The Israelites were on a journey to the Promised Land. A land they were promised through Abraham, and which they wandered 40 yrs to get to. Their journey started on the Passover night, when God set a curse upon Egypt killing the firstborn, and when Pharaoh let them leave. The Promised Land was their hope, their promise, where they could live among God once again. Move forward a few thousand years to the night of the last supper. A meal which was eaten during the passover. This was no accident. This was not a coincidence that on the night that Christ and His disciples were celebrating the Passover Christ instituted what we call the Lord’s Supper or Communion. But, he didn’t start something new, he changed what it meant to celebrate the Passover. He reimagined everything the Passover represented and meant. This also means that everything that surrounds the Passover was re-imagined as well. Specifically, the Promised Land has new meaning through the covenant of Christ.
In Luke 22, Christ says that he will not partake of the meal until it is renewed again in the Kingdom of God, the Promised Land. Our hope for a new Promised Land is in the Table. Our Promised Land is not a place on the earth as we know it. It is in the new earth and the new heavens that we will see when Christ returns. Our new Promised Land is given through the death and Resurrection of Christ promised to us through the covenant of the table.
Until the time that he returns, we are on a journey, traveling to a land unknown. The table is more than death, it is the promise of new life, of a new land that is given to us in the resurrection of Christ.
On the night he was betrayed, Christ took bread, gave thanks and broke it and gave it to his disciples saying “Take and eat, this is my body given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after supper, he took the cup saying; “This cup is the new covenant in my blood which is poured out for you.”
As we take of the bread and the cup remember and celebrate the promise of a new Promised Land given through the table.
Prayer:
Christ we praise you for your death and rejoice in the resurrection. We anxiously await Your Promised Land, the new heavens and the new earth. God be with us now as we celebrate in this meal. Send Your Spirit to be with us in all that we do. We praise You and it is in Your name that we pray.
