27 essays
The Lord’s Supper is like a peg on a wall. It is useless aside from what we hang on it; yet it is crucial for holding up what needs to hang there.
Likewise, these emblems have no significance in themselves—only in what they’re for. They mean what we mean into them. Instead of eating a piece of flatbread and taking a sip of grape juice, we hang on them a picture of our Lord at the conclusion of his life.
Read Essay →In one place scripture connects the Lord’s Supper with his return. Paul says that observing these emblems proclaims the Lord’s death “till he comes” (1 Corinthians 11:26). In looking forward, communion pledges our lasting commitment during this meantime circumstance. That will include times of opposition, times of uncertainty, times of grief, times of overwhelming need. Periodically re-affirming the pledge helps maintain faithfulness to it, and prepares us for the joy that He will reveal afterwards.
Read Essay →We are participating in what was an eternity in the making. Our worship today is rooted in what happened in prospect before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4). Prior to creating us, God chose to initiate a plan to retrieve us, knowing that we would wander off from being his friends and serving him. He chose to create us in his image despite knowing that by endowing us with a will and freedom to use it, he would be enabling us to misuse it.
Read Essay →We song asks, “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?” Putting ourselves in that event helps us appreciate what went on there. Eating this bread and drinking this cup, puts us in the event and give us a taste of what it took for Christ to do God’s will.
By extension, today’s participation in that event through communion, moves us to step up for what it takes to do the Father’s will here and now in us. The past in Christ becomes key to the present in us.
Read Essay →Incredibly, while Jesus was suffering on the cross, the religious leaders unleashed the taunt, “He trusts in God; let him deliver him now if he wants him” (Matthew 27:43). God delivered him from the tomb beyond the cross rather than from the cross.
Should we face such an experience, we resolve here to persevere in the hope of a better resurrection (Hebrews 11:35) on the other side of what people might do to us (Luke 12:4). In this hope, Christ has forged the way. We partake, we remember, we go and live likewise.
Read Essay →Imagine Jesus’ exhaustion from being up all day and all night till three o’clock the next day, together with the abuse he endured during that time. No wonder he did not have enough strength left to carry the cross all the way up to Golgotha. In the soldiers’ mockery and mistreatment, he felt the sting of rejection from the very people he was trying to help. His feeling of abandonment by his closest disciples and even by the Father himself, issued in the cry from the cross, “Why have you forsaken me?” Such lesser aspects of his last temptation add to the physical suffering that rivets our attention on his final day.
Read Essay →A person might wonder what would have happened if Jesus had not finished drinking the cup the Father had given him. As it was, in his dying breath he could say he’d finished it.
Remembering him in this way acknowledges the completion of what he came to do for us. It also involves us in agreeing that carry-through is an important part of our own calling before God. This meal commits us to do just that, regardless of how long it takes or how difficult it turns out to be. Till death we follow our calling.
Read Essay →These emblems call us to patience and perseverance. Christ’s first coming was centuries in fulfillment, and his second coming has proved to be the same. Our act of remembrance anticipates hope—a hope not weakened by delay but strengthened by longing. We enter God’s sense of time in which it is not so much the expanse of years as the certainty of outcome.
The accomplishment of Messiah’s first coming undergirds our confidence about his coming again. Meantime, conditions may be hard, but, for the joy that lies beyond them, we endure as those whose confidence rests on the advent culminating in what this feast commemorates.
Read Essay →“Whom he foreknew he predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son” (Romans 8:29). “Conformed to the image of his Son” is something more specific than being like him. It means being like Christ in passing through suffering on the way to glory. God pre-determined that purification through tribulation should precede reigning on high forever. That was the case with his Son, and it is the case with us sons as well.
Read Essay →The Lord’s Supper brings the Lord’s life and death into our present circumstance. That connection between past and present is made even greater by John’s comment, “The blood of Jesus Christ continues to absolve us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).
Christ’s self-sacrifice is not something finished and done with. Since we continue to “fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), we need continual cleansing from sin. With these emblems we acknowledge his ongoing involvement in our ongoing relationship to God.
Read Essay →Part of crucifixion protocol was having the victim carry the cross to the place where he would be nailed to it. In addition to this humiliation on the way to Golgotha, Jesus felt the weight of that cross plus the weight of responsibility that bore down on his shoulders. He felt the overwhelming burden of having everyone depending on him for what only he could do for them.
On occasion we have responsibilities that only we can take care of. By fulfilling the momentous role that the Father assigned him, Christ spurs on Christians to make sure we carry through like he did.
Read Essay →Today’s joint exercise is a graphic reminder that we can no longer feel that God does not realize what it means to be in our condition. We can’t say he does not understand what it is like to be rejected by people you’ve considered your friends. We can’t say he does not know how it feels to be abandoned by people you care about. We can’t say that the Great Spirit has no idea what physical pain feels like.
Read Essay →Jesus prayed fervently (Hebrews 5:7) for the Father to deliver him from the cup of crucifixion. Instead of sending twelve legions of angels to rescue him, he sent one angel to strengthen his endurance (Luke 22:43ms). Likewise, rather than removing hard experiences that can strengthen us like nothing else could, he gives us the power to deal with them. That enablement is not necessarily a supernatural deposit, but a personal presence by which we escape through the pain (1 Corinthians 10:13).
Read Essay →Who would think that a dead man could save anybody? God does surprise us with solutions to needs in ways we would never imagine. In this case, he has used Christ’s obedience even to death as a basis for offering life to all who avail themselves of the offer.
Today we use these emblems to reaffirm our own commitment to God through the Christ who gave body and blood for goodness’ sake. It may surprise us what God can do through our willingness to live out his purposes through us.
