Lords Supper 10-2011

Luke 22:19-20 And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me. 20* And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood. These words are so familiar to us that I fear they no longer mean anything. In part, because we no longer know the desperation of being separated from God. We no longer hunger. I was thinking of this when I came across the story of a little orphan in Eurpope. In the devastation that was post WWII Europe, orphaned children roamed the broken streets like little hungry urchins from a Dickens classic. The story is told of one little boy standing staring into the window at the local bakery. His empty stomach rumbling. His lips watering at the delicacies beyond the glass and his reach. An American GI steps from the Jeep and walks inside noticing the desperate eyes of the little guy. As he walked back out, he tossed a sack of pastries to the boy. The child looked into the bag and than back at the soldier and in broken English asked, Mr. are you Jesus? We smile and nod at a story like that, but its hard for us in this bloated nation to understand how desperate those words really are.

There is a verse in the Proverbs that says, Pr 27:7 A sated man loathes honey, But to a famished man any bitter thing is sweet. Full bellies dont appreciate good food. But empty stomachs are glad for any scrap of nourishment. Thats true physically. It is equally true spiritually. And I think this is at the heart of our problem with the Lords Supper. Weve grown up with Grace. Weve always known that God is compassionate and loving and desires a relationship with his creation. Even people that never give a second thought to the Lord dont view him as someone to be feared. They figure that God will somehow understand them and that he will overlook their sin just because he cant help loving us. I dont think a good God would send people to hell. And so spiritual things draw a yawn. Lords Supper, big deal! But talk to a person that has seen the bottom of the pit of sin and he or she cries at the very thought of God forgiving them and giving them another chance. We take grace for granted because we are no longer hungry. The Lords Supper was given as a reminder that we must never forget what he did for us. Even though we have been Christians for ten or forty or fifty years, we must never forget what it felt like to be lost. If we do, we will not understand what it means to have someone else die for us.

And the Lords Supper will be just another ritual to endure. Jesus is near the end of his earthly ministry. He had spent three years teaching about grace and the values of God to be expressed in his kingdom. He spoke in parables and word pictures. He said that the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed. He said that the gospel is like a sower that went out to sow. People are sheep and goats, wheat and tares. Now he comes to the end of the lessons and he wants to drive home one last profound and powerful word picture so that they will understand the sacrifice in a way that they will never forget. They had just finished taking the ancient Jewish feast of Passover. This feast was initiated when the Jews left Egypt under the leadership of Moses at least 1250 years before Christ. On that terrible night, God sent the death angel through the land of Egypt and took the life of every first-born Egyptian. To make a distinction between the Jews and Egyptians, God commanded them to take an unblemished male lamb and kill it. They were then to take the blood and smear it over the doorpost and the lentil of their homes. When the death angel saw the blood he would pass over that house. The Jews were further instructed to roast the lamb and eat it together in their homes along with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. The unleavened bread was to symbolize personal purification. The bitter herbs were to remind them of the cruelty of slavery at the hands of the Egyptians. In addition, they were to eat it with their feet shod and ready for departure. The imagery is unmistakably prophetic. Jesus was that lamb. His blood was to be placed, not on our doors, but over our hearts. In the same way the Hebrews acted in faith, we accept the gift of grace through faith. Now Jesus takes that imagery and adds to it. He picks up a piece of the leftover unleavened bread and says, this is my body. As with so much of his teaching, he gives a symbol.

The Lords Supper is Symbolic

I say that emphatically, because during the dark ages theologians missed this badly. They became consumed with the literalism of the words and took Is to mean, actually is. This bread actually is my body. But how could the one who holds a piece of bread with his body possibly imply that the bread was his body? Its clearly a symbol. He didnt have to say, This represents my body, because everyone in that room could see his body. Fascinates me how we can miss the obvious and then miss the whole point. His point wasnt that the bread was going to somehow miraculously transform into the body of Christ. It was to show how by breaking the bread his body would be broken.

The Symbol represents a sacrifice

Hes alluding to the prophecy by Isaiah. Isaiah 53:4-6 Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed.

6 All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. Your iniquity and my iniquity caused the crucifixion. You and I were every bit as much involved in it as if we were there in the mob 2000 years ago screaming for the Roman governor to put him to death. Let that sink in again as if you had never heard it before. Someone died for you. What does that feel like? This past week I read a story of a mother who was pregnant and during the pregnancy she developed cancer. Her particular cancer was at the base of her brain. Doctors told her that they would have to do radical treatments if she had any hope of survival and if they did it her baby would not survive to term. She weighed the options. Her life or her childs. She chose to die so that the child would live. Dottie Mae was delivered by Cesarian on August 18, 2011 weighing 2 lbs 1 oz. Her mother, Stacie Crimm died three weeks later on September 11. Do you think Stacies sacrifice for Dottie Mae will affect the way that little girl goes through life? Every time Dottie Mae thinks of her mother she will know that for her to live her mother had to die. I have a friend that had a heart transplant. It was so weird to think that someone elses heart was beating in his chest. Every breath is a reminder that for him to live a young boy had to die. We stand here today forgiven. Gods forgiveness was only possible because Jesus chose to die.

Its a symbol of love

Notice he didnt say, This is my body which is broken for you We sometimes say that, but thats not what Jesus said. He said, given for you. Handed over for you. It was a gift. John 3:16, For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. God gave his only son for me. For you. I was thinking of that one day as I road the ferry from Bolivar Texas across to Galveston. I was trained as a life guard when I was a teenager. I dont know if I could still rescue someone that was drowning, but what would happen if that ferry went down and I had to save just one? Who would it be? I can tell you, it would be the family member closest to me and in the greatest distress. I would swim past every other person to get to one of my sons or Amy. Then I thought of Jesus. I love all of you. Weve lived and walked together for 10 years now. By Gods grace we will journey for 10 or 20 more. But if you were on that ferry that went down, I would swim to my sons. Thats the love of a father. I have four sons, I wouldnt give any of them to die for you. God had one son and he gave him for us. His love was greater than my own. And he did it even when we were still sinful and hostile to him. That changes things doesnt it. We must get beyond the fact that we are fat with grace and move back to what it feels like to be desperate for love.

For god so loved take out the world and insert your name. This is my body given for you If you were the only person to ever live, Jesus would have still died on the cross. He knows you. And he loved you enough to die for you. Two things and Im done. First, have you received the gift? Second, do you still appreciate the gift?