It is the first Sunday of September 2024 and as is our custom we celebrate the Lord’s Supper. We set this Sunday aside as special. We sing hymns of praise, we share prayers for one another, and we hear the Word of God proclaimed as we do each Sunday. But before we leave here today, we share the bread and drink of the cup, as a remembrance of Christ Jesus. What is it that Christ calls us to remember?
I read some thoughts on this question and some said that the Lord’s Supper is a memorial of Christ's life and death. It is a symbol of Christ's work. It represents the union of all God's people; at the table of the Lord all human souls are on the same level. It represents the soul's constant dependence upon Christ for strength. Christ is the daily bread of life to the soul. It represents the mystic union of Christ and his people; he lives in them and they in him. The Lord's Supper is a special communion with Christ when, in a particular manner, he reveals himself to the believing heart (Dr. Smith Baker).
The Lord’s Supper certainly is all those things and we certainly would do well to remember Christ in those terms. I am just not sure, however, that those words and those thoughts quite do it for me. I am not quite sure that was what Jesus was saying to his small band of intimate friends.
Jesus and His friends were celebrating the Passover meal and it was an opportunity to remember God’s redemption of the people of Israel from the hands of the Egyptians. And so the Lord’s Supper has come to be seen as a new Passover meal for those who follow Christ. It is certainly that as well and we would be on solid theological ground to remember Christ in that way. It certainly was something that Jesus asked his friends to remember.
Yet I still wonder if we are stopping too early in our thinking about that night. It was a night in which his friends had argued about who was the greatest. It was a night in which they gathered and all but Jesus was too proud to wash the feet of the others. It was a night in which one brother from this band would betray Jesus for a few silver coins. It was a night in which the most outspoken of them, the one with the biggest measure of self-confidence was told he would deny Jesus; not just once but three times. Sometimes I think we need to pause and contemplate the scene a little longer before we conclude we understand it. We need to enter the scene and see who is there, what is really said, and what those words meant to the people. Sometimes we need to be willing to pay the price for doing so because whenever we spend time with Jesus there is a definite risk that he will change us. Sometimes I think we don’t really want that to occur, and we approach Scripture in a manner that Tim Hansel wrote about in his book "When I Relax, I Feel Guilty." He writes that sometimes we approach with a mindset that we would like to purchase $3.00 worth of God. He says, "I would like to buy $3.00 worth of God, please. Not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine. I don't want enough of Him to make me love a black man or pick beets with a migrant. I want ecstasy, not transformation; I want the warmth of the womb, not a new birth. I want a pound of the Eternal, just put it in a paper sack. I would like to buy $3.00 worth of God, please." If we would be totally honest, the idea of transformation really scares us. That is because we know that such a radical change would be quite uncomfortable. We realize that with transformation comes a major overhaul of our lives and priorities. Was there something then about the Lord’s Supper that was more radical and transformational that Jesus wanted his friends to remember?
I would like to explore that question a little beginning with some information from our Old Testament reading. We find there in Exodus that God, working through Moses, was establishing a covenant with the people of Israel. He was calling out Israel from the population of the world to be his people, set aside for a blessing of a relationship with God. It was a covenant given to Israel, not a contract. The Israelites did not offer a deal to God, it was a commitment God gave to them. God made the choice. The Israelites were to be His people, and He was to be there God. The understanding of the covenant was spoken and put down in the words of the Law. They were words of life that were then bound by sacrifice and blood between God and His people. Exodus 24 verses 4 through 8: 4 Moses then wrote down everything the Lord had said.
He got up early the next morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up twelve stone pillars representing the twelve tribes of Israel. 5 Then he sent young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as fellowship offerings to the Lord. 6 Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and the other half he splashed against the altar. 7 Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, “We will do everything the Lord has said; we will obey. 8 Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words” (Exodus 24:4-8).
The blood on the altar and the people linked them together and symbolized the union of God and Israel in the covenant. The sacrificing and sprinkling of blood would continue throughout the centuries by the Israelites as a reminder of that union. This scene from Exodus gives us some sense of history and context to God’ covenantal relationships. They are an unmerited gift from God.
Moving forward to the New Testament period we come to the evening in which Jesus and his disciples gathered for the Passover meal. Unlike the scene from Exodus where the backdrop was a mountain, an altar, twelve pillars, burnt offerings, basins of blood, and the gathering of the nation of Israel, this evening was a very private moment. All were assembled in a simple room. Everything was in place as Jesus had wanted. Luke tells us, 14 When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. 15 And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16 For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God” (Luke 22:14-16). The King James Version of the Bible says that, “with desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you.” It was an intense feeling. The Greek word used here was ἐπιθυμία, epithymia, e-pē-thü-mē'-ä, meaning a craving or longing. You see Luke said, “And when the hour came.” These words are so significant to the story. They do not speak of a time of day or hour in which the preparations for the meal had been completed but really stood for just the right moment in Jesus’ journey.
