Spoiled Dinner; Luke 22:14-24

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What are some of your favorite memories around food?.....Do you have bad memories around food?....Today on this World Communion Sunday, we read the story of the Last Supper from Luke’s gospel.  This is the most important meal for Christians—more important than the feedings of the 5000+ and the 4000+, more important than the meal where the sinful woman washed Jesus’s feet, more important than His meals with the tax collectors and sinners, more important His meals with Pharisees, or at Zaccheaus’s house.  It is more important, because Jesus told us to continue celebrating it in remembrance of Him.  But this Last Supper is more than just a memorial service.  Christ gives Himself to us and unites us with all other believers, which is why it is the most important supper. 

            The Last Supper was a celebration of the Passover.  It would have been a big deal for any Jewish family.  Jesus was joyfully anticipating this dinner.  Our passage begins with Jesus telling the disciples how much he has been looking forward and longing to share this Passover meal with them.  It should have been the perfect dinner, but it wasn’t.  What was supposed to be a joyful celebration had some moments that could have spoiled it.

            First is the fact that Jesus clearly says, it’s His last Passover meal for a while.  He says, “until it is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God.”  Now that’s not bad news!  We don’t know when that will be, and neither did the disciples.  It could be very soon!  And it is definitely something worth anticipating!  But He also says that before that happens, He is going to suffer.  This shouldn’t have been a surprise to the disciples.  Jesus had been talking about it constantly on His way to Jerusalem.  We heard Him mention it many times last spring.  There is sadness even knowing that it was going to happen, and yet, we know how necessary it was for Christ to suffer, so that all people might be forgiven of their sin and have eternal life.  Still even Jesus’s impending death didn’t have to spoil the dinner.  Like having a last celebration with someone you know is terminally ill, it’s bittersweet, but you strive to make it be a great memory for all involved.  And Jesus Himself made it special by giving new meaning to the afikomen and the cup of redemption and the cup of joy.  It’s certainly something neither they nor we can forget.  Jesus is the fulfillment of Passover being broken for us, spilling His blood for our salvation, that we might have eternal joy. 

            But then Jesus says the one sitting next to Him will betray Him.  There is someone at the dinner table who plans to spoil the evening.  This starts a conversation among the disciples.  They start wondering which of them will do it, even though Jesus made it pretty clear—the one whose hand is with Mine on the table.  The one who dips with Me, in the other gospels.  The others are clueless and start speculating about each other.  This speculating turns into a full-blown argument. Like children, they start arguing over who is the best.  Anybody in here have to deal with family fighting at the dinner table?  It can certainly ruin a meal!  Jesus uses it as a teaching moment.  He points out that He is the greatest, and yet, He comes to them as a servant, not as patronizing.  He encourages them to be like Him, servants to one another.  And yet, He also tells them that they are all going to be great.  He commends them for standing by Him in His trials, thus far, even though they were all going to run away, except John, and tells them that they would inherit the Kingdom of God and inherit thrones in that Kingdom, judging the 12 tribes of Israel. Those who are spoiling what should have been the perfect dinner, will in the end be rewarded, not for what they did here, but because they have been chosen by Christ to take the gospel to the world.  Jesus turns the conversation back to the kingdom redeeming the spoiled dinner.

            But the dinner isn’t over yet.  There’s one more spoiler.  Jesus looks across to Simon Peter that Satan has asked permission to sift him like wheat.  Peter is incredulous saying he vows to follow Jesus to prison and death. Jesus tells Peter that Peter is doing to deny Him that very night, not once, but 3 times. Yet even as Jesus gives this disturbing news, He tells Peter that He has prayed for Peter that his faith will not fail.  We can trust that when our faith is weak, Jesus has prayed for us.  When we know others who are struggling with their faith, tempted to deny the Lord, we should pray for them, trusting that God, will in God’s perfect timing, restore them as well.  Jesus promises despite all that Peter will do, that he will have a job to do once he repents, which is to strengthen his brother disciples.  Peter will in the end, be the strong one.  It’s often those who have reached rock bottom and come out of it who are best suited to help others, whether it be those who are recovered and recovering addicts to help other addicts, the formerly incarcerated who make the best mentors for those headed down into a life of crime.  Peter understood after denying Jesus 3 times how much he had received forgiveness, and so he boldly proclaimed forgiveness in Christ to anyone he could. 

