriate response to God’s kindness toward you?
Day 3 – No Condemnation
October 1
Read: Luke 19:5–7; Luke 15:1–2; Revelation 3:20
Reflect:
By every cultural measure, Mephibosheth deserves removal, not welcome. Yet the king declares a new status. In Christ, the verdict is the same. No condemnation. God does not treat us as our sins deserve. Jesus tells a condemned woman to go and sin no more after removing the stones of her accusers. Acceptance is not the same as approval of our lifestyle. It is God’s power that breaks the cycle of hiding and brokenness in our lives. When we grasp the lengths God has gone to in order to accept us, we are transformed into the kind of person who desires to live a life that is acceptable before God.
Questions:
1. What accusations do you repeat to yourself that Christ has already answered?
2. Where could acceptance of God’s love for you free you to take the first step of obedience today?
Day 4 – Like One Of The Kids
October 2
Read: 2 Samuel 9:9–11, Galatians 4:4–7, John 1:12
Reflect:
The writer repeats a phrase on purpose. He always ate at the king’s table. Mephibosheth is not a guest on probation. He is treated like one of the king’s kids. Adoption becomes his new identity. In Christ, we receive the right to become children of God. We cry Abba. Heirs have a seat at the table, not as a favor, but because they’re family. Under the table, Mephibosheth’s crippled feet are covered. The place of weakness is not erased, yet it is no longer the headline. Our weakness, trauma, or shame does not define our new identity. Instead, we are the King’s kids, and that changes how we see ourselves and how we show up every day.
Questions:
1. Which daily habits would change if you believed you were the King’s kid?
2. Where do you still find yourself performing for a place you already have?
Day 5 – Living As An Heir
October 3
Read: Ephesians 1:3–6, 1 Peter 1:3–4, Colossians 1:12–14
Reflect:
Adoption grants an inheritance. David restores land to Mephibosheth and assigns servants to cultivate it. In the same way, God blesses us in Christ with every spiritual blessing, qualifies us to share in the saints’ inheritance, and guards a future that cannot perish, spoil, or fade. This inheritance is not earned by effort, but rather received by being part of the family of God. It means our future is not fragile, but held in the hands of a faithful Father. And when you know you’re secure, you are free to live generously in the present instead of clinging fearfully to what you think you might lose.
Questions:
1. Would you describe your relationship with God as a spiritual orphan (unsure of your future) or as an adopted son or daughter (secure in Christ)?
2. How might confidence in God’s unshakable promises free you to live with greater generosity, courage, or openness right now?
Day 6 – The Guest List
October 4
Read: Luke 14:15–24, Isaiah 25:6–8, Revelation 19:6–9
Reflect:
The Bible’s theme of “the table” recurs over and over again throughout Scripture. Isaiah pictures a feast for all the nations of the world. Jesus tells of a banquet where the invited refuse, so the host fills the house with the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame. Revelation culminates with the marriage supper of the Lamb. God’s seating chart consistently disrupts human ideas of who should be at the table and who shouldn’t. The ones life pushes to the margins are brought to the center. The Church should resemble that table and become a preview of that future.
Questions:
1. Who is currently outside your normal guest list that God is asking you to invite to His table?
2. How could your home, small group, or church gathering better reflect the radical hospitality of God’s seating chart?
Day 7 – There’s Always Room At The Table
October 5
Read: 2 Samuel 9:13, Psalm 23:5–6, Revelation 3:20
Reflect:
The final line is quiet and decisive. Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem because he always had a seat waiting for him at the king’s table. Permanence was the point God wanted to make here in this story. God prepares a table in the presence of our enemies and promises goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our lives. Jesus stands at the door and knocks, and promises to come in and eat with anyone who opens the door to Him. The things that happen in our lives, which were meant to take us out, become the very things God uses to bring us in.
Questions:
1. What will you do this week to remind yourself that you always have a seat at the King’s table?
2. Looking back on your own story, where can you see God using past wounds or failures as a means of coming back to Him?
WEEK 3
Weekly Summary:
The final meal of Jesus was far more than a farewell gathering; it was a revelation of His heart, His mission, and His model for life in the Kingdom. At the table, Jesus reveals the depth of His love by inviting broken, imperfect people to sit close — men who would doubt, deny, and betray Him. His eagerness to share this meal reminds us that God’s love is not cautious or conditional but fierce and personal. The bread and the cup remind us why He came — to fulfill the promises of God, forgive the failures of humanity, and fix what sin had fractured. In this sacred moment, the Passover finds its fulfillment. The Lamb of God offers Himself as the meal, transforming an ancient ritual into a new covenant sealed with His blood.
