This was an interactive service.
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.
