Proclaiming A Death

WooHoo! Last Sunday I was asked to talk for 2 minutes about the Lord's Supper. (I had a full hour to prepare, so I felt really, really lucky. :-) As I was thinking about what to say, I was just buried by all the little 2 minute notes I could put out there. Before I was done, I guessed there must be a dozen.

Needless to say, I will have to see whether I was right!

Since it was the one and only chance I will probably get, I decided to go for the safest bet. Here's what I said on Sunday.

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There are so many things to talk about with the Lord's Supper. There's the two loaves waved by the priest in the old testament, the crushing of the wheat to make the bread, the wine/blood flowing through all our veins. I really struggled to decide what to talk about, but I'm going to talk about the last verse of the passage the pastor always reads before we share the supper.

1 Cor 11:26
For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till he come.

Taking the Lord's Supper is the most intimate act of worship you will ever do. In taking it, you share the body of the Lord, and you mingle His blood with yours as a body of believers. In that moment, you become one with each other and with Him.

And as you take the bread and the wine, you are declaring something to all the world. Together, you are telling the world that Jesus died - and that is a huge declaration. From the moment The Word said, "Let there be light" until the moment He rolls this old creation up and begins again, there will never be a greater event than the death of the Lamb of God. There is not a greater praise than to declare it.

This is His body broken for us. This is His blood poured out for us.

For love of His Father, and for love of us, Jesus went like a lamb to the slaughter. The King of a Universe He had created laid down His body to be broken. He took on flesh so that He could suffer His blood to be poured out, and by His obedient death He cleansed all things, including us.

By taking this bread and drinking this wine, you declare to the world the supremacy of that sacrifice. Remember that as you remember Him.