Supper Sermons
Today the church is privileged to sit at the Lord’s Table for our last observance of the year. Another year of remembrance is past and reminds us of our connection to the first church that observed what Christ would do, not what He already had done. The first Supper began as the Passover meal. The disciples practiced and attended these each year since they were children. Although they walked with Jesus for three years, they were mistaken and unaware of the meaning of what He told them so many times before. In Mark 10:33, Jesus said, “Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be delivered unto the chief priests, and unto the scribes; and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles:And they shall mock him, and shall scourge him, and shall spit upon him, and shall kill him: and the third day he shall rise again.”
In Mark’s narrative, it seems the disciples took little note of this as James and John preferred to discuss their desires with Jesus. Instead of agonizing with the same agony in their spirits as He did in His, they asked for better positions in glory. How Jesus would achieve this glory was either a small matter or completely missed by them. The cruel suffering of the cross was unimaginable. If they could know it by experience, all they would know is what criminals went through as they as mortals suffer and die. No one knows the compounding of suffering Jesus experienced. Placed on Him were the sins of generations of sinners and the aggregate suffering they would endure in the fires of infinite eternal hell. This measurement lies outside the realm of human understanding. Though we should live a million years in heaven, we will never fathom what Jesus went through.
Jesus told them only briefly at the last Supper. As He held up the bread, He said, “Take eat, this is my body.” And then the cup, “This is the blood of the new testament, which is shed for many.” Startling words but not enough understanding for them to inquire more deeply. He finished by telling them each would take offense because of Him, and they would flee from Him. More demonstrably, Peter would deny Him three times before the night was through.
Despite their protests to the contrary, they proved their weakness when they followed Him to the Garden of Gethsemane. He asked them to sit and wait while He went off by Himself to pray. He returned to find them asleep. He went off twice more and returned to find the same result. “Could you not watch with me one hour?” How could they go with Him on the cruel journey He was about to make? While they slept, He prayed in agony so great His Father dispatched an angel to keep His body from expiring before the cross.
As we sit at this table today, we scarcely have more understanding than theirs. We partake of the symbols of body and blood but there is no reenactment of the scene. We do not crucify Christ again. He asks only our faith that He did all His Father needed from Him. Though each of us must have extreme gratitude for His incomparable sacrifice, we will always fall short of knowing its unmeasurable value. For this, Christ says to return here often enough to refresh ourselves in what little we can understand. We purposely limit our approaches so as not to become too familiar and rote in its observance. We should look forward to it with hope and expectation that the Lord who died for us will soon return for us.
On that night, Jesus told His disciples, “I will come again, and receive you unto myself: that where I am, there you may be also.” Let us partake with this sincere promise fresh in our minds as the anchor of our faith.
Pastor V. Mark Smith