Revisiting the Lord's Supper Part 4 Lifestyle

[HKHaugan]

Revisiting the Lord’s Supper  Part 4  Lifestyle 

We have been looking at context, the physical and historical context, in which Jesus lived.  Now that they know their spiritual heritage and their physical location, He calls them to be conscious of the lifestyle they are to live.  Just as every day for Jesus was lived in the shadow of a coming Cross, so the disciples will be called to live a new way, the Cross way.  The Lord’s Supper bears the impress of the Cross which is the immediate context into which He brings the disciples.  He wants them to understand the Cross He will bear and the one He will be calling them to bear.  The vertical beam is His total faith and obedience to His Father’s will which He teaches and models for them while He takes them on His way.  The horizontal beam of the Cross is resplendent throughout the Gospels as Jesus walks the disciples through the relational way He meets, treats and completes broken people regardless of who or where they are or what they are doing. 

However, there was far more taking place.  Jesus’ intention was to use the Passover context as the means to introduce the disciples to a new way of understanding this feast, a spiritual way, a looking forward way, in worship and lifestyle.  Now the Passover meal will become a spiritual feast to celebrate Him, to worship Him, as the Lamb of God who promises to deliver every human heart from slavery to sin into an eternal relationship with the Lord God in His Kingdom.  He frees us from our sinful past to look forward to serving Him from one moment to the next. 

Further, every time His Supper is celebrated He guarantees His presence not only then but wherever they are.  Instead of an angel of death passing over them He is the Savior, the Lord of life, walking with us in the new Passover.  So, we pass over personal sin and fear through His forgiveness, pass confidently over the evil that surrounds us in the world, to live every next moment by faith just as He did.  From the blockage of fear to the freedom of faith, our new Passover lifestyle embracing the faith attitude Jesus lived each day.  Worship is not limited to an hour or day or place but wherever a disciple happens to be.  Faith is the new Passover which the Lord’s Supper exemplifies. 

The best description of what happens at the Last Supper of the Lord is found in John 13-17.  Those five chapters go into great detail about the attitude, the atmosphere and the substance of that event.  He identifies Himself with bread that is broken and shared as their future worship and lifestyle.  He gives them one cup of wine to share reminding them of the one cup of wrath against sin His blood alone could atone for (Is.51:22).  Replacing repetitious animal sacrifices, His blood shed once on the Cross covers their new walk to be daily living spiritual sacrifices conscious of His presence.  Both the bread and the wine are the reminders of His presence feeding them to grow in Him, His presence strengthening their hearts and minds and spirits, His presence restoring the image of God in them.  If you want to grow spiritually, you believe to receive.  Trust is a must.  The Lord’s Supper builds both.  The Lord’s Supper is the gathering point and central assurance that whenever two or three are gathered in His name He is with them, goes with them and never leaves them.  The Holy Spirit works the reality of Jesus’ presence into their ongoing lives in this world and prepares them for the Kingdom to come.  

The Lord Jesus replaces ethnicity, religious tradition and legal obedience by sending the Holy Spirit to be their Counselor through the guidance of Scripture (Jn.17:17), restoring and strengthening their faith in every present moment to ready them for every next moment.  This is our daily lifestyle.  He is our lifestyle. 

Therefore, Jesus calls together His disciples to celebrate the Passover in the privacy of an upper room to show them “the full extent of His love (Jn.13:1)” for them and all people.  This is the moment for a dynamically new and shocking interchange.  He washes the disciples’ feet.  It is counter to everything human beings knew as submission to superiors.  Superiors were in culturally set positions of authority over them physically, ethnically, economically, socially and emotionally.  But something new was happening.  This vaunted spiritual leader, healer, miracle worker, calmer of storms, changer of water to wine and multiplier of food is washing their feet.  He kneels before them to do the lowest of all chores, washing another’s feet.  It is the heart attitude of Jesus – humility – that brings a whole new dimension, a spiritual dimension to everyday life.  Humility before His Father is what Jesus is demonstrating.  If He is doing His Father’s will by washing the feet of others He is showing how much the Father values all people.  It is the elevation of the individual person’s individuality and uniqueness.  Each person really is an image of God.  It shapes how we see others regardless of appearance, ethnicity or status.  Everyone is an image of God to be treated as such to “the full extent of His love.”  It is the restoration of the most important God gifted relational experience---intimacy---both spiritual and human.  Intimacy with God and His intimacy offered to His images with one another. 

So, what was once an ethnic and religious observance now becomes an atmosphere immersed in the spiritual intimacy of the presence of Jesus to engage the world around us with that presence.  It is a personal spiritual meal feeding the minds, hearts and spirits of disciples whenever they gather to worship.  It is the spiritual nourishment for their belief, their trust and their faith to look forward to the opportunities for mission and ministry to which the Holy Spirit will lead them.  As their mind remembers Jesus and His sacrifice for them, their heart’s trust in Him deepens and their faith motivates them to share Him some way every next moment. 

The Lord’s Supper is not only a worship experience, it is a lifestyle. 

It’s where our pride takes a back seat. The conscious presence of the Lord takes over and the Holy Spirit guides our mind and heart to react in faith wherever we are.  It starts when we take our conscious self, thank the Lord for it, let its pride be broken and then open our forgiven and gifted self to share Jesus with others.  It may be a comforting word, an emotional support, a material offering of assistance, a spiritual gift that ministers to someone in need or just our presence.  It’s leaving our door open to the Spirit prompting our every next move in our every next moment.  It is discerning the Spirit’s lead to share the way Jesus shared and to share Him.  Just as Jesus took the bread and said, “This is my body” so we too offer ourselves, our testimony, gifts, talents and whatever while we are on the way.  

We take, thank, break and share---take, thank, break and share---take, thank, break and share.  That’s why He is the way, the truth and the lifestyle.