The Cup

Jesus, as I join You today on Your journey to the cross, prepare my heart to participate with You in the dark shadows of Good Friday and the bright dawn of Easter Sunday.

Pause and pray

Today we continue our exploration of the extraordinary events of Maundy Thursday. Yesterday we remembered how it began with Jesus washing His disciples’ feet. Today we are going to focus our prayers on the Passover meal, the Last Supper shared by Jesus with His disciples on the night that He was betrayed.

Read: Matthew 26:26–30

It’s the familiar Passover meal, commemorating Israel’s deliverance from slavery in Egypt. The table is laden with all the traditional ingredients: piles of warm, unleavened bread, an entire roast lamb, the symbolic bowl of salty water, charosheth paste, bitter herbs and the four communal cups of wine. But then Jesus begins saying strange, unfamiliar things: He tears a piece of bread, looks me in the eye and says, ‘Take and eat, this is my body.’ He holds aloft one of the four wine cups and says, ‘Drink, this is my blood.’

How do I feel about this invitation?

What expression do I see on the face of Jesus? Is he solemn or smiling? Affectionate or apprehensive? Does He look weary? Can I detect a tear in His eye?

Pause and pray

Lord Jesus, these are dark days. There is so much brokenness all around. I think of those people I know whose health is broken. Whose relationships are broken. Whose faith in You is broken.

Over these next few days, as we approach Easter, may the message of Your brokenness somehow bring these people a little wholeness and hope. May Your blood bring them the unexpected gift of new life. In the darkness of their despair, may the first rays of resurrection soon dawn.

Pause and pray

The hymn they sang was Psalm 136; an ancient song of thanks for God’s love and faithfulness in delivering Israel. Its refrain, repeated 26 times, is ‘His love endures forever.’ As Jesus stepped out into the darkness – both literally and spiritually – these then were the words echoing in His mind. Jesus faced the darkest night of His life, remembering God’s faithfulness in the past and staking His very life on the love that endures forever.

Loving Lord Jesus, thank You that Your love endures forever. Two thousand years after that Last Supper, I eat Your broken body, and You make me whole. I drink Your blood and find forgiveness. Your love endures forever. Help me not to distance myself today from the brokenness of the world. Break me and pour me out. Your love endures forever. I offer myself once again as a living sacrifice to You, the Lamb who sacrificed Yourself not just for me, but for every single person I will meet today. Your love endures forever.
Amen.