Then, in a stunning twist, Jesus redefines greatness. While His disciples argue about position, He reorients them toward purpose. The King of Heaven ties a towel around His waist and shows them that leadership in His Kingdom always looks like service. In a world desperate to get ahead, Jesus calls us to descend into greatness instead. This week, as you open Scripture and reflect on the heart of the One who hosts the table, may you rediscover what it means to be loved without limit, forgiven without earning, and called to live with humility that lifts others higher.
Day 1 - Invited Anyway
Monday, October 6
Read: Luke 22:14-16; Romans 5:8
Reflect:
Jesus’ final night before the cross begins not with a sermon or miracle but a meal. Around the table sit men who will deny Him, doubt Him, and betray Him. Yet He says, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you.” That invitation reveals a love that is indiscriminate, unconditional, and undeniable. His guest list proves that grace always makes room for the undeserving, and that includes us.
Questions:
1. Who in your life do you struggle to see as worthy of an invitation to grace?
2. How does Jesus’ eagerness to share this meal change the way you view His love for you and others today?
Day 2 –A Love That Can’t Be Earned
Fear Meets Favor
Tuesday, October 7
Read: John 13:1-5; Ephesians 2:4-9
Reflect:
Before the bread is broken, Jesus kneels to wash feet caked with dust and pride. The King of heaven chooses the posture of a servant. His love doesn’t wait for us to get it together; it meets us where we are. When grace takes the towel, performance loses its power.
Questions:
1. In what ways are you still trying to earn the love that God has already demonstrated towards you?
2. What “towel” can you pick up this week to show that kind of love to someone else?
Day 3 – Promises Kept
No Condemnation
Wednesday, October 8
Read: Luke 22:17–20; Exodus 12:1–14; 1 Corinthians 5:7
Reflect:
Passover celebrated the night God rescued His people from Egypt through the blood of a spotless lamb. At the Last Supper, Jesus reveals that He is the true Lamb whose sacrifice brings lasting freedom. The story of deliverance is no longer about escaping Pharaoh’s grip but sin’s power. The promise that began in Exodus is fulfilled in Christ—the Lamb who was slain so that judgment would pass over us forever.
Questions:
1. What promise from God do you need to remember He has already kept in Christ?
2. How does seeing Jesus as your Passover Lamb deepen your gratitude for salvation?
Day 4 – A Sacrifice That Saves
Thursday, October 9
Read: Hebrews 9:11-15; Isaiah 53:4-6
Reflect:
The bread and the cup tell the story of how far love was willing to go. Salvation wasn’t earned through effort but secured through sacrifice. Jesus took our place, bearing what we couldn’t carry and paying what we couldn’t afford. His body was broken, His blood was poured out, and through that sacrifice, He demonstrated his love by paying our ransom.
Questions:
1. When you remember Jesus’ sacrifice, what truth about His love stands out most to you?
2. How might gratitude for that love change the way you respond to God and others this week?
Day 5 –True Greatness
Friday, October 10
Read: Luke 22:24–27; John 13:12–15; Philippians 2:3–8
Reflect:
When the disciples argued about who was the greatest, Jesus didn’t silence their ambition; He redirected it. In His kingdom, greatness is measured by service, not status. Jesus demonstrated leadership by taking the lowest position and washing the feet of his disciples. He showed that influence begins with humility, not authority. The world tells us to climb higher, but Jesus calls us to bend lower. True greatness begins when we serve others the way He served us.
Questions:
1. Where in your life are you tempted to measure success by position or recognition?
2. How can you serve someone this week in a way that reflects the humility of Jesus?
Day 6 – A Table for the Unworthy
The Guest List
Saturday, October 11
Read: Luke 22:21–23; Romans 5:6–8; John 13:21–30
Reflect:
Jesus shared His final meal with people who would deny, doubt, and even betray Him. Yet He still welcomed them. Judas sat at the same table as John and Peter, a reminder that God’s love extends to those who do not deserve it. None of us earned our place at the table, but Christ invites us anyway. The table of grace is not for the perfect but for the forgiven. When we understand that truth, we stop pretending to have it all together and start living with grateful humility.
Questions:
1. How does the fact that Judas was invited to the table shape your understanding of grace?
2. Who in your life needs to experience that same kind of undeserved invitation?
Day 7 – Remember and Respond
Sunday, October 12
Read: Luke 22:19–20; 1 Corinthians 11:23–26; Colossians 1:19–22
Reflect:
When Jesus told His followers to do this in remembrance of Him, He was inviting them to live out what the meal represents. Communion is not only about remembering the cross but also about responding to it. We remember what Jesus accomplished for us, and we respond by living in obedience and gratitude. Forgiven people forgive. Loved people love. Served people serve. The table reminds us that what Jesus did for us should now be reflected through us.
Questions:
1. How does remembering what Jesus did on the cross change the way you live day to day?
2. What would it look like for you to live this week as someone shaped by the sacrifice of Jesus?
