Last Supper: Revisited? Remembered? Continued?

There are many conversations and understandings that relate to the Lord's Supper.  Even at the time in which Jesus was sharing the meal with the disciples, they did not fully understand what Jesus was doing and what it all meant.  Truly the meal that they were gathered was a Jewish Seder, a meal that helps the Jewish people remember and be within the history that God saved them from their time in Egypt from slavery and led them to the promised land.  The people wanted to remember the vast power and strength that God displayed to the Jewish people and the Egyptian people.

It was this meal that Jesus was celebrating with his disciples.  Yet as Jesus was leading them in this meal of remembrance, when it came to certain parts, he changed the meanings.   When Jesus spoke of the unleavened bread, the bread that was prepared hurriedly to sustain the Jewish people on their journey from Egypt without yeast that would normally cause bread to rise.  Jesus said: "This is my body. Given for you. Do this in remembrance of me."  Jesus was giving new meaning to this old account of God's relationship with God's People and letting them know that it is still continuing.  God was doing something new and the disciples were the first to hear about it.  Within the meal, there are four cups of wine that are consumed for different reasons.  It was the final cup, Jesus took and shared a new meaning within the meal.  Jesus: "took the cup, gave thanks and gave it to all to drink saying: "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, shed for you and for all people for the forgiveness of sins.  Do this in remembrance of me.""

Jesus was taking this anceint meal to the Jewish people, the People of God and giving it new meaning.  The meal was now a meal in which God had done something for the people and God is now doing something among the people once again.

*For the people who share in this meal are reminded what God has done, is doing and will do for them.

What does the Bread in the meal mean for me?  Through the Body of Jesus Christ and the bread that we eat every single day, God has given to us to be sustained, fulfilled and continue to work in God's rich grace.  The Lord's meal is extended not only to this table but even to the table in which we eat every meal.  Yet here we gather as a church and as God's people to be given the gift, given the reminder and to live it out.  For when God's Word is spoken, then it is given fully and completely.  So the meal that Jesus gives to his disciples still comes to us.

What does the Wine in the meal mean for me?  Through the Blood of Jesus Christ and the wine, or every drink that we have every single day, This drink refreshes us, it cleanses our need for what we were longing for. It washes our spirits anew.  It is through the blood that was shed for you, that you are made new.

Through the bread and the wine, through the Body and the Blood of Jesus Christ, you are fully sustained, in body and spirit.  As an individual and as a community.  Yet all of this rests with the work that Jesus Christ has done for you so that you may receive it, celebrate it and live it out.  The Last Supper continues until we are in the presence of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.  

*Indicates the beginning of a shortened version.