The Lord's Supper, A Lifestyle fior the Heart

[HKHaugan]

The Lord’s Supper, His Personal Lifestyle for Each Believer

In the Last Supper (Luke 22:14-20) Jesus said and did five things:

First, He took the cup of wine, gave it to the disciples and told them to divide it among them. The wine was the symbol of His blood shed to remind them, and every believer to come, of His sacrificial death. Life is in the blood (Lev.17:11). The breaking of the bread was to be personally understood for each as the visible reminder of the specifics of His sacrifice they would embrace as the daily practice of being sacrificial in their lives.

Second, to demonstrate He did four things with the bread that were simple illustrations of future personal sacrifice based on His coming Cross. He took bread, gave thanks, broke it and distributed it to them. Note His blood was shed first and then the four actions that followed. They show death to self first and then being open to the leading of the Spirit for every next moment. He was giving them a daily pattern to practice the spiritual life they would receive at Pentecost.

Again, He took the bread and said “This is my body given for you.” That was the first bread action. He was telling them this was a total sacrifice, both physical and spiritual. He was making His physical body a sacrifice, “My bread is to do the will of the Father who sent me (Jn.4:34). Think back, if you will, to the Abraham and Isaac event (Gen.22) where a father is preparing to present his son as a sacrifice. That event centuries before was setting the stage for the most important sacrifice in history.

The second action, He gave thanks. He was grateful to His Father for everything He had been given. Only He knew in full what that meant. But it can be understood when we recall Jesus' words, “When you have seen me you have seen the Father (Jn.14:9)” and “I and the Father are One (Jn.10:30).” His relationship was one of complete love and obedience far beyond what we can now understand. He was on the verge of giving His life in mind, heart and spirit. And, here's the point, it was being done in perfect faith for which He was also giving that thanks.

The third action, He broke the bread. He was showing that His body was to be broken. Between His shed blood and broken body there is the evidence of complete death. Note His words before the Cross to His Father, “Let this cup (cup of suffering) pass from me, but not my will, your will be done (Mt.26:39).” Then on the Cross His closing words, “Into your hands I commit my spirit (Lk.23:46).” Commitment even if it means death.

The fourth action, He gave the bread to them. He distributed to them His broken body; all that He was in this world, His life, His Word, His heritage, ministry and mission. He was preparing them for what would come after His Resurrection and Pentecost.

The question has to be at this point, why so specific an illustration? Remember Jesus saying, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me (Mt.16:24)?” How do we take up our cross and follow Him literally? Paul tells us “Offer your bodies as living sacrifices...(Rom.12:1)” followed by a whole section of how's (Rom.12:3-21). Stop being conformed to the world, be transformed by mind renewal which is done through the Word. Test and approve God's will. Exercise spiritual gifts. Then Paul repeats some of the elements of the Sermon the Mount to give a picture of discipleship lived under the Cross of Christ as the example.

Now let's look at the Cross and consider its initial spiritual inspiration. The vertical beam leads our eyes heavenward to the Father like Jesus did.

We take our mind, heart, spirit and body to the Father through Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit.

We thank Him for His receiving us as His children, giving us meaning, significance and purpose, empowering us with spiritual gifts, having His life of love, grace, truth and faith, a spiritual family and the ability to share it all.

We break our ties with the world (mentioned above) and strengthen our relationship with the Lord through prayer and Scripture, coming before God with “a broken and repentant heart (Ps.51:17),” and stepping out in faith to share Jesus wherever we are.

But what about the horizontal beam of the Cross? It shifts our gaze laterally to the world of people around us, our relationships and potential relationships. This is where we are called to distribute, give, share what we have been blessed with. Conscious of our having taken, thanked and broken away from our sin and pride, we see everyone we come in contact with as images of God. We have something to share with them, Jesus, the Spirit, our faith and our gifts. We are called to them spiritually. We are aware that we are spiritual beings who have a spiritual calling and responsibility to them. That is to both believer and unbeliever. We minister with our spiritual gifts in the family of God and then actively seek to be a witness for Jesus in the communities in which we live. This is what it means to take up our cross, the cross of faith, and step out as testimonies to His risen presence in our lives.

The fact that we have the Lord's Supper as a central worship experience in the larger Body of Christ is to be obedient to Jesus' command when He said, “Do this in remembrance of me as often as you drink it (Lk.22:19, 1Cor.11:25).” We receive Him and all that He is. The Lords' Supper reminds us we can do nothing without Him. Taking, thanking, breaking and giving become our daily lifestyle not only because Jesus said to do it but that He also promises His presence in it. This was His lifestyle. He is building us to be like Him and we need to keep in mind His words “I am with you always even to the end of the age (Mt.28:20).”

So we are not placing ourselves in the center but rather, at the foot of His Cross, conscious of His Resurrection and yielded to His Spirit. He is living in us when He tells us that, as His disciples, we are the salt of the earth and the light of the world (Mt.5:13,14).