Luke 22. 1 - 22

With desire I have desired
To eat this Passover with you
Before I suffer:
For I say unto you,
I will not anymore eat thereof,
Until it be fulfilled
In the kingdom of God.

And he took bread, and gave thanks,
And brake it, and gave it to them saying,
This is my body which is given for you:
This do in remembrance of me.

A little over 2,000 years after this last supper, we come to the Memorial Table of the Lord. In prayer we will fervently seek forgiveness for our sins. So fervently, that one may wonder how evil these sins could possibly be. On the surface we seem to be decent, law abiding citizens; no felons in our midst. Alas, when we come to this table we recognize all too clearly that in the eyes of God our sins are not trivial at all-- small acts of pride, arrogance, conceits, deceits, good intentions gone astray, or worse, lives lived without purpose.

Blindness in part is what happened to Israel, said Paul, speaking of natural Israel—because of unbelief they were broken off. Now we (spiritual Israel), having been grafted in among the natural branches, who partake of the root and fatness of the olive tree, are warned by Paul: blindness can also become the sin of spiritual Israel. This gentle reprimand by Paul is used, perhaps, to prick our conscience. In the nature of things we are clearly incapable of saving ourselves and unable, if you will, to correct our faults. (Rom 11.21 – 25). So Christians, from this time on, look to Christ, our savior. It is recorded in the book of Acts :

And upon the first day of the week, When the disciples came together To break bread, Paul preached to them. (Acts 20. 7)

The rite continues to this day. Every Sunday morning Christians try to obey Christ’s instruction. When an individual, in gratitude for Christ’s sacrifice made for the salvation of mankind, takes the emblems of bread and wine, he acknowledges his need for Christ. How do we show our thanks? Perhaps our best attitude can be that we see ourselves as we are—like unruly children before our Father, full of guilt, because we have not lived up to His expectations, but confident that He will forgive us because He loves us.

And we see here before us the evidence of that love.