The Lord’s Supper is something that my religious tribe commemorates each and every week. But for some reason, I feel it is an act that many don’t understand. Some say that taking the Lord’s Supper each week makes it feel ordinary, and not special…which to some degree I can agree with. Others say we need to be taking the Lord’s Supper much more frequently if we want to be like the early church, which I also agree with (see Acts 2:46).
But the biggest issue, in my opinion, is that we have taken the Lord’s Supper out of the context where it was implemented. We think about the Lord’s Supper through our own experiences at church on Sundays. For some of us it’s sitting in a pew and passing a plate. For others it’s standing in a line and walking down front. But whatever your experience has been, I want us all to experience what it was like on that Passover night nearly 2000 years ago.
Matthew tells us in 26:26 that “As they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, gave it to the disciples…” Jesus and his disciples were eating the Passover dinner. These men had put in a full day, and it was time to eat for the evening. But this meal was special. This meal was significant, because it commemorated Israel being set free from bondage in Egypt. And unknown to the first participants this centuries old custom was about to be changed forever.
The first thing I want us to realize is the Last Supper was actually supper. For the Passover, Jewish law stated that the whole lamb and all food on the table was to be eaten, so the Lord’s Supper wasn’t just a little ceremony with a cracker and a teaspoon of grape juice. This was a part of a full on meal where Jesus chose to create a remembrance of the sacrifice he was about to make for all mankind.
When was the last time you paused at a meal and remembered the sacrifice that Jesus made for you? I’m not talking about thanking God for your food. I’m talking about taking a moment every time you eat to remember the sacrifice that Jesus made for you on the cross. Most of us eat several times a day, so what do you think it would do to our lives if we intentionally stopped to remember our Savior’s sacrifice each time we ate? How would it change the way we interact with, and think about others if we remembered the cross that frequently?
Commentator William Barclay had this to say about Matthew’s telling of the Last Supper.
“We might well say that what Jesus is teaching [us] is not only to assemble in church and to eat a ritual and symbolic Feast: He is telling them that every time they sit down to satisfy their hunger and to eat a meal, that meal is in memory of Him. For Jesus is not only Lord of the Communion Table: He must be Lord of the dinner table too.
Over the next several weeks we’ll take a close look at the Passover Seder, and the Lord’s Supper. There is a lot to learn from, and consider about this part of our service. Next week we will look closer at the institution of the Passover meal in Exodus 12. But this week, I want us all to take a moment and remember at our regular mealtimes what we do when we take the Lord’s Supper. It can be, and should be, life changing.
For further reading on this subject, you can visit Jews for Jesus, or Chabad.
Living in the Word 