Revisiting the Lord's Supper Part 1

[HKHaugan]

Revisiting the Lord’s Supper  Part 1

There is more to the Lord’s Supper than meets the eye.  When you see Jesus’ words in the Gospels and then read Paul’s teaching in Corinthians you can’t help but be struck by its considerable depth.  The ‘more’ idea, I believe, is quite intentional.  There’s always more.  More to understand, more to feel and more to do.  (Scriptural references to engage your thinking: Mt.26:17-35, Mk.14:12-31, Lk.22:7-38, Jn.13-17, 1Cor.11:17-34) Hint: think His Supper as a lifestyle teaching.

There are really three purposes embedded in the Lord’s Supper, spiritual, personal and relational. 

There are three themes that bring His Supper into focus, location (an upper room), context (Passover meal) and demonstration (Jesus’ foot washing and teaching).

There are three promises the Lord is instilling in our hearts, spiritual food for the present, abundant life now and being in His presence in the Kingdom of Heaven.

First, let’s look at His purposes. 

Spiritual

The whole of Jesus’ very being is first spiritual.  He comes from His Father and His Kingdom.  He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and led by the Holy Spirit.  The entire existence in its visible and invisible dimensions is created spiritually.  God is Spirit.  We are created in the image of God thus we are spiritual beings having a human experience.  Jesus existed before Creation and took a body to reveal the whole of God to us.  His purpose therefore, is to reverse the world’s understanding of reality and get us to think spiritually, act spiritually and relate spiritually.

Personal

Jesus in His human body was a unique individual person.  He wants us to know how unique we are to Him and to one another.  No one before or since has ever been the same as Him or us.  There has always been a unique eternal Father, a unique eternal Son and a unique eternal Spirit.  What’s more they are uniquely One.  Each of us is made in that image of being a person with a will, with a way to follow that will and a spirit or soul to act upon that will.  The balance that they have as One God is the balance of mind, heart and spirit Jesus shows us and the reason He came to restore us to that end.  By receiving Jesus within, where we do all our processing, He replaces our sin and its self-centeredness with His Spirit. His purpose? To rebalance us. 

Relational

God is three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, relationally One and relationally motivated.  Creation is an example of what their relationship has produced.  Jesus spent three years with twelve men to undo their religious and social ideas and let Him be their guide and Lord.  When Jesus prayed at the end of His last meal with the disciples He prayed for Himself, then His disciples and then all who would come to believe in Him.  His central theme was relational unity with His Father, His disciples and those in the future who would trust Him.  Jesus was all about a relationship with His Father, us with Him and with the Holy Spirit.  His purpose was threefold, to reclaim each of us spiritually, personally and relationally.