02/18/2018
What nourishes your faith? What does your Spirit consume for strength? When we go to the Lord’s table we are feeding our souls His flesh and blood, and this sustenance bring us life, eternal life. To consume the body of Christ is to bring Him inside us... to allow Him to dwell within us. Communion, it is the life giving force of the Christian experience.
“For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me.”
John 6:55-57 ESV
The Word of God contains such a bounty for Our spiritual table, but the main course, and the sweetest drink is that of Jesus Himself. As we internalize Jesus and all He represents, we are changed. In Him, and with Him in us, we become that which our spirit has longed for since birth... redeemed, freed from sin’s hold on us, acceptable to God.
Last year, I walked into one of the finest restaurants in Nashville with my wife. It was our anniversary, and although we eat in nice restaurants all of the time, this one was different. Everything about this place was elaborate and well appointed, it was opulence at its peak, and despite being dressed up in our finest I felt like I was out of place. We had eaten at many wonderful restaurants, but none quite like this. As we sat at our table chit chatting about the years we had spent together my mind kept retreating to our first anniversary dinner. I had been saving my money, and taken Ann to Julio’s, what was then the finest restaurant in Nashville, a four star French restaurant on West End.
Forty years ago we were so young, I remember our naivety, and the look of fright on Ann’s face when they handed her the menu... there were no prices on the lady’s menu. Money was incredibly tight and this place was so expensive that she feared I would not be able to afford her meal. As it turned out, the waiter walked away and we were able to find a small filet on the menu that I could afford. I laugh now because our meal took every dime I had saved up for the occasion, and yet afterwards I looked at my beautiful bride and said “I’m still hungry... wanna go to McDonald’s?” to which she quickly responded yes.
Our meal this year cost many times what our first anniversary dinner did, and although more filling, it was equally as good, but I would have traded it all; the incredible appetizers, the sizzling entrees, the calorie ladened sides, the splendid sauces, deep roux, delicious drinks, rich deserts, and fine coffees. I would have given up the lavish appointments, and the overly attentive service of the night, I would have given up everything, everything, if I could just go back to the night of our first anniversary, and sit in McDonald’s with Ann as we laughed at how out of place we had been while eating burgers and fries in our finest clothes.
Our spiritual meal of communion is like that night so long ago; it is dinning in the finest restaurant imaginable, but feeling as comfortable as Ann and I did in McDonalds. It is consuming life in its fullest with someone you can’t take your eyes off of, and whose laughter warms you to the bone. It is joy unimaginable, it is youth, it is the essence of life in all its intensity... it is everything that is and lies ahead in Jesus, and a meal that every one of us can afford.
I read a wonderful summation of such a meal that was written by Andrew Murray. He was trying to describe communion when he wrote these words...
“Glorious food! Heavenly bread! It imparts heavenly life to us. Love to God, blessed rest, true holiness, inward power, all that characterizes the life that is enjoyed in heaven. Let us be encouraged. We can do all things through Christ, who strengthens us. He dwells in us. He is our food.” - Andrew Murray
We all have our own dream of heaven. For some of us it is larger than life, while others see it in lavish splendor, but for me it is thousands of moments of joy and love held together by the single thread of Jesus Christ who made it possible that my life could be one with His before God.
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for the body and blood of your Son Jesus Christ that nourishes my soul. I thank you for the redemption, joy, and thrill of life unending that you have extended to me through His sacrifice. Holy Father, I thank you for the taste of what is to come as I have experienced my life here. I thank you for the lessons of hardship, the suffering of losses and hurts, I thank you for every breath of it, because the challenges have served to boil down into a sauce, an essence, the joy, and love that awaits. The unsatisfying meals, served in all their splendor teach me of the true treasure of love that requires none of that. Most Merciful Father you are love, life, and goodness... and you offer it to me unbound. In the most precious moments, my greatest loves, and my heights of joy, that this life has brought, I receive but a glimmer of you. Nourish me Father, let the blood and body of your Son served to me out of His sacrifice, render the love of you, and provide to me the bolder flavor, and sustenance, of what is to come at your table for eternity. Great are you Holy Father, snd greatly to be praised!
Rich Forbes