The TableSample

This Is My Body

DEVOTIONAL

Jesus knew we would forget that we belong, so He gave us a table to keep reminding us.

On the night before He died, with betrayal already in the air, Jesus did something extraordinary. He did not give His friends a rulebook or a strategy. He gave them a meal. He took bread, broke it and said this is my body given for you, do this in remembrance of me. Then the cup: this cup is the new covenant in my blood. He took the deepest truths of belonging and made them something you could taste.

Why a meal we return to again and again? Because He understood how forgetful the human heart is. We hear that we are loved and accepted on Sunday and feel like an outsider by Wednesday. So He built in a rhythm of remembering. Every time you take the bread and the cup, the gospel is preached to you again, not in words you have to muster, but in something you simply receive. This is my body, for you. This is my blood, for you.

Notice the word covenant. A covenant is not a contract you can break your way out of. It is a binding promise, sealed in blood, that holds even when you waver. Your place at this table does not rest on the strength of your faith this week. It rests on the strength of His promise, sealed once and for all.

Paul says that as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes. Until He comes. The table you sit at now is not the end of the story. It is pointing forward to a greater feast, the one we will set our eyes on tomorrow.

REFLECTION

When you take communion, do you experience it as a rule to keep or a welcome to receive? What would change if every time you ate the bread you heard, "this is for you"?

TAKE A SEAT

Take a moment today, with bread and a drink if you can, to remember: His body given for you, His blood poured out for you. Let the table re-preach your belonging to you.

PRAYER

Father, thank You for a table that keeps reminding me I belong. Thank You that my seat rests on Your covenant, sealed in the body and blood of Jesus, and not on the strength of my own faith. Help me remember, and receive. Amen.