Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] You're listening to a live recording from Westside Church in Bend, Oregon. Thanks for joining us.
[00:00:06] Well, I have not been here the last two Sundays because we were doing some traveling. I turned 40 years old this past week. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. But, no, we had a great time. My family, my wife, Alyssa and I took our two kids and we went to New York and Boston this past couple weeks and had a great time there. It was very cold, but we made the best of it. And I told people before we left, the number one thing I was looking forward to on this trip was the food, right? Good food in these cities. And I hadn't done much travel on the east coast, and so really looking forward to the food we might eat on this trip. And we get in super late one night into New York, and then the next day, we take the kids to the Natural History Museum, which they loved. We spent hours in there. And we made the rookie mistake as parents of not planning our meals well that day. And so we get to about 2 in the afternoon, 2:30 in the afternoon. We haven't had lunch. And parents, you'll know what I'm talking about. The kids hit their wall, and so we notice, like, oh, their attitudes are not going well. We've got to find food. And because of mismanaging the planning of this, we ended up in the basement of the museum in the cafeteria.
[00:01:22] And so we get our food, and we're sitting there, and I'm looking under these fluorescent lights in the basement of the museum, and I'm eating off a plastic tray, and I'm having, like, a $14 reheated chicken strip.
[00:01:38] And I'm thinking, this is not the food I was looking forward to. Right. This is not the kind of meal that I envisioned when we were planning out the trip. And I start with that story to introduce what we're going to talk about today, which is one of the most famous meals of all time. In fact, da Vinci famously painted this meal, the Last Supper. Jesus sits with his disciples around a table, and they have one of the most significant, if not the most significant meals ever recorded. And there is something in our makeup, culturally and as humans, that we are designed for relationship and connection. And even looking out across the room today, I know many of you are here because you have found connection or relationship within the church, as we should.
[00:02:32] And attached to that kind of human need for connection, I believe, is the significance of meals shared together and culturally, sometimes we get this, and sometimes we don't. If you have a strong brunch culture Maybe in your family you might understand that food is more than just fuel, but we come together to share something. If you can think back through significant moments in your life or your family, whether that's a thanks meal or a Christmas dinner, or maybe it's a dinner shared on a first date that turned into a lifelong commitment, maybe it's a meal at a wedding of someone that you were close to. But meals carry great significance. And in significant moments in our lives, oftentimes what we market with is a meal. I think this is a deep human instinct and a God given one.
[00:03:27] And so when we consider how we come together and how we find connection, we cannot separate that from the importance of shared meals and tables together. N.T. wright writes this about the significance of meals to us as people of faith. He says the meal says something and it does something actually changing us so that after it, part of who we actually are is the people who shared that meal together with all that. It meant that we are formed and shaped by the tables we sit around and the people that sit with us. And so maybe what we find is that this is one of the best metaphors for what we are to strive to be as a church.
[00:04:13] It is not a battleship. It is not, you know, a static building filled with religious people. Maybe the best picture of what Jesus intended for us to be is a really big table that we would gather around and share life and food and our experience. And that somehow in the middle of this messy, crazy, stressful world that we live in, we would find community and peace and rest around a table with good food.
[00:04:46] And this is metaphorical, but it's also literal. In the earliest days of the church, when the apostles were sent out after the Day of Pentecost, what marked their gatherings was the centrality of the meal. They would share together in the provision of food that they had and then they shared with one another. And in that space is where they found that they were experiencing God's presence, the presence of the Holy Spirit communing with Jesus and also communing with each other.
[00:05:16] Food was not a tag on at the end. It wasn't the potluck that maybe we'll attend, maybe we won't. No, it was central to their experience.
[00:05:24] And of course, over centuries, this shared meal became more formalized and it became the Eucharist and the Mass. And from there it morphs. And we still today we have these tables around our sanctuary, our worship center. And we're going to share in the table later. But understand that this is a picture of what Originally was very literal, which was that people would come to experience Christ's presence around a table and they would share in meals.
