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While they were eating, Jesus took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it,gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.”
                                                                        -- Mark 14:22 

                        The seeds have already been sowed:

Ø      The religious authorities wanted him dead (Mark 14:1-2);

Ø      His teaching throughout the week had grown more pointed 
           and urgent  (eg, Mark 13:1-8);

Ø      He had been symbolically anointed for burial (Mark 14:3-9);

Ø      Judas had agreed to hand him over to the authorities (Mark 14:10-11). 

And now he was sharing the Passover with his disciples, one final meal before the
harsh and cruel events that lay ahead would begin. 

                        If you were Jesus, how could you share with your disciples the pain, the agony, the suffering, the grief that lay ahead?  How could you tell them when you didn’t want to face it yourself?  What could you do to provide encouragement for them, that they might continue the good fight for God’s kingdom even after you were gone?  What could you leave them as a sign and seal of what they have meant to you, and will continue to mean to you?  What could you tell them? 

                        Jesus chose to take bread and wine, and make them forever his own: this is my body; this is my blood.  Here, he reinvents the Passover.  “I am the lamb, sacrificed that you and all people may have life in my name.” 

                        And for almost 2,000 years, when we gather together at table, we take those simple gifts of God – bread and wine – and we remember.  We remember that night; we remember the ll suffering and death to follow; we remember the glory of resurrection; and we remember that some how, some way, in God’s cosmic grace that transcends all time and space, this meal is for us, too, his friends in every generation. 

                        But we not only remember, we look forward, still seeking to bring to fruition -- day by day, moment by moment -- God’s wondrous and grace-filled kingdom. 

Prayer: 

                        Lord, we have come at your own invitation, 
                        Chosen by you to be counted your friends;
                        Yours is the strength that sustains dedication, 
                        Ours a commitment we know never ends.
                        When at your table, each time of returning, 
                        Vows are renewed and our courage restored;
                        May we increasingly glory in learning 
                        All that it means to accept you as Lord.
                                                             -- Presbyterian Hymnal (1991), #516 (v. 1,3)

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