Read Essay →God has designed human life to be outward directed. That is another way of saying that a life worth living is lived in love. It is self-giving for others. The process comes full circle when those others respond in kind and provide a sense of value to us who first directed our life outward to them.
What God has mapped out for us he himself first demonstrated toward us in all his acts of grace. We acknowledge that love when we take into ourselves these reminders of his greatest act of grace. Observing communion means buying into love for grace.
Read Essay →What helped Jesus through the agony of the cross was concentrating on the good that lay beyond it: “For the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross and disregarded the shame” (Hebrews 12:2). Successfully negotiating that extreme experience qualified him to “sit down on the right hand of the throne of God.”
This concluding event in Christ’s ministry contains many other things that translate into similar circumstances we face daily. The joy of having a new little one helps through the process of bringing that baby into the world. Anxiety about a dental procedure or surgical experience connects with the realities these emblems renew in us each time we observe them in remembrance of him, of what he did, and how he managed to do it.
Read Essay →Jesus told the twelve that no one could show greater love than by giving his life for his friends (John 15:13). The next day he demonstrated that point. We hear about people that have done such a thing; we may even know somebody like that—even someone who did it for us. Beyond such demonstrations of love, Jesus exhibited his attitude toward us by not calling the over 60,000 angels available to protect him (Matthew 26:53). That made his death for us more obviously voluntary and even more loving.
Read Essay →Jesus’ prayer in the Garden was answered, “No.” That answer reminds us that we do not serve God for what we can get out of it. Our needs are real; our requests are not selfish or bad. God simply says, “No”—not “if,” not “later,” not “if you do your part”—but, “no.”
This bread and wine identifies us with Jesus and his motives for serving God. We sacrifice final control of our lives because of who God is and for purposes that override our own preferences, needs, or physical life. That’s what we say here together.
Read Essay →We speak of giving people their due. Because of who they are, the responsibility they have, or what they have done, we respect and thank accordingly. Such responses acknowledge their identity, position, character, or benefit to us. As Paul says of government (Romans 13:5-7), we give honor, respect, and tribute as appropriate.
Today we have come to give Christ his due. Of all the things he did, voluntarily submitting to crucifixion stands out as his greatest moral achievement. Observing these emblems of body given and blood shed, we are putting ourselves in his position so we can appreciate what it meant for him to put himself in our place.
Read Essay →Jesus did not fight back when the temple guard came to arrest him in the Garden. That would have sent the wrong message. To his own detriment, he considered what he stood for more important than fleeing or protecting himself. He chose to suffer the consequences than cause his attackers or his disciples to misunderstand and act accordingly.
Sometimes we find ourselves in situations where our kids or friends could misread our blameless acts. We deem it advisable to forgo rights than risk the consequences of unnecessary misunderstanding. As with such choices, there is consolation in knowing that Christ himself dealt with such dilemmas to his own hurt.
Read Essay →What we are about to do here is serious. It is a memorial act remembering a person, to be sure, but more specifically remembering a specific thing the person did. His life culminated in crucifixion. That is why we have the kind of elements we’re using.
Even more, we are entering into that experience as something we do. Previously Jesus had said, “Take up your cross and follow me.” We are putting the weight of a cross on our shoulders and following him uphill. That is something serious for us to be doing.
Read Essay →We remember so we can be grateful. Most of life moves along in ordinary fashion, following everyday routines, consisting of normal things. But occasionally something special, something different, something particularly important happens. That is what stands out in our memories.
In human history Christ’s life stands out as singularly different, and the closing act of his ministry stands out as the most extreme demonstration of what characterized all his ministry. What he did is admirable; so we honor him for it. What he did, he did for us; so we thank him for it.
Read Essay →What would you do if you had only one good thing you could do? You would probably want it to help as many people as it could. You would want it to be as beneficial, as long-lasting, as far-reaching as possible. If you had the chance, you would choose something that people could not get some other way. You would go beyond what they wanted and accomplish something they needed more than anything else.
Read Essay →“Two points determine a straight line,” we say. That image serves us today in this communal remembrance.
The event we remember here sets the direction for conducting life from here on. What values we remember from Christ’s life and death, we carry forward in our own living. The purpose he gave his life for and we identified with in baptism, we pledge to follow through on from this day forward. Today we chart our course on the difficult, narrow way. For him the straight and narrow road led to Golgotha.
Read Essay →Christ’s death for sin is a prelude to his resurrection for justification (Romans 4:25). His crucifixion established his righteousness to the uttermost; his resurrection established his legitimacy beyond a doubt as the Messiah who abides forever (John 12:34).
Our Lord’s death and resurrection represent two halves of the same whole. His resurrection from the tomb confirms the meaning of his death on the cross for us already and promises the hope of our own resurrection to come.
Read Essay →“As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim the Lord’s death till he comes” (1 Corinthians 11:26). “His death” and “till he comes” form a striking combination made possible by his resurrection.
This symbolic meal does not so much rekindle the sad memory of a past tragedy as it lights up a glad reminder of its circumstances. Since everyone dies, his death would not be so notable were it not for the righteousness he brought to a criminal’s cross, the love for us he demonstrated in going through with it, and the triumph over the grave that followed. Those features of “his death” make it especially worth proclaiming “till he comes.”
Read Essay →Scripture calls Jesus the Word of God. In this service, we hear what he is saying to us. We refresh the priceless truth as we contemplate not just the words of institution, but the Person who speaks in them.
What he did demonstrated what he stood for, so that his word to us was not in wisdom but in power. Example is the simplest form of teaching; imitation is the simplest form of learning. This ordinance speaks to us; it draws us into the presence of him with whom we have to do in our time in this place.
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