Every week, as we celebrate this meal, we repeat the words of Jesus who said, “For as often as you this eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord’s death until He come.”
In other words, we celebrate this meal in anticipation of heaven. Every Lord’s Day we are counting down to Heaven. All the indications are that this world has a number of generations to go. God promised that His mercy would extend to thousands of generations, and we aren’t even close to one thousand generations in the history of the world. The Bible counts 40 years as a generation, and in 6,000 years there’s only been 150 generations. And besides, the Bible says that Jesus must reign in Heaven until all of His enemies have been put beneath His feet, the last enemy being death itself. But that is a glorious count down: the count down to death-no-more, the count down to tears wiped away, the count down to all things made new, Heaven come down to earth.
But every one us will stand before the Lord within a generation or so. The power of death has been defeated, but these mortal bodies still grow weak and die. And so every time we celebrate this meal, we are also counting down to that day, the day the Lord comes to take us home, the day this life is over. And that day is far closer than any of us may imagine. And that is either the most glorious thought, your greatest longing, your highest joy, or else it is only pure terror and horror. But you cannot celebrate this meal rightly and be terrified of the Lord coming to take you home. We celebrate in this meal the Lord’s death, triumphing over our guilt and sins, and His coming for us. Therefore, every time we eat this meal together, we look in faith to our Savior, believing in full assurance that He will come and carry us through death and bringing us safely home.
O Death, where is your sting? O Grave, where is your victory?
Come and welcome to Jesus Christ.
Photo by Thanos Pal on Unsplash
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