[00:05:57] And it was so important and central to that that all these millennia later, right we are every week, as millions and millions of people around the world are doing today, we, we are sharing in a table to mark what we're about to read. Mark chapter 14 starting in verse 12. This is a monumental moment in the Gospel narratives. Jesus has been healing and teaching. They've been really popular amongst the people outside the city of Jerusalem. And now they've moved into Jerusalem. Tensions are rising with the religious leaders.
[00:06:31] And Jesus is wanting to take a moment before he knows he's going to be betrayed cross. He wants to take a moment with his closest friends, the disciples. And so we get to mark 1412, on the first day of the festival of unleavened bread, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed. Jesus disciples asked him, where do you want us to go to prepare the Passover meal for you? So Jesus sent two of them into Jerusalem with these instructions. As you go into the city, a man carrying a pitcher of water will meet you. Follow him. This is like CIA, right?
[00:07:07] The man with two pictures, do not follow him. It's the man with one picture, right?
[00:07:11] Follow him. At the house he enters, say to the owner the code word. The teacher asks, where's the guest room where I can eat the Passover meal with my disciples? Now I'm joking a bit, it's not very funny, but I'm joking a bit about kind of the cloak and dagger nature of this. But understand that Jesus actually is being secretive about his plans to share his Passover meal with his disciples because he knows the kind of tension that he's walking into. And he knows what's waiting for him in the Garden of Gethsemane when he's going to be betrayed and turned over. He knows there is danger waiting for them in Jerusalem. And so he is actually intentionally being secretive to get to a place where he can be with his disciples, where the crowds and the religious leaders and everyone else in the city doesn't know where he's at. Why? Because he understands the significance of this meal and what it's going to do for him and his disciples, enabling them to walk into what happens next. And so Jesus has clearly made preparations in advance for this meal. This is not a last minute thing. This is not the basement of the museum. This is something that Jesus has prepared for. And so he sends his disciples to meet the people that own the place where they're going to have this last supper together. And it says in verse 17, in the evening, Jesus arrived with the 12. And as they were at the table eating, Jesus says, I tell you the truth, one of you eating with me here will betray me. Have you ever had those meals where someone says something really awkward and then the room gets quiet? Right.
[00:08:42] Greatly distressed, each of them asked in turn, am I the one?
[00:08:47] I would think that if you're asking, am I the one that's betrayed the Master, it probably wasn't you.
[00:08:53] And yet I know this in my own experience in prayer that oftentimes there is an insecurity in feeling like my faith will fail. The closer I get to Jesus, the more exposed I feel that I may not have what it takes.
[00:09:08] And oftentimes I feel like one of those disciples where Jesus is at the table and he's like, one of you is going to betray me. I think it's me, you guys.
[00:09:19] I can't remember, but I'm pretty sure that sounds like something I could do. That sounds like me.
[00:09:26] And there's this feeling of, I'm not enough.
[00:09:30] When we come into these spaces and loud and clear, I want you to hear the heart of Jesus that is displayed for these disciples is when you feel like you're not enough.
[00:09:43] Jesus actually wants to pull you in closer. This is the passage where in John's account of this dinner, he says, I want you to abide in me and I'll abide with you. And you're going to bear much fruit because you're connected to me. So when these disciples are saying, I don't think I have enough, I don't think my faith is going to hold up. I might be the one who turns on Jesus. I might be the betrayer.
[00:10:08] Jesus says, stay close to me and I'm going to stay close with you. And by the way, all these guys are going to abandon him in just a few hours.
[00:10:16] And Jesus does not shy away from setting the table and welcoming them in for connection and relationship.
[00:10:24] Back to the Scripture he replied in verse 20, it is one of you 12 who is eating from this bowl with me. For the Son of Man must die, as the Scriptures declared long ago. But how terrible it will be for the one who betrays him. It would be far better for that man if he had never been born. And as they were eating, Jesus took some of the bread and he blessed it. Then he broke it into pieces and he gave it to the disciples, saying, take it, for this is my body. And he took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it. And he gave it to them, and they all drank from it. And then he said to them, this is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and his people. It is poured out as a sacrifice for many. And I tell you the truth, I will not drink wine again until the day I drink it new in the kingdom of God. So he's still being a little mysterious, right? The Sabbath was like, wow, I don't quite understand what he's saying, but they're with him. And then, as was the custom for a Passover meal, in verse 26, they sang a hymn and went to the Mount of Olives.
