“waiting for
the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life” (Jude verse 21)
One of the things we do as we
wait, as an expression of this very waiting “for the mercy of our Lord Jesus
Christ that leads to eternal life”, is to take the Lord’s Supper. The word
“waiting”, of course, is a forward-looking word. We tend not to think of
communion, though, as a forward-looking time. After all, it is a time to focus
on the suffering of Jesus Christ in our place. That’s true—and it’s the
primary thing. We also want to not take it in an unworthy manner, so we take
stock of our present lives. That’s fine.
But we should remember that
Jesus suffered and died for us, to purchase for us, eternal life
with Him. Though we taste of this eternal life now in the present, the fullness
of it is yet to come—so we are waiting for his mercy as Jude verse 21
says, because the full gift of His mercy is yet to come. And so when we
take communion, Paul says in I Cor. 11:26, “as often as you eat this bread and
drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.”
Communion, then is a time for
looking back, and for looking forward. We look backwards to the costly
purchase of mercy, and we look forward to the full benefits of
mercy.
No comments:
Post a Comment