In the
first century, when the Roman government sentenced someone to be crucified, it
was a hopeless future for the condemned.
They would suffer a brutal agonizing death.
But
isn’t it just like God to take a symbol of violence and turn it to
victory—a cross that meant hopelessness transformed into a message of
hope? What made the difference is the
Person who hung on that cross—not a criminal, but
Christ. With His sacrifice, God has
lifted us from darkness into light, out of death into life and from despair to
hope!
The
Lord’s Supper is meant to remind us of this truth. It is to be done repeatedly to embed the
image of the cross indelibly into our minds and hearts.
Paul will
describe this symbol of hope in three dimensions. Our hope rests in a past conversion, a
present communion and a promised consummation.
So, at the Lord’s Supper we look back, we
look around and we look ahead. The past
dimension points to the historical fact of Christ dying for our sins and as we
have received that transaction by faith our own historical fact of a conversion
experience. The present dimension moves
us to share a communal meal with our Lord and His people, even as Jesus sat down
and ate with His disciples in that upper room.
The prospective dimension reminds us that we are to come to the Lord’s Table “till He comes.” He is coming and then the Lord’s Supper will be supplanted by the Lamb’s Supper—the marriage feast of
Christ and His bride in heaven!
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