[00:11:24] This Passover meal that Jesus is sharing with his friends, his disciples would have been a meal that they would have shared every year that they were together and as children with their families every year before that.
[00:11:37] It was maybe the most significant meal in the Jewish culture and faith where they remembered how God had delivered his people from the hand of the Egyptians all the way back in the book of Exodus.
[00:11:51] And if you know that story, you know that they were slaves to Pharaoh and God sends them Moses to deliver them from the hand of Pharaoh. And the story goes that on the just days before they're to break free from Pharaoh and head out from their slavery into freedom, that God commands them to prepare a meal.
[00:12:16] And if you're about to uproot and take all that you own and head out into the desert, that sounds like moving weekend. The last thing you need is a meal that takes days to prepare right in the middle of a move. Do you ever say, you know what we need a pot roast? That's. No, no, no. You get pizza delivered and you eat it over the sink like a normal person, like a rat over the sink.
[00:12:44] The Jewish people, they gotta go, they gotta move. They're going to head out and they're going to be on the run from Pharaoh all the way to the sea. Like, this is not a time to, you know, hang out and talk and let's talk about our feelings. No, pack your bags. We got to go. And that's when God says, here's how you're going to prepare the meal. And when you are ready to eat this meal, here's what you're going to do. You're not going to stand and eat it, but you're going to recline.
[00:13:17] And in Luke's gospel, actually it tells specifically, the disciples come to this Passover meal with Jesus and they recline. And what was significant about the posture in which they would partake in this meal is that only free people got to recline. Ever Slaves, there is no time for reclining. There is no time for resting. You are standing, you are sleeping, you are working.
[00:13:46] And here God is making it very clear that around his table, you are not the slaves to Egypt. You are my free people.
[00:13:56] And so around my table, all the trappings and all the bondage from the Egyptians and all the ways that you feel that you'll never be free. Despite all appearances, when you're around this table, you are my free. And you will partake in the goodness of a loving God.
[00:14:16] This is the table that these disciples are eating at with Jesus. And yet Jesus is telling them some really sad news about his death and that he's not going to be with them any longer in the same way that he has been.
[00:14:33] And so it's not this moment where they're reclining because they're feeling so relaxed and that nothing bad is going to happen. And there's no stresses, no, in the middle of the storm. And the stress is where they find a mandated moment to partake in connection and communion with Jesus. And this is true for us is that we come into these spaces not because the world has finally calmed down enough or that our lives have finally smoothed out enough to where now we can focus on the presence of God. No, it's in the middle of our storms and stresses and pressures that we come into these places of sanctuary around the table, both metaphorically and literally, to experience God's goodness and his rest as his free people.
[00:15:20] Right in the middle of the rush and the busyness and the stress, we find that God's presence meets us here.
[00:15:30] We say something about our trust in God's goodness when we do this, when we recline to savor what God has provided.
[00:15:39] And so this tradition continues today. In just a few moments, we're going to walk up to these tables and we're going to share in a cracker and a bit of juice that represents something about our trust in who God is.
[00:15:56] And so whatever you call it, communion, the Lord's Supper, the Eucharist, this practice is at the very center of Christian experience. For as long as we have gathered as Christians, we have shared in this practice, in this sacrament, and this, honestly, today feels a little bit like sacrament Sunday, right? We dedicated, baby. We're talking about baptisms coming up on Easter. We're going to share in the Lord's table. And these can feel like meaningless religious tokens. And yet as we practice them as a people, they mark us and they tell a story about who we are in faith as a people of God.
[00:16:35] And so Jesus continues in this meal. And you might recognize this verbiage, he says as he passes the bread and the cup to his disciples, he says, do this in remembrance of me as often as you take it.
