Our Hearts Burn Within UsНамуна

Final Meal & Close Friends

I don’t like conflict at meals. I guess you don’t, either! I want my meals to be quiet oases of harmonious discussion where we put aside difficult times and topics so we can enjoy the unity of the table. Jesus got nothing like that at his final meal with his closest friends before his judicial torture and murder. How he must have wanted their unity, love, and support to carry into his trial! But all he got was secret betrayal, sibling bickering, and false bravado.

The truth is that we have all experienced painful meals in terms of trivial backbiting, raw emotions, and angry arguments—not to mention bad food on occasion! That’s what Jesus got that night. Judas huddled with his fatal secret and left early. The disciples argued—apparently in earnest--over who was greatest. Jesus had to remind them to drop the Gentile power that abuses for the gentle power that serves—and told them they would each and all have opportunity to demonstrate that lesson, one great day ahead. Then there was Peter, the leader, swearing he could do and give anything at all for Jesus, no matter how hard. Within hours, he would learn how fast his supposedly strong heart could turn tail and run scared.

In the midst of all this turmoil, Jesus gave them an ever-fresh meal that we still receive: his body and blood that gave his all for all of us who don’t deserve it. Yet out of love, he still invites us. We, you see, who follow Jesus and receive his meal, can find nurture and peace that supersede anything else that can make a meal go wrong. Don’t think that these bad things aren’t present at Jesus’ holy supper, even today. We bring all our human foibles and failings even to this table. But the meal is so wonderful that its love overcomes all as it continues forever. This meal offers remembrance of Jesus suffering as the lamb that took our place so death would pass us over. It’s also a meal of promise of his return; of a coming kingdom where all is made right, and the feast is always served; and of forgiveness and restoration even after our failings.

That’s the kind of meal I want to enjoy. I thank God that Jesus made it possible to receive it now, overcoming every problem issue, as a foretaste of all the sweet dining to come among his loving friends sitting in unity with him and each other at his table—forever!

Prayer

Thank you, Lord, that none of our stupid sins can spoil your meal. Please cleanse us of them. Give us love, forgiveness, encouragement, and joy with each other and you. Please give us humility to receive your word and your meal as unworthy servants who yet, by your grace, are set to receive not just that, but your Kingdom with you. What a miracle is such transformation of our sinful selves somehow coming together in peace—your peace forever, at the foot of your cross. We receive now your gift of love that never fails and always abides. Amen.