The Holy Meal

SUN., JUNE 28, 1992, 6:13 AM
FARM, STUDY

In a few hours you will be worshipping with friends and neighbors, and because it is the neighbor’s custom, you shall partake of the holy meal toward the close of the service. You and Lenore are both scheduled to help serve, and this gives you a special opportunity. Hear My comments on this time of communion on a cool, summer morn.

Remember the context… important enough to be told in each of the Gospels. (Yes, when this Teaching is over, read the four accounts before you do your chorin’) It was in the week you Christians call “Holy.” As Jesus I had come to Jerusalem, knowing that, despite My warm welcome the day after our Sabbath, I was coming to My death. The details weren’t important. I didn’t orchestrate it in advance. I just knew that the forces against Me would rise up in some way, and I should not oppose them. Knowing this, I had many opportunities, of course, to leave the city or to thwart the movement against Me. I knew I must not yield to any such temptation.

Though it is recorded that I preached and taught during the early days of that week, no great truths were remembered. The actions were supreme… over the words. Was this the time that I overturned the tables of the money changers and spoke harshly against this desecration of the temple and this form of worship? It was the appropriate time, certainly.

My presence goaded the opposition into action. If I had returned to the countryside there would have been no crucifixion. My presence in the Holy City was the deciding factor.

On Thursday, by your time scheme, I knew that the action was to be soon. I had to have one more crucial gathering with My confused disciples before I would be taken. I had to leave them a sense of My strength, for I was going to appear docile, even weak, as the events would unfold. I knew, in general, what would happen. I would adapt in ways to keep it happening rather than to stop it.

So We gathered in an upper room and had a supper together. Yes, we did have a supper, but I also washed the feet of each disciple, as John recorded. It was an act of humbleness. I knew I was “in charge.” I was the leader of this small group, yet I washed their feet. This was a symbol… you, as Christians, are the most powerful spiritual group in the earth, but you must serve one another and practice this humility in the world. In humbleness there is strength.

The details of the meal are not important, which is why they are not recorded. It was important that I took some bread, unbroken, and I broke it and had them each take a piece and eat it, in remembrance of Me. It was the representation of My Body, which would be broken for them and for all of humanity, then, since then, now, and on into the future. As they ate the bread I became part of them, and as you eat this bread today it will be a symbol that, even as I am a constant part of you, yet I enter again.

The cup of wine became the symbol for My blood, even in those times, the evidence of life. They each shared in My life, from the common cup, and your form of the remembrance does not include this. Instead, you have the practice of all drinking together.

The bread you eat individually… you must walk this lonesome valley by yourself. The cup of blessing you drink together, for as the church you are My Body, unbroken and strong, with blood flowing as it should, enhancing life.