[00:16:52] Remembrance is an interesting thing. We can think of it in a simple way of just recalling happened in the past. But there's a greater depth to this idea of what Jesus is saying when he says this do in remembrance of me. He's saying this, this life together, this life lived around tables, this life sharing meals and walking the road together, this thing even when I'm not here physically present with you, continue to do it. And remember not just to recall the past, but to re put together what this is where my presence is at the center, in the middle of your experience.
[00:17:30] So Jesus is saying, not just come and take some elements at a service once a week and move on your merry way. He's saying, live life together with me at the center. And every time you come together, remember, bring back into the present that which was to you in the past. Bring it here. My presence will be with you when you gather. We grew up in the church I was in and we had one of those big old communion tables with the embossed letters that says this do in remembrance of me. Right? These are like formative memories, like a five and six year old being like, I don't know what those words say because I can't read, but it looks important, right?
[00:18:11] And we have these big old tables. And I think this is pretty common in churches. It probably still is today.
[00:18:18] And in churches that are more the style of our church, we don't have those big old tables. We do have the tables, but we don't have the big tables in the center. It's a little sad that the centrality of the table, the Lord's table, has been replaced. And oftentimes in churches in the style that we're in. What replaces the centrality, the centeredness of coming together around the Lord's table is things like the personality of the preacher, which I get. You know, I can understand why that would be tempting to put Ben at the center, of course, but.
[00:18:55] Or maybe it's not even what happens in the room, but it's things like culture wars become the main driver and the thing that draws us together as a community.
[00:19:06] And I have to wonder sometimes if we lean into things like that, like the personality of who's on the stage or the band that's playing or the trappings or the buildings or the power or the money or the culture wars, that we will one day wake up and find that we are eating from a plastic tray in a basement and saying, this is not the table Jesus intended for us to eat at.
[00:19:30] We came here for the meal.
[00:19:33] We came to faith in Jesus because we were compelled to sit across a table from him in the community of other believers and experience something of connection and community and to experience his living and real active presence expressed in acts of grace.
[00:19:55] And I don't ever want to come to the end of my life and look back and like, I was in the basement the whole time. No, come on, let's go back to Jesus table.
[00:20:06] Let's go back to Jesus table.
[00:20:11] David E. Finch says the Lord's table is about presence.
[00:20:14] Surely it's about eating. But ultimately it's a practice that shapes a group of people to be present to God's presence in Christ around the table.
[00:20:24] And it's here at the Last Supper that Jesus tells us in John 13. And Pastor Mike shared about this two weeks ago. It's where Jesus says a new command, I now give you as I have loved you, love one another.
[00:20:39] It's around the meal that Jesus invites them into a radical new way of living. Not to only love others as they love themselves, but to model in their own lives and relationships the kind of sacrificial self pouring out kind of love that Jesus showed them.
[00:20:58] And around the table of Jesus, the table that he invites his church to look like.
[00:21:05] What marks us is the way that we love like he loved.
[00:21:11] Three things before we get to the table. Number one, the Table needs yous.
[00:21:18] Just as the Last Supper would have been a bleak affair if not for Jesus there at the table, we also need you'd.
[00:21:28] There's no community unless those people are participating. There's no table without those who gather. Your presence matters at the table, in the church, in each other's lives, get involved.
[00:21:41] I think culturally we have a very individualistic society. We have a very, you know, we don't want to pry. We don't want to get too involved. So if you need anything, you just ask, but I'll give you space. And oftentimes in this community, what it demands is that we sometimes pull each other to the table and say, we're going to commune with Christ and with one another.
[00:22:06] Through the table, you might be feeling like connection has missed you and you haven't found that today, this is my prayer, is that we would commit not only to Christ in this place, but to one another.
[00:22:25] Number two, Jesus set a table, not a stage.
[00:22:28] I realize the irony of this being a person on a stage. As I say this.
