The Last Supper
Isaiah 35:10 And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, And come to Zion with singing, With everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, And sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
Joy and gladness. This is the point of all that God has done for us, is doing, and will do. This is "God with man." Not an army,not a work force, but a royal family filled with joy and gladness, because Jesus,the Father, and the Holy Spirit are FILLED with joy and gladness. It is who God is. He isn't nervous about what is on the horizon, or angry that we stumbled. What is happening on earth certainly hasn't ruined His day. God is zealous and intense, serious about judging rebellion, but it is because of His desire for us to live like Him, with joy and gladness...He came that we would have life abundantly!
The last supper is an excellent example of what is really on God's mind.
It is possible to lose so much in the "ritual" of communion, sometimes it is good to plainly think about it. When I think about communion, I usually remember the sacrifice Jesus made for me: His blood and His body. This is good, but there is so much more that we should remember.
Jesus could have chosen anything to establish a memorial of how He should be remembered, but He chose a dinner with His close friends in the upper room.
All of the Gospels have an account of the last supper. Matthew , Mark, and Luke have a short story about procuring the room, and what Jesus said about His blood being the wine and His body the bread, but John's account is much different.
John, who boldly regards himself as the "disciple Jesus loved" (how Jesus loves it when we claim this for ourselves!) gives us a much more full picture of the last supper.
John 14 to John 17 recount Jesus' words this same night, just before He is about to go to the cross...just before He is about to sweat blood in the garden of Gethsemane. Listen to His words in John 14:3:
John 14:1 “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.
John 14:3 tells us that Jesus wants us with Him where He is. God with man. It is the entire story of the Bible in one verse. It is why God made Adam and Eve, and it is what David believed that left God calling him a man after His own heart. It is what John the Baptist proclaimed when He announced the arrival of the Bridegroom, and it is the epic finale of this age (and the beginning of our life story) when heaven comes down to earth in Revelation 21:3.
Revelation 21:3 And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. 4 And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”
God loves to be with His people. Jesus displayed this in how He loved to be with His disciples. He loves to be with me, and He loves to be with you. He chose a meal with friends to be remembered by. A joyful and glad celebration, even though He was about to have the most intense and painful time of His earthly life. Everything God has done for us, everything Jesus was willing to lay down, was so we could be with Him in joy and gladness.
This is communion: to be with God, the One who loves to be with us, even now. We can be with Him by talking to Him...reaching for Him with our words. Asking Him to speak with us, to reveal His heart to us...to tell us more about what He is thinking and doing. We can ask Him how He feels about us. We can tell Him how we want to be with Him. We can pour out our hearts to Him and then listen for His kind responses. We can love Him as we would our best friend who is separated from us for a little while. If we will simply ask Him for more, He will give us more of Himself. Joy and gladness.
Joy and gladness. This is the point of all that God has done for us, is doing, and will do. This is "God with man." Not an army,not a work force, but a royal family filled with joy and gladness, because Jesus,the Father, and the Holy Spirit are FILLED with joy and gladness. It is who God is. He isn't nervous about what is on the horizon, or angry that we stumbled. What is happening on earth certainly hasn't ruined His day. God is zealous and intense, serious about judging rebellion, but it is because of His desire for us to live like Him, with joy and gladness...He came that we would have life abundantly!
The last supper is an excellent example of what is really on God's mind.
It is possible to lose so much in the "ritual" of communion, sometimes it is good to plainly think about it. When I think about communion, I usually remember the sacrifice Jesus made for me: His blood and His body. This is good, but there is so much more that we should remember.
Jesus could have chosen anything to establish a memorial of how He should be remembered, but He chose a dinner with His close friends in the upper room.
All of the Gospels have an account of the last supper. Matthew , Mark, and Luke have a short story about procuring the room, and what Jesus said about His blood being the wine and His body the bread, but John's account is much different.
John, who boldly regards himself as the "disciple Jesus loved" (how Jesus loves it when we claim this for ourselves!) gives us a much more full picture of the last supper.
John 14 to John 17 recount Jesus' words this same night, just before He is about to go to the cross...just before He is about to sweat blood in the garden of Gethsemane. Listen to His words in John 14:3:
John 14:1 “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.
John 14:3 tells us that Jesus wants us with Him where He is. God with man. It is the entire story of the Bible in one verse. It is why God made Adam and Eve, and it is what David believed that left God calling him a man after His own heart. It is what John the Baptist proclaimed when He announced the arrival of the Bridegroom, and it is the epic finale of this age (and the beginning of our life story) when heaven comes down to earth in Revelation 21:3.
Revelation 21:3 And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. 4 And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”
God loves to be with His people. Jesus displayed this in how He loved to be with His disciples. He loves to be with me, and He loves to be with you. He chose a meal with friends to be remembered by. A joyful and glad celebration, even though He was about to have the most intense and painful time of His earthly life. Everything God has done for us, everything Jesus was willing to lay down, was so we could be with Him in joy and gladness.
This is communion: to be with God, the One who loves to be with us, even now. We can be with Him by talking to Him...reaching for Him with our words. Asking Him to speak with us, to reveal His heart to us...to tell us more about what He is thinking and doing. We can ask Him how He feels about us. We can tell Him how we want to be with Him. We can pour out our hearts to Him and then listen for His kind responses. We can love Him as we would our best friend who is separated from us for a little while. If we will simply ask Him for more, He will give us more of Himself. Joy and gladness.
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