The occasion of the origin of this institution (the breaking of bread), is one of deep interest from many points of view. That occasion was an observance required by the Law of Moses, in celebration of Israel’s deliverance from Egypt-the feast of unleavened bread, otherwise called the feast of the Passover, from the passover lamb slain in connection with it, and a typical celebration of the greater deliverance to be effected through Jesus, as the slain Lamb of the great scheme of human redemption. As a Jew, “made of a woman, made under the law” (Gal. 4:4), Jesus, who came not to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfil, was forward in readiness to obey this as all other of the Mosaic requirements. But he had a special inclination to celebrate the Passover on this occasion. His disciples having been given directions as to the place where it was to be eaten, they went and made ready; and in the evening, at the appointed hour they came together.

“With desire,” he said, “I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.”

The attempt to realise the origin of this desire brings many interesting phases of Christ’s character under review. His susceptibility to sorrow is a prominent feature.

“My soul,” he said, “is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death!”

Why was he labouring under this weight of sorrow? The prospect he had before his mind, affords the answer. He was about to be deserted by his friends, and delivered to the heartless mob. He was about to be given up to the authority of the law, like a common felon. He was about to be abandoned to the ravening wolves who thirsted for his life; to be given over to insult and violence at the hands of hypocrites, who had been prophetically styled in the Psalms, “dogs and bulls of Bashan”; and to be put to the most agonising and ignominious death which it was possible for man to suffer. A prospect like this was enough to fill his soul with darkness.

Paganism has glorified the doctrine of indifference, and the world accounts stoicism as heroic. But this no more savours of true wisdom than the many other doctrines of the ancient schools, which Paul has pronounced to be foolishness with God. An exquisite nature like that of “the Holy One of God,” which the sins and miseries of men alone weighed down with sorrow and made acquainted with grief, was not likely to be insensible to so great a woe as was about then to overwhelm him. The desertion of friends, the withdrawal of the divine purpose and protection, the triumph of hypocrisy and barbarism (though but for a moment), and the agonies of outraged nature, were terrible to his soul just in proportion as the reverse of all these conditions was his delight. He was not insensible to the sorrows of our common nature.

He groaned under the weight of his load. He sweat, as it were, great drops of blood. He prayed earnestly that if it were possible the cup might pass from him (Luke 22:44). He did not refuse to drink it, if the plan of divine love required it.

“The cup which my Father hath given me to drink, shall I not drink it?” he said (John 18:11).

In view of the suggestion, that the hour might pass from him, he said,

“For this cause came I unto this hour “ (John 12:27).

It pleased the Lord to bruise him; to put him to grief (Isa. 53:10), and grievous was the burden of his sorrow which cast a mantle of gloom over the days of his flesh, when with strong crying and tears he offered up prayers to Him that was able to save, and was heard in that he feared (Heb. 5:7). We can understand why this sorrow should increase with the approach of the bitter hour, and why he should look, with some degree of consolation, to the unbosoming of his sorrow which was to take place at the eating of the passover.

It was a sober meeting in that upper room, when all outside was feasting and gladness.

“All ye shall be offended because of me this night,” said he.

The pain and perplexity of the disciples, caused by this remark, can be imagined, especially when he added:

“Verily I say unto you, One of you shall betray me.”

The simple loyalty of the disciples could but unite with Peter’s exclamation,

“Though all men forsake thee, yet will not I.”

Yet they could not penetrate the portentous sayings of their Master, whose wisdom they had learnt to have in awe, though his teachings they did not at all times comprehend. They sat still in the cloud, and waited while light began to break. Having unburdened his own soul, Jesus proceeded to pour the oil of consolation into their smarting wounds.

“Let not your hearts be troubled,” he said; “ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.”

Herein we have the connection between the cross and the crown. The sorrow of the hour was but part of the work of preparation for the Great House of the Father, whose presence (“the tabernacle of God with men”) shall lead to a wiping away of tears, and a blotting out of every curse and all death. The first “going” of the Lord in the work of preparation was “to prison and to death.” This was the cup that could not pass. If the Lord had not died, men would not have been saved, nor mansions developed. Death had passed upon all through sin, under the law which constituted death the wages of sin; and it had pleased the Father to require this law to be fully upheld as the basis of the scheme by which salvation had come by Christ. Without the blood of a sinless representative, the covenants of promise must remain a dead letter. Without the slaying of the lamb, there could be no “passing over” by the angel of death.