[00:22:34] The intention of Christ was never to make churches about personalities and people somehow above or, you know, God's voice to the rest of us.
[00:22:48] That was not the intention of Jesus.
[00:22:51] Jesus empowers the disciples to go out and to start things and churches. But if you look through the New Testament, we never see this glorification in a way that God's like, yeah, that's what we want. Glorify your pastor. It's not in there.
[00:23:07] Instead, what he says is, here's the table, and every time you gather, I'm going to meet you. When you do this, when you gather around this table, bless you.
[00:23:17] Jesus set a table, not a stage. And for all of us, this is the process of discipleship is that every day we have an opportunity to say yes or no to taking ourselves out of the spotlight and off the throne.
[00:23:30] We talked about this a few weeks ago in the Gospel of Mark, where Jesus said, if anyone wants to follow me, you gotta take up your cross.
[00:23:39] If anyone wants to be my disciple, it's gonna cost you being at the center of your own experience. You're going to have to decenter yourself and to give everything you got to follow after me.
[00:23:53] It's a huge, huge ask that Jesus makes.
[00:23:59] And finally, the meal is a beautiful protest in a world that often is marked by dysfunction, violence, war, marked by power struggles and the ugliness of decay and disease.
[00:24:17] Around the table, we are reminded of the redemptive work of a loving God.
[00:24:22] And it is this act, much like the ancient Hebrews reclining around a table because they were God's free people.
[00:24:32] For us, it becomes an act of beauty in a world filled with oftentimes with ugliness, where we declare, because of what Christ has done through his sacrifice of his body and his blood, death does not get the final word.
[00:24:49] That violence and poverty and disease one day will all bow to the name of Jesus.
[00:25:06] This is a defiant act in a broken world.
[00:25:11] Philip Yancey wrote this. He said, this table is different.
[00:25:17] It isn't where sinners find Christ, but where sons and daughters celebrate being found.
[00:25:22] And maybe someday, instead of solemnly making our way to the tables, we should dance for joy and laugh like people who no longer fear death.
[00:25:33] Just a few moments, we are going to move to the tables. And you're welcome to laugh. It might feel weird just giggling as you go to the tables. That's not what I'M asking for.
[00:25:43] But I do want us to consider that there are moments when we come to these tables, when we gather for a solemn understanding of our sin and our need for forgiveness and repentance and inviting Christ's work. Of course.
[00:25:59] And there's also times to realize that at this table, it is not only a somber moment, but it is a moment to rejoice that Christ is alive and death does not have the final say.
[00:26:13] So a few days later, we took the train in New York up to Boston, and we got to downtown Boston, went to the north, and that evening, and we sat in this lovely little Italian restaurant in Boston's North End.
[00:26:31] And they brought out good wine and delicious bread with the oil and the vinegar.
[00:26:40] And so we're sipping our wine and dipping the bread in the oil, and then they bring out our meal, and I ordered lobster ravioli.
[00:26:52] Some of you are like, come on, wrap it up now. I want to go find some lobster, a Benedict or something.
[00:26:59] But we're eating this meal, and in the middle of our meal, and I'm not exaggerating, you can ask Alyssa. Right outside the window, we're sitting up against the glass, and right outside the window, three or four of these workers come out, and they're pushing a cart of flowers. And as we're eating, they're putting flowers in the flower box because spring has arrived.
[00:27:21] And as we're sitting there and I'm looking at the people I love more than anybody else in the whole world, and we're having good wine and delicious food, and the bread is good, and the lobster's delicious, and spring has arrived. I think this was the meal I wanted.
[00:27:35] This is it.
[00:27:38] Can I tell you that the table we are invited to is more that than the first one?
[00:27:45] And if faith has become a drag, a burden, a slog, come on. Step out of the basement and be invited into the place where Jesus pours the wine and he breaks the bread, and he says, as I have loved you, love one another. And every time you gather, come around and share in the best things of life and experience communion with me and one another, and know that I am there in the midst of you.
[00:28:19] Recline and savor what you will experience in this community that I am creating because you are God's free people. Amen.
