Last month in Planeta Rica, Colombia my team and I decided that as a team norm we wanted to have communion. We believe that it’s important to regularly have communion as a reminder of what Christ did for us on the cross. Before we had communion, my teammate Olivia wanted to share a video with us about the significance of the last supper. The last supper is our example as Christians for how to take communion. You can read about the last supper in Matthew 26, Mark 14, and Luke 22. (I will include these verses at the end of the post)
The video Olivia shared with us had an impact on me. It’s called “Beloved: the Last Supper”. The lead singer of the Christian band 10th Avenue North made the video because of their song called Beloved. I will post the link to the video at the bottom of this post. The singer Matt, goes into Jewish tradition to describe some underlying significance to the Lord’s supper. I will give you a run-down of all that he talks about but you should go and watch his telling of it as well.
I will do my best here to say everything in my own words. During the Passover feast, Jesus picks up what is believed by scholars to be the 3rd cup, or the cup of salvation. Traditionally this cup should be set aside but during the Passover feast, Jesus takes it and offers it to his disciples. He tells them “this is my covenant, take and drink it”. In doing this, Jesus was declaring himself to be the Messiah while simultaneously proposing marriage to them all. In Jewish tradition, to propose to a woman, a man would go to her father and buy the chance to propose to a woman. He wasn’t buying her hand in marriage, he was only buying the chance to propose. She could say yes or no to him. The ritual of proposing was to gather the family, the whole family, into a room and sit down at the table. He would fill up a glass of wine and then offer that to her and say “This is my covenant, take and drink it”. If she drank the wine, this was her way of saying “I do”. Afterwards, the woman returned to her hometown and was no longer called by the name she was given. She was now referred to as “one bought with a price”. Her groom would return to his father’s house and begin to build her a “mansion” or an apartment. It was a home built as an addition to his family’s home. During this time, the bride and groom didn’t communicate. The only communication they had for this period of 6 months to 1 year was the best man would run back and forth between them. The groom continued to work on the apartment until it was ready. The apartment wasn’t ready until his father approved it, he didn’t get to decide when it was finished. When he had his father’s approval, he was then able to go get his bride. During this time, the bride is waiting for him to finish. She had no idea what day or hour he was coming to get her but she had to be ready. She had to be ready because when he came, he and his groomsmen would arrive in her town and begin to blow trumpets sounding their arrival. When she heard the trumpets, she would walk out of wherever she was and essentially “walk down to aisle to him”.
If you know the gospel, you can see the parallels. Don’t they give you the chills? Even in the Lord’s supper, Jesus had more intentionality than his words. He was giving another significance through his method of giving the Lord’s supper. If you don’t know the parallels, here they are: Jesus calls us his bride when he refers to us, so when he proposes “marriage” to his disciples, to us, through the passing of the cup, he is giving them the choice to say I do, or to not drink of his covenant. He then tells them that he is going to go away for a while to prepare many mansions for his bride, for us. He is also saying but I’m not leaving you alone, I’m going to give you my best man, the Holy Spirit, to communicate with you while I’m preparing our home. At some point his father, God will tell him it’s ready and he will come and get his bride. His bride will not know the day or the hour, but Jesus and his groomsmen, the Holy angels will come. They will announce his arrival with trumpets and his bride must be ready for his arrival. We will then go with him for the marriage feast. What’s even more amazing is that Jesus was/is metaphorically proposing marriage to us all. He’s not proposing to some wonderful, amazing wife, he is proposing to what scripture repeatedly calls “an adulterous, unfaithful wife”.
The Lord used this video to remind me a fundamental truth about myself. At some point in my life, I started to believe the lie that I wasn’t loved. Because of my belief in this lie, I began to live out that I wasn’t loved. It reflected itself in relationships. I started to become an introvert. I started having fewer and fewer friends. I started to blame others for just not loving me well enough. I started to believe that no one wanted me around and no one cared about the things I had to say. And even as I write this, the pain of believing these things about myself surfaces and tears stream down my face. The lie still tries to take root in me. It hits me subtlety and unexpectedly. It whispers that I’m not worthy of friends or a future husband or a good enough daughter/sister/aunt/friend. It whispers that no one cares that I am away from home. It even whispers that God doesn’t really look on me as loved.
This is some of the baggage that I brought with me on the World Race. In Colombia, it was something that I could ignore somewhat. There were only 7 of us. This month, in Ecuador, it hasn’t been something I could ignore. There are 58 people living here in the same house and the enemy saw a chance to enter in, telling me the lies that my squad doesn’t care about me, they don’t want to pursue relationships with me. He told me over and over that I was left out, that people don’t like me, that I could disappear and no one would notice. You see, I forgot the truth. I lost sight of the fact that I am no longer Emma. I am “one who was bought with a price”. I am SO loved, that God sent his only son to die for me. That is the price and that is what was paid. FOR ME. That is how much I am worth and looking back on this month, I can see over and over where people spoke into me that I am loved, known, worthy. I can see over and over how my Abba, my Papa, was telling me that I am loved that I was worth his sacrifice.
Now this doesn’t mean that these lies aren’t something I’m fighting every day. It means that I can counter them with the truth every day. People will let me down, just as I will let people down. But my hope is not in people. My hope is in Jesus Christ, who passed me the cup and said “Emma, this is my covenant, take and drink of it.” I drank of it and I am not the same. I don’t have to live in the lies. I don’t have to sit in the corner hoping I don’t have to talk to anyone. I don’t have to be afraid to share myself with people. I don’t have to feel sorry for myself. I don’t have to distrust people before I even know them. I don’t have to hide. I was bought with a price.
So were you.
Link to video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOaWb7AIVVc
link to Beloved song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CUGTIWCFyo
Last Supper Passages:
Matthew 26:26-28Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”
Mark 14:22-24 And as they were eating, he took bread and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them and said “Take, this is my body”. And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them and they all drank of it. And he said to them, “this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.”
Luke 22:17-20 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he said, “Take this, and divide it among yourselves.” For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.”
