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Gospel of Mark #53 s~ (14:22-26)

Started by Al Moak, September 17, 2004, 09:36:05 AM

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Al Moak

Mark 14:22-26
A Ritual For Spiritual Health


I cannot help feeling that we Christians need repetitive teaching concerning the meaning and application of the Lord's Supper to our lives. The reason is that we so easily forget its meaning for us, even though it's a meaning we need to apply to our lives every hour of every day. Of course our Lord knows our tendency to let the cares of this world so dominate us that we constantly need reminding, and I'm convinced that He gave us the ordinance of the Supper just because He knows us so well. He knows that our minds are clouded by sin and dulled by the things of this world. He knows that, like children, we need pictures, vivid illustrations to repeatedly impress us with spiritual things. In the ordinance of the Lord's Supper, in fact, we see that He knows that even His death on the Cross wouldn't have much impact on our hearts unless it was repetitively presented to us by means of that kind of illustration.

So, knowing us as He does, and loving us as He does, He provided this special ritual so that we could at least periodically refocus on what He means to us, on what His Atonement means to us, and on what our response to Him should constantly be.

Surely each time we partake we ought to thank Him for His gracious provision and for His wonderfully understanding way of loving us. Today, I want us to look just briefly at the meaning of the Supper and also at what our response to it should be.

As we look at it here in Mark's Gospel, we read that our Lord instructed His disciples (and us) to "Take, eat; this is My Body." Then in the 6th chapter of John's Gospel, He tells us we must "eat His flesh and drink His blood." On the other hand, He also says, "It is the Spirit Who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit and they are life." (Jn. 6:63) It should be plain to us, then, that it's the meaning of this eating and drinking that matters. It's what the Supper illustrates, not any magical power of the bread or wine (juice).


And the broken bread certainly should have meaning. Jesus did two things to bring out that meaning. He broke the bread, and He distributed it. The significance of the ritual is in the breaking and in the distributing of that which symbolizes His Body, a Body that was pierced and broken for us because of our sins. He Who never sinned was made guilty, and He therefore suffered in our place.

But consider for a moment: it's not just His physical Body, His skin, bones, etc., but it's His entire human nature that's symbolized. In that humanity, Jesus our Lord lived a sinless life, He walked daily, hourly with His Father, and, as He Himself says, "I do always those things that please the Father." He was "tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin."

But now, in this ritual, we are reminded of that perfect humanity, that suffering for us, suffering because of our sin! And then that sinless humanity is distributed to us - in symbolic, illustrative form - so that each of us may partake. What does it mean to us?

I believe it means that we may, by His Spirit, by His dwelling in us, overcome our sinful tendencies and that we may live and walk with our Father as our Savior did! In other words it means that, by partaking of His sinless nature, by having His nature in ourselves, we can therefore have Him live through us. The meaning of His symbolical Body, the meaning of having it distributed to us and of our receiving it is that we can have His nature within us - that we can LIVE by His Spirit.

Please don't think that this means that by partaking of the bread we can just magically be overcomers. But the illustration can help us. If we come by faith to this element of the Supper, if as we come we consider specific weaknesses and temptations that we face, if we say to Him, "O Lord, You offer your broken humanity to me that I may live!" If we say to Him, "O Lord, You live in me by Your Holy Spirit, and Your ability can be communicated to me, so I pray that You will come now to help me actually overcome my weakness in . . .(name the specific sinful tendency). Thank You for this Supper, Lord!" - then the occasion of this Supper may become the very occasion upon which He will enable us to overcome!


The second thing we notice here is that our Lord also said, "This is My Blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many." As in the case of the bread that does not actually become flesh, the fruit of the vine does not actually become blood, but it illustrates something that we can indeed have by faith.

Blood just equals life. The fruit of the vine, then, just illustrates our Lord's giving of His life. It should tell us that our lives were spared because His life was given. It should tell us that His life was given that we might be forgiven.

As we drink this cup, therefore, we drink a symbol of forgiveness. Obviously, then, no one should partake of it who does not personally know and desire the forgiveness that comes through our Lord's death.

But what, then, should we think about this cup? What should it mean to each of us as we drink it? The answer is in the form of another question: can we not remember, as we accept the cup, that since His life was given for our forgiveness, that we are thereby accepting His forgiveness? And can we not remember that it's forgiveness at the expense of the righteous judgement He experienced on our behalf? We should be remembering that our Lord is saying something to us in this cup, and that we should be saying something to Him as well.

I believe that He's reminding us that He offers free forgiveness at His own expense! He's telling us that we may confess each of our sins specifically, and that, as we do so, "He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." His love is held out to us (by faith) in this cup, and we should receive that love as we drink. Our thinking here needs to be very specific. In this ritual, He is offering specific forgiveness for specific sin, and we should therefore confess specific sin as we partake. Then, as we drink, our faith should reach up to Him to accept the forgiveness that was purchased at the price of His life!

So at the same time as we receive this emblem of His Death, we should also resolve to be more watchful, to be more dependent upon Him in prayer, to be so mindful of the awful Price He paid to bring forgiveness to us that we cease from specific sin. We should drink the cup, then say to Him, "Lord I offer myself to You again, unworthy as I am. I rededicate myself to You. I need Your forgivenss, but O Lord, help me to overcome!"

In summary, then, this Supper is more than ritual: it is communication, communication with your Lord Who loved you and gave Himself for you. It calls for more than mere observance: it calls for response by way of faith, and it calls for reception on your part of His real and living grace. The next time you partake, then, look up to your Lord, speak to Him and let Him speak to you, and let it make a difference in your life!


Al Moak

Dear Chris & Margit: I hope you can guess how I esteem you.  I am concerned lest this presentation of the Supper offend you because I've once again spoken of the Body being broken.  I am fully aware that "not a bone of His shall be broken," but I did not, after all, say that any bone was broken.  The meaning of the non-breakage of His bones may lie in a slightly different direction.  Perhaps it lies in the fact that He did not die a quick death.  His legs, for instance, were not broken, though it was quite customary to break the leg bones of a crucified person to hasten death.  Perhaps it lies in the wholeness of His humanity and of His suffering in that wholeness.  Perhaps??  I think we must not quibble unnecessarily over His flesh being broken?  Please tell me what you think.

Chris & Margit Saunders

Dear brother Al.
We are not the least bit offended, why?
Because we know, that you know and understand the prophecy that " not one of His bones shall be broken."
John ch 19 v 36.
Psalm 34 v 20.
Also the passover offering in Exodus ch 12 v 46.
We agree with you that He was only "broken" by the weight of our sins, which was laid upon our sinless , spotless, Lamb of God. :)
Not bones but human spirit can be broken much more painfully.
Thank you for being such a friend and a Godly man.

Al Moak

I do indeed thank our Lord for your understanding.  What you say is so true.  Oh the brokenness of our Lord's spirit in that cry, "My God, My God, for what have You forsaken me?"  (Moak translation - Hebrew  "La mah" is literally, "for what.")  The answer to that anguished question is "for my sins, oh Savior!"