Looking Ahead
And he said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat
this passover with you
before I suffer: for I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof, until it
be fulfilled
in the kingdom of God. (St. Luke 22:15-16)
Tonight is a night for remembrance.
In churches around the world,
Christians are gathering to celebrate the Lord’s Supper, fulfilling Jesus’
command to celebrate his holy Meal until he comes again. We are looking back on
what he accomplished for us during Holy Week, and the theme of remembrance is
so pronounced this night that we even have the word engraved on the Holy Table
before us: “This do in remembrance of me.”
You and I must look back. Jesus told
us to do so.
But don’t forget to look forward:
Jesus invited us to do so.
In our own day, sharing a meal with
someone generally implies some degree of relationship: either you’ve known the
person for a while, or you’re getting to know the person across the table from
you. Sharing a meal is so intimate, in fact, that it can be downright awkward
when we’re placed at table with someone we don’t know. Most of us naturally try
to spark conversation in order to bridge the gap and create the appropriate
sense of relationship with the person eating with us.
If that’s true in our time, how much
more meaningful was it to dine together in Jesus’ day! The Pharisees, you’ll
recall, rebuked Jesus because he went into the homes of tax collectors and
“sinners” and ate with them – a sign of fellowship and of intimacy with those
whom “proper” Jews were to avoid. In Revelation 3, the Lord promises to come in
and to dine with the faithful – a symbol of his spiritually indwelling those
who believe in him as Redeemer.
Perhaps that’s why Jesus uses the
most-intense language possible in St. Luke 22:15 to describe his desire to eat,
to share fellowship, with his apostles on the night in which he was betrayed:
“With lust I have lusted to eat this Passover with you.” The Lord delighted in
the communion he had with his disciples. As a man, Jesus particularly needed
and appreciated their fellowship that night.
Yet as intensely as Jesus desired to
enjoy a fellowship meal with his disciples that night, there was another meal
to which he was looking forward with even greater anticipation.
Toward the end of the Revelation, the
Lord pronounces a blessing on those who are invited to the Wedding Supper of
the Lamb. A wedding supper in those days marked the consummation of a marriage;
first came the payment of a dowry, then a year’s engagement (and separation). The
wedding supper was the perfect way to celebrate both newfound intimacy and the
consummation of a long process.
When Jesus spoke of his own wedding
supper, he surely had in mind the payment he had made for his bride (his own
lifeblood) and the period of betrothal (this present age, until he comes again
for us) in anticipation of that great day. This Supper will be the greatest
supper ever held!
To be invited to that wedding feast,
however, first you and I must partake of the feast set before us tonight.
And so we look back this evening: back
to Maundy Thursday, back to Good Friday, back to Jesus’ fulfillment of the
Passover redemption as the true Lamb of God. To partake of this Holy Communion
in a proper way, you and I must look back. You’ve got to look back on your own
sin and on your need for the blood of Christ to cleanse you. You’ve got to look
back on your own brokenness and on your need for the body of Christ to make you
whole by the giving of his body. You’ve got to understand that Jesus was your
substitute on Good Friday, and by the sacrifice of his body and blood, by his
enduring the Father’s wrath on the cross, you now are embraced by a holy God as
you are covered in Jesus’ righteousness.
But we also, we must, look
forward this evening, because Jesus said this meal isn’t just about the past,
and it’s not simply about the present.
It’s about the future.
Twice in St. Luke’s account, Jesus
said he would not drink of the fruit of the vine until his kingdom came in its
fullness. To be sure, the kingdom is present now: the church of Christ is
the visible Kingdom of God.
But we still live in a sin-stricken
world in which not everyone submits to the reign of Christ the King. You and I
live in a world in which our own sin breaks the intimacy of our communion with
Christ. As delightful as this feast is – Jesus is spiritually present with us,
you know – you and I enjoy it in the midst of oppression, fear, sadness and
shame.
And so we look forward to a greater
Feast to come.
If you’ve ever struggled with feelings
of distance from God, this meal tonight is for you. This meal is about the
fellowship you have with the Lord through the giving of himself for your sin,
reconciling you to the God who created you. It’s also about a coming Feast at
which you will dine with the Lord Jesus in perfect intimacy – and that intimacy
never will be broken.
If you’ve ever struggled with the fear
of death, thinking that this fallen world (such as it is) is the best you could
ever enjoy, this meal is for you. Jesus promises that he will drink of the
fruit of the vine in a New Heavens and a New Earth, where our bodies and our
relationships and the world around us cannot be tainted in any way. Heaven
won’t be a place where you sit around playing a harp for eternity. It will be a
place filled with the Lord’s presence and, thus, with never-ending joy as you
labor and worship and discover and eat and drink and celebrate life as the Lord
always intended. That he uses tangible items – bread and wine – as elements of
this promise is proof of the reality of the new creation that awaits the
faithful in Christ.
Certainly we look back tonight. Jesus commands us to, just as he
commands us to examine ourselves in the here-and-now.
Don’t forget, though, to look forward.
Because the sweetest moments of communion you have with Jesus now – as
commemorated in this Supper – are only a foretaste of the blessed Supper to
come.
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