            The Last Supper should have been the perfect dinner with everyone getting along and celebrating, but it had many spoilers.  And yet, it was the perfect supper.  Nothing was a surprise to Jesus.  Not even Satan could ruin this meal.  Jesus used every potential spoiled moment to teach something about Himself, about the Kingdom of God, and about the disciples.  We can remember this when our dinners don’t go so well, to give and receive grace to ourselves and to those around our table, to teach and to learn.  The disciples continued the practice of table fellowship among believers and promoted in all the churches as Christ instituted, and so we do today.  We remember Jesus in this meal.  We remember what that Jesus died for us, that He is the Passover lamb, slain from the foundation of the world, who death sets us free from the law of sin and death.  We remember that He is our salvation.  We remember that we are inheritors of the Kingdom of God.  We remember that Christ has taken people who were not family and made them into God’s family with God as our Father and Christ as our Brother.  We are brothers and sisters, called to serve one another in love.  Under Christ’s new covenant we are called to bless the world, just as God promised Abraham that He would bless all the peoples through Abraham. 

            The table is still a sacred space, not just the Communion Table, but whenever believers are gathered, when believers are gathered with unbelievers.  Whenever we gather for a meal—in our homes, in restaurants, at church, on a picnic we can remember Christ and invite Him to our tables as He invites us to His.  Even when things don’t go perfectly, Christ is in our midst and can do His holy work. 

The Earth is Judged; Isaiah24-25:5, Revelation 6-7

 

We have come to the end of a judgement cycle in Isaiah.  We have heard lots of judgements over the summer, but remember that every single one has also come with hope and a promise of restoration and salvation after the time of judgment and even during the time of judgment in some cases.  This final judgement is the judgement of the whole earth. 

            A couple of weeks ago, we heard about the church in Philadelphia whom Jesus promised to spare from an even greater “hour of testing” that was to come upon the whole earth, because they had already faithfully endured much persecution in which many members had lost their lives.  We hear in the text that there will be those who are unaffected by the coming judgment, but it’s going to be overall devastating for the world.  It doesn’t matter what one’s social status or class is.  Isaiah tells us that the Lord has said that the earth will be completely laid waste and completely despoiled. 

            Why is God going to judge the earth?  For many of the same reasons God said that He would judge certain nations, but moreso because the evil is so widespread.  In Isaiah 24:5, God gives the reason, people have “transgressed laws, violated statutes, and broke the everlasting covenant.” 

            What will happen when God judges the earth?  Both Isaiah and Revelation talk about earthquakes.  Both talk about the heavens being shaken and the sun and moon being darkened.  Isaiah says that the host of heaven will be punished along with the earthly rulers.  These are the spiritual forces whom Isaiah says will be confined.  We also see this in the book of Revelation, though not in our passages today.  Alcohol will not bring pleasure but will be sought as a way to escape, but it will not work.  Partying will stop.  People will hide and try to escape suffering.  Our Revelation passage speaks of war, pestilence, famine, and attacks by wild animals.  It also talks about food being incredibly expensive.   Death and Hades are given the authority to take 25% of the human population. 

            Isaiah mentions a city that will be destroyed in this prophecy.  The word used to describe is “wasted, confused, chaos.”  It is the exact Hebrew word used to describe the earth in Genesis 1:2. It is disordered.  When we refuse God’s order, the result is disorder and chaos.  The city is not named as cities in the other judgements were.  What is this city?  Is it a city that was unknown at the time, like Beirut, Moscow, or Washington, DC?  Is it Jerusalem?  It is a city that represents the whole world.  Whatever this city is, it will be destroyed never to be rebuilt.  So yes, Jerusalem in a sense spiritually, even if not literally.  We have seen Paul in Galatians b4 talk about the Jerusalem that now is and the Jerusalem that is above, the heavenly city.  He tells us that the earthly Jerusalem is like Hagar, a city that is in slavery, but that the heavenly Jerusalem is free like Sarah.  St. Augustine in his great book, The City of God, describes the same thing.  He says that there exists the City of God and the City of Man.  Both Paul and Augustine say that these cities exist in the present tense.  They are systems.  God’s people belong to the City of God, and if they aren’t living like it, they are called to come out of the City of Man, the earthly Jerusalem.  Whatever our feelings about even the physically real city of Jerusalem, it is not meant to stand forever.  We hate to think of our heritage being destroyed, but in the end, it will be completely unnecessary when the New Jerusalem descends from heaven and replaces it.  Until it does, it already exists, and we are called to live like it exists and that we are its citizens, for indeed we are!

