Very Good

This meal that Jesus gave us teaches us the pattern of Christian dominion. When God created the world, each thing that He made, He pronounced good before He went to work on it again and made it better. This is what dominion is: receiving God’s good gifts, giving thanks for them, and then making them better. 

In a fallen and sinful world, there is more pain and suffering and now death is involved, but the pattern really is the same. And Jesus demonstrates that pattern in this meal that He gave us. He took bread that represented His body, gave thanks, and broke it and shared it with the disciples. Then He did the same thing, taking wine representing His blood, gave thanks for it, and then distributed it. Notice the pattern: He takes the gift God has given (in this case His body and blood), gives thanks for it, and then breaks it apart and distributes. This is the pattern of good to very good. Good bread becomes a very good fellowship. Good wine becomes very good forgiveness and peace. 

So what we are doing here, God is teaching us to do everywhere. Receive the gift, give thanks for it, and then look for some way to make it better, share it, bless someone, turn a profit. But the key thing really is gratitude. Thankfulness is what allows you to see clearly what is there, what has been given, and that is what will allow you to make it fruitful. But God has often assigned us a challenge to take dominion of that is difficult to be thankful for. So what is it for you? A friendship? Your marriage? Your parents? Your kids? A roommate? A health challenge? This mad, mad world? First give thanks. And then maybe give thanks again. Keep giving thanks until you see what it is for, until you see how to make it fruitful.

And don’t miss the fact that this is what God is doing to you: He has taken hold of you, rejoiced over you in His Son, and now He’s breaking you, He’s remaking you, in order to make you very good, in order to make you very fruitful. So come and welcome to Jesus Christ. 

Photo by Maja Petric on Unsplash