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We celebrate Lord's Supper more often than in years past.. We are thankful for it and likely we are very calm about it. This piece is asking: What is the life, what is the power of Lord's Supper?
The Catechism is helpful, (Q.75) "Christ has commanded me and all believers......He nourishes and refreshes my soul." (Q.77) "Where does Christ promise to nourish.....?," Then it quotes I Cor. 11:23-26, where Jesus leads in the first Lord's Supper. All the attention is on Jesus, not on the elements.
I found this imaginary story helped clarify my thoughts.
I imagined some of the apostles after the resurrection. The fact that they all fled when Jesus was arrested came up. Their embarrassment and guilt was real. They even wondered, "After we promised never to abandon Him, we all fled! What will He do to us now?'
One of them brought up Lord's Supper. He believed that Jesus knew well what would happen, how they would run. He spoke of how Jesus had told them the meaning of the bread and the cup. He told how compelling it was that Jesus handed that symbol to him, and Jesus said to him; "This is for you. I want you to have it. I want you to receive it." So, now, the disciple, looking back said, "I am deeply reassured that there is grace for me. Jesus personally gave me the bread. Jesus said to me that it is for me. I may trust Him for forgiveness; even when I abandon/run from Him, I am not rejected."
Think about that. None of those apostles would have been considering the bread, and whether it was transformed. All of them would remember Who gave it to them and spoke His declaration ,"For you."
In other words the power and the life of the Lord's Supper was Jesus. He gave them the bread. He spoke the meaning to each one of them. Thus there was assurance of grace for them.
Jesus told us to have Lord's Supper. Should we not say that really means reenacting it, seeing Jesus as the Host, Jesus as the life and power of Lord's Supper? Our observance should not be focused on the bread, whether it's body and the cup, whether it's one or many cups. Let it be focused on Jesus, as it was the first time. Do it with the clear understanding that Jesus is here, and He is ministering to you as an individual, as He brings the bread and the cup to you and as He tells you that He wants you to know it is for you.
The life, the power, of Lord's Supper? Jesus!
Comments
Greetings Jack,
Thanks for reminding us of the value of the life and Power of the Lords supper, which is Lord Jesus Christ, "Christ Alone".
The life that came to us in the Old Testament was seen in the Tabernacle and all the elements that connects to the Inner court of the Temple was a demonstration and foreshadowed of Lord Jesus Christ.
That life was also seen on Mount Moriah when He substituted Himself for Isaac.
The power of the Lord's supper is that the animal sacrifice was no longer needed and therefore the lamb of God became the man "Lord Jesus Christ" who now dwells on the inside of my flesh and His words abide in me.
As long as we abide in Him and He indwell us, His grace is sufficient and my weakness becomes His strength and righteousness by the power of the Holy Spirit.
We are reminded to partake of the Lord's Supper in memory of His death, burial and resurrection. For when He died, you lived; when He was resurrected, you were set free; when He ascended to heaven, He gave us His spirit; and when He sat at the right hand of God, you became the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.
As we partake of the Lord's Supper we are reflecting on the salvivic grace, life and power of God through Lord Jesus Christ Amen.
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