            This great judgment that is to come is referred to as the Tribulation, the great trouble.  We see this in our Revelation passage, that those around the throne of God dressed in white robes and singing praise to the Lord, a multitude that no one can count from every people group on the planet are those “who come out of the great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”  Popular Bible teaching says God’s people aren’t going to have to endure the tribulation, but that’s not what Revelation 7 says nor is it what any early church father taught.  Tribulation is to be endured and persevered through with God’s help, not escaped.  What the early church father did differ on is whether the 1000-year reign of Christ is metaphorical or whether there will be a post tribulation literal reign of Christ on earth between the resurrection of believers and the resurrection of the condemned.  I personally find myself waffling between those two positions.  God warns us about it, not so that we will be afraid, but so that we will be prepared. 

            There have been many great tribulations throughout history.  I think this is one of the reasons that the disciples expected Christ to return. They always spoke of Jesus’s return during times of intense persecution, but there is still a great tribulation to come.  Are we on the threshold of it?  Maybe.  There are many who think so with the collapse of western civilization, with WWIII about to start and the great threat of nuclear war and the escalation of violence in the Middle East.  We certainly see vast numbers of people breaking and disregarding God’s laws and even natural law.  We see people calling evil good and good evil.  Whether God is going to send a lesser or the final tribulation upon us soon, only God knows, but after the final tribulation, Christ will return and reign.  We see in Isaiah 24:23, “The Lord of hosts will reign on Mt. Zion and in Jerusalem and His glory will be before His elders.” 

As he has done in when pronouncing other judgements, Isaiah weeps over those that do evil.  The apostle Paul reminds us that “we wrestle not with flesh and blood, but with powers, and principalities, and spiritual wickedness in the high places.”  Do we care enough to mourn over those who do evil and desire to see them set free spiritually?  Do we care enough even about our neighbors to share the good news of Jesus with them? 

            Don’t forget that the ending to both of our passages this morning are positive!  They are full of praise for God’s goodness, power, and triumph and for the triumph of the people who are faithful to the Lord.  In Isaiah’s prophecy, the righteous in the west shout with joy over the majesty of the LORD.  Those in the East sing songs of God’s glory.  Those in the islands praise the name of the Lord!  In our Revelation passage, before any judgement can even start, the angels are commanded to first seal up the 144,000.  I don’t believe this is a literal number, but it is the number of completion of Jewish believers—those who actually come from the 12 tribes named as representatives of God’s historic people.  We should be praying for the conversion of the Jews.  It’s why the work of organizations like Jews for Jesus is so important.  God will fulfill God’s promises to them by bringing them into the New Jerusalem.  Notice there is no one from the tribe of Dan or Ephraim. Instead of Ephraim, Joseph is named, and instead of Dan, Manasseh is named.  And then we have the multitude that no one can count around God’s throne. This multitude will include us and all believers throughout time, and all who have come out of the Great Tribulation—that is they survived it, not necessarily by not dying, although therw will be many who will remain alive, but all who remained faithful to Christ, enduring to the end.  They cry out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and unto the Lamb.”  The angels join with them, along with God’s chosen 24 elders (the patriarchs and apostles), worshipping and saying, “Amen!  Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen!”  Once the great tribulation is passed, so comes the end of all hunger, thirst, weather disasters, sorrows and tears! 

            I’m not foolish enough to say these are the end times.  I don’t know if the hurricane that happened is God’s judgment, or simply something God allows via the natural processes God has ordained, or because of the general fallen state of humanity.  I’m not going to try to say why any particular thing is happening.  Nor will I try to predict what’s going to happen.  Only God the Father knows when the end will come.  Only God knows the particulars of why God does or allows anything.  I do think we should be prepared for hard and trying times, but we can live with hope because we know that God wins.  Even as God judges the earth, God does so out of love for people and a hatred for evil.  In his book City of God, St. Augustine wrote, “Do not refuse to regain your youth in Christ, who says to you, ‘The world is passing away.  The world is losing its grip.  The world is short of breath.’ Do not fear—your youth shall be renewed as an eagle.”

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The Key of David; Isaiah 22:15-25, Revelation 3:7-13

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Isaiah 19, Romans 5:8-11, Colossians 1:22-23

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