He Gave Them a Meal (Part One)

(This series was initially posted on Tortilla Press. As that website will be offline for a bit, I moved the series here.)

He Gave Them a Cross (Part Two) He Gave Them the Spirit (Part Three)

When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. And he said to them, ‘I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.’ Luke 22:14-16

As Jesus’ final hours approached, “When he wanted to fully explain to his disciples what his forthcoming death was all about, he didn’t give them a theory. He gave them a meal,” so explains N. T. Wright in his work, Simply Jesus.

And although this meal, Wright continues, was undoubtedly a Passover meal – it was a Passover meal with a non-Kosher twist. The people of Israel celebrated the Passover to commemorate the Exodus event when God miraculously delivered the Israelites from centuries of bondage in Egypt. To partake of the Passover was to recall and celebrate the events of the past. Yet this evening, this last supper, Jesus turned his followers’ attention from the past to the future and retells the story to point toward a deliverance much closer at hand.

Amidst the evening’s festivities, Jesus took the bread, gave thanks, broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you.”

Then in the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.”

To receive the bread and the cup Jesus offers is to embrace and celebrate the new life Jesus gives. Likewise, it is important to share the meal together as the community of faith, for it is a practice that reminds us of Christ’s victory, as well as our share in it. Therefore any behavior or attitude that devalues another and subsequently disrupts the unity Christ died for is to partake in the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner.

Paul accused the Corinthians of partaking in the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner when they neglected to discern the body of Christ. But how, specifically, did the Corinthians neglect to discern the body of Christ? By selfishly disregarding and mistreating the poor among them. Shamefully enough, the Corinthians committed these sins while participating in the Lord’s Supper. As a self-imposed judgment, their mistreatment of the poor caused weakness and sickness among them, and even death.

The breaking of bread and the drinking of the cup remains for us one of the most sacred and important symbols we have to express Christ’s sacrificial love and eternal victory. Therefore, let’s remember, when we come to the Lord’s table together it should be a holy communion. A place where we discern the body of Christ by taking care of one another as we remember together how Christ sacrificially took care of us.

Luke 22.7-23; 1 Corinthians 11.17-32

N. T. Wright, Simply Jesus, HarperCollins: 2011, Kindle Edition.