Week 5: Resurrection

Practicing the Lord's Supper

Do you have any “AHA!” moments in your life? Those kinds of moments where the light bulb seems to click on. Maybe it was at work or in your marriage. Maybe it was deciding that the pretty girl you've been dating was the girl you wanted to be married to! Maybe it was just watching one of your favorite mystery shows and discovering that the characters have been dead the entire time!

One of the best, if not the best, “AHA” moments in scripture happens to two disciples of Jesus in our reading for today. These two disciples are downhearted after watching Jesus be crucified. They seemed to be giving up and headed home. They are on their way to Emmaus. Along the way, another traveler joins them suddenly and unexpectedly. This unknown traveler asks what they are talking about. They are dumbfounded that he doesn't know what they are talking about. How do you not know what happened in Jerusalem the last few days? How do you not know about Jesus of Nazareth?

They start to share with him about Jesus and his grave being robbed after he was crucified. Then very unexpectedly, he begins to teach them what the scriptures really say about Jesus of Nazareth. Finally, the man turns to head in another direction, but they implore him to come and have dinner with them. So he joins them. As he takes the bread, gives thanks, breaks the bread, and gives some to them, they have their “AHA!” moment.

Suddenly, they recognize the stranger as Jesus, who has been resurrected from the grave. They immediately run back to Jerusalem to tell the others.

We often think about the Lord's Supper as a practice of his atoning death. We remember his body broken for us. We remember his spilled blood poured out for us. This is theologically and scripturally true, but we sometimes miss that the Lord's Supper is also a meal of resurrection. If you pay close attention to the passage today, you realize that it is in Jesus offering the Lord's supper that the disciples recognize his resurrection!

On the one hand, the Lord's Supper is a meal where we remember the sacrifice of Jesus in his death. On the other hand, the Lord's Supper is a feast where we celebrate his resurrection and anticipate the resurrection to come!

John Mark Hicks, in his excellent book on the Lord's Supper, called Come to the Table, puts it this way,

"The practice of the supper in Luke 24, Acts 2, and Acts 20 is filled with joy. It is focused on the resurrection of Jesus rather than the death of Christ. It is the experience of the living Christ, not a dead one. It is true that the supper proclaims the death of Christ (1 Cor. 11:26), but the death of Christ is good news for those at the table. We give thanks for the reconciling work of Christ that enables the table experience of peace, hope, and joy."

This week we practice the way of Jesus's resurrection by celebrating the Lord's Supper. The original Lord's Supper was taken on a Thursday night at the Passover festival. The early church took the Lord's supper at various times in various homes before apparently beginning to take the Lord's supper more routinely on the first day of the week in honor of the resurrection.

I want to encourage you to take the Lord's supper this week with a mood of celebration. The broken body was made whole! The spilled blood brought new and eternal life! Whether in a home with friends or as a church collectively, take time to celebrate the Lord's Supper joyously!