This mystery Jesus, after the unburdening of his sorrow, proceeds to bring before his disciples in new symbols, in the use of which he laid a new basis for the fellowship of his friends, and established a new bond of connection between himself as THE TRUTH, and all who should come unto God by him.

“As they were eating (the Passover), he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he brake it and gave to his disciples, saying ‘Take this, and divide it among yourselves. This is my body broken for you. This do in remembrance of me.’ And likewise the cup, when he had given thanks, saying, ‘This cup is the New Testament in my blood, which is shed for you: drink ye all of it.’”

This brings Christ forward as the bread of life, in the partaking of whom by the truth, we become constituents of the ONE BODY. It places him in the position of the Head, the First, the Alpha and Omega, of the salvation of God; and, in this respect, the “Lord’s Supper” is a continual protest against the fancies of men by which they hope to save themselves without Christ. It is also a continual profession of subjection on the part of all true disciples, and a continual remembrance of those things which are apt to pass out of mind. The fealty of the one Body and the supremacy of the Lord, as head and husband, root and vine, are the most glorious and characteristic features of the system which centres in Christ. This mutual relation is tempered by the highest love. The Lord loves the ecclesia. Hence the latter sing:

Also Paul says that men ought to love their wives “even as the Lord the ecclesia.” This love is returned. “All that love the Lord Jesus in sincerity and in truth,” is Paul’s description of such as constitute the ecclesia. Where this reciprocated love does not exist, the relation to Christ is not by him recognised.

“Except a man love me . . . he cannot be my disciple.”

Now, consider this feature, and you will find it has in it the greatest glory conceivable to the human mind. We never see a finer thing on earth than love. We do not see it often in its perfect form, because the conditions necessary for its full play are rarely met. There is plentiful and abundant scope for the love that takes the form of benevolence: kindness to the afflicted, attention to the humble and poorly-gifted, and almsgiving to the poor. These are godly manifestations, and satisfying to the doer; but the glowing attachment that is gendered by the mutual exhibition of excellence-the luxury of requited noble love-is a flower of heaven that grows not by the way-side. It is to be met with in secret corners, now and then blooming like the violet unseen, and coming never to maturity then, unless the good seed of the kingdom is the germ of the flower. In the Captain of our Salvation the conditions of love exist in their fulness. Presented to us as the object of supreme attachment-attachment to whom is the indispensable condition of discipleship-we have in him, as Paul expresses it, “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:3). He is the wisdom of God manifested in an individual of our race. He is the “power of God,” to whom is committed all power in heaven and earth. He is the goodness of God;

“God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself” (2 Cor. 5:19).

Wisdom, power, excellence, goodness, and authority combine to make him altogether lovely, and this loveliness is made to shine with greater power into our hearts by the fact that he died for and gives life to us, but for which, we should never have risen above the level of the perishing races around. We can love him without danger of recoil. No inferior manifestation on his part will ever cool our ardour or tire our preference. He is the focus of the covenanted goodness; the head of the body; the centre of the circle, the nucleus of the glorious family, the beginning of the new creation; the spirit of the system; the life of the community.

“As is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.”

The body is of common nature with the head. The younger members of the family bear resemblance to the Elder Brother. The wisdom, nobility, and love of the head radiate to the utmost member, and impart beauty and health to the whole alike. We may not see this illustrated at present. The one body, of whom these things are affirmed, is only in process of development. Its principal constituents are in the womb of the night. The gates of Hades enclose the multitude of sleeping saints. The few who are in the land of the living are set in ungodly surroundings, and in association with many who have the name but not the spirit of the calling. In the family as it exists in the state of probation, there is much that is adventitious and destined to be rejected. This is needful to the effectual proving of the genuine. The aspect of the family in the land of the living will disappoint those who consider it in the light of its divine ideal. They make a discouraging mistake who look to find the heavenly excellences in every professed member of the bride. Only a few will be saved. The divine ideal will not be realised till all the children of God scattered abroad (living and dead) are “gathered together in one” (John 11:52); and presented to Christ by himself, a glorious ecclesia, without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing (Eph. 5:27). Keeping the eye on this, faith can feed, and purpose in Christ grow strong. We can see in the future a whole family of glorious sons and daughters, among whom will be no liars, cold hearts or fools-a community of righteous men in perfect health, with boundless wealth, unwearying faculty, overflowing love, and everlasting joy. Oh, the glory of the divine purpose in Christ. It is the substance of the shadowy visions which cross the dreams of poets and philosophers; but a substance that can never be reached by them. They are out of the channel of its development. In God only can it be found. It cannot be reached outside of His way. His way is in Christ, and the philosophers and poets reject Christ, though in words they profess to admire him. The way of Christ has been made known by his ambassadors, the apostles, and the safety of perishing man lies only in hearing their word.

