“Your Last Meal”

Tuesday, June 09, 2020

I’ve been listening to the book Dispatches from Pluto writing by an Englishman who translocated to the Mississippi delta to learn more about the area he had come to know through his love of the blues.  In his “research”, he found himself at Parchman Prison.  As he noted it is impossible to know all there is to know about the delta without learning about something that so dominates the area.  During his tour, the Warden explained about death row that then sent all involved down the “rabbit hole” of contemplating their own last supper.  For a moment, it sent me considering my own choices.  I certainly would select a last meal, although the choices probably would vary or be quite wide-ranging.

However, given our recent study in Luke 22, my mind rapidly moved to a last supper that I am intimately aware of.  Our Lord and savior had a last supper.  I am not aware of him eating later. While Jesus joined the disciples in the upper room in John 20 and on the beach in John 21, the text does not explicitly state Jesus consumed anything.  Therefore, I am led to believe the Passover meal Christ partook of with his disciples recorded in Luke 22 was his last.  And as a death row inmate is aware, our Lord was aware of his pending death.

That is why I am so struck by the selection and the desire Christ had to partake in this meal.  While much of the Passover meal was prescribed by law, the point to me was that this was Jesus’ desire.  He wanted to eat this meal because of its meaning to him and to all of those that ate it.  He wanted to share the power of the moment and the memory with this e disciples he had spent so much time with.  And he wanted to impact us, his future disciples, with that same impact.  He wanted to connect for them and us the power of the sacrifice and the blood.  He wanted to recall the power of the lamb’s blood that had spared so many Israelites of the awful pain of losing a firstborn child.  He wanted to show the impact his blood would have for them and us.  He wanted those emblems, which he left behind for us, to have an impact upon us as we partake if them.  And he wanted to remind us all of the future supper that awaits us and that he longs to have again with all of us.

So what do you desire for your last supper?  Are your thoughts like mine were initially focused on the physical?  If so I suspect you are like the majority of us.  Or are you looking to something more impactful and permanent and important as our Savior is?

Joe Johnsey

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I really appreciate Joe's thoughts on this. I think viewed through this lens, with all of the significance that Jesus placed in this last meal, perhaps the Lord's Supper is unshackled from the monotony that can often accompany it. The Lord's Supper is at the same time a tragic memorial and a triumphant celebration. It is a reminder and extension of the relationship we have with Him through His blood, and it is the time where we recommit ourselves to Him. And as significant as it is, it is just the appetizer, the Hors d'oeuvres, a tasty morsel of what will be. Of course, we are not talking here about some tasteless bread or the semi-sweet and sometimes bitter cup that we drink. Rather what they symbolize. Every Sunday we get a rich foretaste of the grand banquet that we will have the delight of partaking in with our Savior and the entire community of His people. Oh what a day that will be! Dining and denizening with the Divine. 

Trey

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