At times throughout his ministry people sought to seize Jesus and do harm to him but could not because Scripture repeatedly tells us, “his hour had not yet come.” This time was different. The Gospel of John tells us, “It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father” (John 13:1a). John was not referring to a time of day; he was referring to a precise moment in history. Luke’s words and John’s words tell us this was not just a meal, this was a moment of history like no other. And when that hour came, that moment in history, Jesus reclined at table, and the apostles with him. [15] And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you.” Jesus knew he only had a few hours before he would face the cross and what he craved most at this precise moment in history was to spend some of those precious moments in a meal with his disciples. There was no other place Jesus wanted to be than at this intimate gathering.
I have tried to imagine being there and hearing his words, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.” I can imagine my feeling of pleasure rise rapidly as I hear Jesus’ craving to eat with me, and then just as suddenly drop as he says he is to suffer. We want to hear the first part of eating together, but we do not want anything to do with the second part of Jesus suffering. We want to say, “I only wanted $3.00 of God. Given me only what I want to hear, I do not want to hear of your suffering.” It must have been that way at that table that evening because no one asks of what suffering he was to endure.
The group began to eat the meal. From our New Testament reading, Matthew writes, “[26] Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” Imagining again, the room must have gotten very still and exceptionally quiet as they received the bread. Jesus who craved this moment with his disciples was giving them bread and saying this is my body. This was such an intimate moment, within this moment of history. Jesus who knew all of their follies and shortcomings better than they knew themselves still accepted them. He was saying to them, I hold nothing back from you for I crave with the deepest longings of my heart for your closeness. “Take, eat; this is my body.” Put yourself in that place. When I did, I found myself, silently eating the bread wondering the meaning of the suffering Jesus was to endure and now the significance of eating bread, that represented his body. Why are you doing this Jesus? I find it hard to lift my eyes from the table and look at you Jesus for fear I will cry.
Before composure can come over the room again, Matthew tell us, “[27] And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, [28] for this is my blood.” Jesus is moving them to a new level of intimacy. He is offering this cup as a symbol of an inseparable union, and merging of their lives as one through the substance that gives us life itself. They sip from the cup slowly as they drink in the rest of Jesus words. “This is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” As they drink, a new covenant was born. It is not to be one of altars, pillars, and recurring sacrifice. It is one formed by uniting believers with God and with one another through the suffering of Christ, through the giving of his body, and through the pouring out of his blood. And for that we are forgiven of our sins.
Why did Jesus do this? Why did he choose suffering? Why did he choose to give his body? Why did he choose to pour out his blood? Why did he choose to forgive our sins? He did so because of love. He had come, to this moment in history for this hour to share love – unimaginable love expressed through the giving of the bread, giving of the cup, and giving himself in our place to suffer. “Almost everything ever written on the subject of love indicates that at the heart of love is the spirit of giving.” (Chapman 82) “Love is a choice. Love is always feely given.” (96) And Jesus came to earth to give. “Love is something you do for someone else, not something you do for yourself.” (140) Jesus came to love us and to give us life.
The disciples in particularly, at this moment in history, needed to know that they were loved. They who argued over greatness, who would abandon and deny Christ, who would witness his death, were heading to crisis after crisis like no other point in history. Jesus needed them ready for what was to come ahead. “In a time of crisis, more than anything, we need to feel loved. We cannot always change events, but we can survive if we feel loved.” (113) This was radical, transforming love beyond what they could have asked for. With it they would choose to love one another and choose to overcome the hatred of their enemies with love.
Many communion tables have these words etched into them, “This do in remembrance of me.” We may forget at times the theology of the bread and the cup or even disagree with one another over the substance of the bread and the wine. We may forget at times the details linking that evening with the history of Israel. But let us always share the bread and the cup remembering that Jesus made a choice. He made the choice to love you and me, with all of our follies and shortcomings. He made a choice to let us know that the even though the events of your life may not be changed, you know that you are loved. How will you choose to respond to that love?
As I thought about the scene at the Lord’s Table, I was reminded of the closing words from Exodus Old Testament reading today, which said, “and they beheld God, and ate and drank” (Exodus 24:11b). This day, come to the table, come to the Lord’s Table, feel his love, behold him, and eat and drink. Amen.