Until he comes

by Ada Lawrence, student writer 

Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, "Take, eat; this is my body." And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, "Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins."

Matthew 26:26-28

Jesus Christ, the night he was betrayed, held a meal with his disciples that simultaneously pointed back to the past of the Passover and forward to the future of his death and resurrection. In this meal, Jesus invites all people into his eternity. 

Jesus and his disciples were celebrating the Passover, a feast held every year to remember how God saved the Israelites, leading them out of slavery in Egypt. The feast remembers how the Israelites took an unblemished lamb and painted its blood on their doorposts and lintel as a sign that they were God's people. When the Lord passed over Egypt in the last plague of death, he saw that they were his people and did not let death touch them. 

Jesus took the remembered past of the Passover lamb and pointed to the future of his death and resurrection, fulfilling the meaning of the Passover sacrifice. He said in the midst of the feast, "this is my body" and "this is my blood." Jesus said he is the Passover lamb whose blood saves not those who put it on their doorposts but those who take it into themselves. As God saved the Israelites from slavery, now he saves people from sin. Thus, death is not permitted to touch those with his blood.

The Passover meal was meant to be celebrated by Israelites only or those sheltered in their homes, but Jesus calls all peoples and nations to partake in his meal. The Lord's Supper is partaking in the greatest reparation of relationship in the world — that between humans and God. In Protestant churches, our Lord's Supper can seem pretty individualistic. We each eat the bread, drink the cup, bow our heads and pray silently. But the reparation our Lord Jesus Christ brings is not of individuals in isolated relationships with God. Jesus repairs the relationship between God and humans in community. 

Thus, Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, ate a meal with a group of people and charged them to continue eating it together as a community. He gave an example of how to eat the meal as a body of people. He, the teacher and master, took a towel, wrapped it around his waist and washed his disciples' feet. He said, "If I then, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you" (John 13:14-15). The disciples of Jesus are to partake in the body and blood of Jesus in a manner of serving each other, of loving each other. By being a community. 

So, let us eat his body and drink his blood together as a people, proclaiming his death and resurrection until he comes.