LUKE 22:7-20
“God’s Flesh And God’s Blood”
BY: Rev. Kenneth Sauer, Pastor of Parkview United Methodist Church, Newport News,
VA
One Sunday morning when I was three or four years old I sat next to my dad in church,
and noticed that there was something going on up front, people were leaving their seats,
forming into lines, and going up to the altar area.....soon it was my dad’s turn.....he wispered to
me, “I’ll be right back.”
“Where is he going?,” I thought, and “What is he doing?”
When he came back to his seat I asked him what went on up there...
His reply was, “Oh, they just fed us some crackers and grape juice.”
“Wow,” I thought... “I like crackers and grape juice.”
“Did the crackers have peanut butter on them?”, I asked.
I can’t remember his reply, but my imagination was already going wild....and I couldn’t
wait till I was old enough to go up to the front of the church and eat crackers and drink grape
juice just like my dad.
Later in life, I stood in the communion line right behind my father and mother....and I
was overcome with emotion....here I was with the two people whom I loved more than anyone
else in the whole world preparing to partake of the Lord’s Body and Blood....through which we
are saved and forgiven.....I felt like I was in heaven....I had a sort of vision of what heaven will
be like.....standing in line, waiting to partake of the Lord’s heavenly banquet with the two most
precious people in my life....it was one of those little grace experiences that God gives us in life,
and I will never forget it.
In our Scripture lesson, Christ and his disciples were partaking of the Passover Feast like
any good Jews.
They were speaking and acting in the language of Jewish ritual, a language they all had
learned from the time they were knee high.
The Passover refers back to the time when God delivered Israel from Egyptian bondage.
God had pronounced the final judgement upon the Egyptian people for their
injustices....but those who believed God were instructed to slay a pure lamb and sprinkle its
blood on the door posts of their homes.
The blood of the innocent lamb would then be the sign that the coming judgement had
already been carried out upon the sacrificial lamb.
When seeing the blood, the Lord passed over the homes of those who believed....not
destroying them.
As we read in Exodus Chapter 12, “The Lord said to Moses and Aaron,”..... “Tell the
whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his
household”..... “The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect,”.... “Slaughter
them at twilight,”.... “Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of
of the doorframes,”.... “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every
firstborn--both men and animals--and I will bring judgement on all the gods of Egypt. I am the
Lord. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I
will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt. This is a day you
are to commemorate for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the
Lord--a lasting ordinance.”
And our Scripture tells us how Jesus fulfilled the great Passover Feast.
One thing to notice about the Passover celebration is that it is all historical....it is
celebrating an act of the past, whereas the Lord’s Supper that we celebrate is much more than
mere history.
It is a celebration of the living Christ in the hearts and lives of believers until Christ
returns. It’s a rememberance of the potential power of the living Christ which dwells within each
of us who believe right here and right now---an explosive power that is made possible only
through the cross!
As the Bible proclaims in 1st Corinthians chapter 11, “Whenever you eat this bread and
drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”
The Lord’s Supper gives us a picture of a great supper, and a glorious promise.
As Jesus declared, “For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the
kingdom of God.’
After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, ‘Take this and divide it among you. For I
tell you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”
Jesus has promised to celebrate this Supper with those of us who have given our lives to
Him in the future.....we shall sit down with Christ at the great marriage Feast of the Lamb.
It is a promise of sitting with Christ in His glorious kingdom, of being a part of the new
heavens and the new earth, of being perfected and living forever!
As the Bible declares in Colossians: “When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you
also will appear with Him in glory.”
and in 2nd Peter, “Therefore my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and
election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, and you will recieve a rich
welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
So what is the great meaning of Communion?
There is the meaning of the bread. Jesus took and broke the bread, and this symbolized
His broken body....His broken body that was sacrificed, as a victim for our sins.
Jesus said that His body was broken and given for us.
He suffered and died for us, on our behalf, in our place. He bore the judgement of God
against sin by dying for us!
As the Bible says in Isaiah 53, “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was
crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His
wounds we are healed.”
There is also the meaning of the cup.
Jesus identified the cup as His blood of the New Covenant which means that we are able
to have a relationship with God through the blood of Christ.
As the Bible says, “Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.”
In the Old Testament, a person who wanted a right relationship with with God had to
approach God through the sacrifice of the blood of animals.
Now under the New Testament, God accepts those who believe because of the sacrifice
of Christ.
We become acceptable to God only through believing that Christ’s blood was shed for
us!
As Jesus declares in John chapter 6: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has
eternal life, and I will raise him or her up on the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood
is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him or her.”
And we see in Acts chapter 2, that communion, or The Lord’s Supper, or the Eucharist
was something that was observed daily by the earliest Christians.....as it says, “And they
continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in the breaking of bread, and
in prayers.”
Already, the Eucharist, was one of the main expressions of what it is to be a Christian,
and it is closely associated with the unity of the community.
Here we see a key word and a key theme for the whole history of the Christian Church.
The word and theme are koinonia, which means communion.
As we see in Acts 2:46, “Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts.
They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts.”
And in chapter 4:32 it says “All the believers were one in heart and mind...”.....and in
chapter 5 it says that “all the believers used to meet together in Solomon’s Colonade”....and that
“more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number.”
It is important for us to remember on this World Communion Sunday that as we come to
the altar and recieve this sacrament we become one in heart and mind with all other believers
across the world and across time.
The phrase, “breaking of bread” means to observe and remember the Lord’s death, and
Communion is the one ordinance Christ has given us to symbolize His death, and it is His death
that saves us.
Because of Christ’s death, we who believe are now reconciled to God, in fellowship with
God, made new creatures in God, filled with the Holy Spirit of God, and are able to manifest the
fruits of the Spirit.
All that we have and all that we are is due to the death of Christ, and through
Communion we remember and thank God for His great love demonstrated in the death of his
Son.....and we are called to do this often.
As the Bible says in 1st Corinthians, “The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took
bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body, which is given for
you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This
cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in rememberance of me.’
For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He
comes.”
And God has told us to do to this often.
What an indictment against so many of us who observe The Lord’s Supper so seldom!
We can, of course, remember and concentrate upon the death of Christ without the
symbol of the Supper, but Christ Himself gave us this sacrament and commanded that we use it
as the primary symbol to show his death until He comes.
Through communion all differences between race, nationality, pride, and denominational
affiliation break down....and all Christians show their solidarity.....for we are all waiting for
the day when Christ will return for His Church....for his bride the Church....and we are that
bride...we who believe....as the Bible declares in Revelation chapter 19, “Blessed are those
who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!”
We will walk with Christ dressed in white....having been washed clean by His blood....As
Revelation declares, “Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing
waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: ‘Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns.
Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his
bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.”
What grace, what beauty, what an honor above all honors when Christ and His Church
are wed and finally become one......
I want to be there!!!
I wouldn’t miss it for the world.....how about you?
And Jesus said, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”