To see Christ unbosom his grief to his disciples, and soothe the sorrow caused by his words, is to learn that if we belong to the Christ community, we are not callous theorists or unsanctified dealers in “doctrines” that touch not our feelings and move not our sentiments; but on the contrary, the love of Christ constraineth us, “because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: and that he died for all, that they that live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him that died for them, and rose again” (2 Cor. 5:14-15). This love is one of the fruits of the Spirit, which will only grow in well-tended soil. The “good and honest heart” is the good ground that will yield a harvest to this culture; but without the culture, the harvest will not come. Natural goodness and honesty of heart will not of themselves bring forth the fruits of the Spirit, any more than rich garden ground will grow roses and gooseberries without planting. Good ground will grow nettles as easily as bad ground, and a little more luxuriantly if it is turned to that use. An excellent constitution of mind requires the Spirit-seed before the Spirit-fruits can come. “The good seed is the word of the kingdom”; the descending rain is to be found in the Spirit shed upon us through the prophets and apostles, to the refreshment of our dry and thirsty souls. From thence issues the water of life, which the Spirit invites us to drink, that in the end we may thirst no more. In plain speaking, the root of the matter is to be found in the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. The despised Bible, which perverted people call a dead letter, is this golden fountain. Daily companionship in diligent, methodical and attentive reading and continual meditation on its many and wonderful unfoldings, will gender and nourish the fruits of the Spirit, and cause a gradual but certain growing up into Christ our living head. It will bring about in us a like-mindedness to him, renewing the spirit of our mind, and strengthening the image of the new man, which has been formed within us by the truth.

The study of particular subjects will not bring this result. A man is likely to be a dry and sapless branch who feeds on one extracted element of the vine-juice. The kingdom alone without the God of the kingdom and the purpose of the kingdom, will generate spiritual idiocy. The signs of the time, without the two great commandments on which hang all the law and the prophets, will gender hardness of heart. The mortality of human nature studied by itself will produce a monster; the “state of the dead,” spiritual moles and bats; earth creatures, who delight to burrow in the “dust and ashes” of this state of humiliation, insensible to the noble aspirations after the higher ways, to which Christ is the door. God-manifestation by itself will give us a scorching glare, that will parch the ground, and spread desolation. In the spiritual, as in the natural, we must have all the elements of growth, in order to have a healthy life of the creature, or healthy fructification of the soil. Let us have the air, earth, and sky of God’s entire word; the refreshing shower, as well as the invigorating breeze; the moon that walks in her brightness, as well as the glorious orb of the day; the ploughing, and harrowing, and planting, as well as watering and garnering; the ramble on the mountain side, as well as the meditative rest at home. We must have all that goes to make up a healthy life. We must have the glory of the promises, the beauty of holiness, the sweetness of love, the tenderness of compassion, the brightness of hope, the vigour of good sense, faith in the mysteries, intelligence in the signs, taste for the first principles, skill in strong meat. All these will combine to make a lovable, interesting, and useful man in Christ Jesus; but this can only be reached by continual presence in the word, a daily picking up over the breadth of its richly-furnished fields, neglecting no corners, giving no preference to any part, but honouring, and studying, and treasuring all alike. Thus will the man of God be thoroughly furnished unto all good works. The labour is not great, but continuous. It is like the small economies which, steadily practised, lead to wealth; little by little, till more is in your hands than you know. The result in this case is beyond all price, and, therefore, worth all perseverance. It is, indeed, the pearl of great price, which a wise man will dispense with everything to obtain. It is the one thing needful, which secured, will never be taken away. It leads to the blessedness which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard; nor hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive.

“Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men” (Psa. 31:19).

 

Taken from: - “Seasons of Comfort” Vol. 1

Pages 273-278

By Bro. Robert Roberts

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