Table Tales: A Lasting Supper

 

“It’s time to eat!!!” My mom would cry as she clanked the cowbell with her sturdy spoon. By the third time, she could start to make out the barefooted tornado of dirt, curls, and laughter migrating towards her. As hard as it was to pull ourselves away from playing, we knew even as kids, the next part of our day was worth it.

With a fussing baby on her hip, my mom flawlessly flung potato soup into seven bowls. As my dad thanked the Lord for our meal, everyone seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. Seated at this table, all was right in the world. This was our safe haven from every storm of the day. As each daughter recounted her day, my parents would intently listen and ask questions. They encouraged us to create and work hard, always inspiring us to use our gifts and talents. The most important thing that happened at that table was how they taught us to trust in something bigger than our family. They told us in how they lived their lives and their words, that Jesus was bigger and even better than these moments together and one day we will all be seated with him at his table.

Mealtime is somewhat magical. Amidst the craziness of the day, every person on the face of the planet must stop and take a moment to refuel. It reminds us of our mortality and forces us to rest. In the Bible, God makes a point to show himself to his people over meals. When the Israelites cry out to God to deliver them from slavery in Egypt, God hears them. He sends awful plagues to exhaust the Egyptians until they release his people from slavery. But when they don't, God sends a final plague that will really shake them up. God sends the angel of death to kill every firstborn child in the land, including Pharaoh’s son. 

God instructs his people to eat a “Passover” dinner that night, which included a lamb and bitter herbs, representing their slavery. He tells them to kill the lamb and spread its’ blood over their doorposts so that when the angel came to kill, he would see the blood and pass over their home. The people had to believe that the lamb was killed in place of their firstborn child and only then would the angel skip their home.

The Israelites left Egypt that night. God commanded the people to eat this meal every year to remind them that it was He who had delivered them from slavery. The people made it a tradition to eat this same meal once a year and tell their children the story of “Passover.”

Skip a few hundred years to when Jesus was on earth. The night before he died, he was celebrating the Passover meal with his friends. They thought he would reign as king of the Jews forever. But Jesus knew the reason he came was to die. As they ate the meal that reminded them of the night when the angel passed over Israel’s homes, Jesus gave them a new dinner tradition. He took a loaf of bread, broke it and told them that it represented his body. He told them to eat it and remember. Then he held up the cup of wine and told them to drink his blood. Yes, that sounds a bit creepy if you didn’t grow up hearing it, doesn’t it? Jesus went on to say that his blood represented the new promise between God and people. No longer was the blood of a lamb needed to pay for their sins. His blood would be the perfect sacrifice for everybody who believes.

The next day, like a lamb he was led to his slaughter, yet he did not open his mouth to protest. And just like the Passover lamb, he was killed.

“But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5

Jesus said something during the Passover dinner that I hadn’t noticed before until now,

“I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the Kingdom of God.” Luke 22:15

Fulfillment in the Kingdom of God? What’s that about? I flipped over to Revelation and got butterflies in my tummy as I read about heaven.

“Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come…Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” Revelation 19:7-9

Another meal! This meal will definitely top all the others. I love getting a glimpse of heaven. It is at the wedding supper of the Lamb that we will find completeness in Christ and see him fulfill his promises in the Kingdom of God! No longer will we be bound by our brokenness and tendency to sin against God. At this meal we will celebrate our redemption as sons and daughters. What a meal that will be as we find our names at the table with God, celebrating that his son, the Lamb, has adopted us into his family forever. 

Photo Credit Kristen Mills