Instituting the Lord’s Supper

Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper”, convent at Cena

How beautiful that painting must have been, when it was new, fresh with color, vibrant with life against the blank walls.  Over the centuries it has worn, lost some of its color, becoming drab along with the dust and detritus of daily living.

Perhaps the thought of the last supper of Jesus is dusty in our minds, too.  He knew what the next few days would be like for the twelve.  He knew that Judas was, even as he sat there with the rest, planning how he would be spending the thirty pieces of gold – and He knew how that gold would be spent, instead.

John gives more specifics on what Jesus said that night.  Pastor  has been leading us through John on Sunday mornings, and this night is filled with lessons, and with love.  In chapters 14, 15, 16 John shares what meant most to him that night, such as Jesus knowing the pain this causes them:

But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart. (John 16:6 KJV)

They wanted Him to know that they understood what He was saying, but there remained a question from Him.

His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb. Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest forth from God. Jesus answered them, Do ye now believe? (John 16:29-31 KJV)

Have we not heard His words, plainly, without proverb? Can we state, as the disciples did, that He camest forth from God?

Can we be those in the next chapter:

For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. (John 17:8-9 KJV)

The disciples remembered that night often, breaking bread and taking the wine in remembrance of Him, and others have done so for the two millennia following.  We did so last Sunday night as we move toward the doctrinal foundation of Christianity, celebrating the death, burial and totally miraculous resurrection of the Messiah, the Christ, confessed Son of God, the one who prayed for us:

And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. (John 17:13-15 KJV)