The King Prepares for His Passion
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But it is altogether something else to command that your friends, family, and followers gather together regularly at a meal not only in your name but with you as the sole and exclusive focus.... Jesus commanded His followers, every time they broke bread together, to make Him the central point of their celebration and to recall and re-tell His life and death.
Were anyone to make this request of me prior to their death, I would probably conclude that the proximity of their demise had afflicted them with delusions of grandeur and megalomania. Yet, this is precisely what Jesus commanded that each of His followers do in memory of Him! (Storms, “Passover Lamb”; emphasis in original).
Jesus brings things to a close by refusing to drink the fourth and final cup. It is the cup of consummation and life in the promised land of God.330 For that cup He will wait. First, He must drink to the last drop the cup of God’s wrath and justice. Apart from it, no cup of blessing would be possible.
In 1991 Christian songwriter and vocalist Twila Paris penned a song to accompany the observance of the Lord’s Supper by the Lord’s people. It has powerful words for reflection and celebration as we consider the King, His supper, and His passion.
How beautiful the hands that served
The wine and the bread and the sons of the earth How beautiful the feet that walked
The long dusty roads and the hill to the cross
Chorus
How beautiful, how beautiful
How beautiful is the body of Christ
How beautiful the heart that bled
That took all my sin and bore it instead How beautiful the tender eyes
That chose to forgive and never despise
Chorus
And as He laid down His life We offer this sacrifice
That we will live just as He died Willing to pay the price
Willing to pay the price
How beautiful the radiant bride
Who waits for her groom with His light in her eyes How beautiful when humble hearts give
The fruit of pure lives so that others may live
Chorus
How beautiful the feet that bring
The sound of good news and the love of the King How beautiful the hands that serve
The wine and the bread and the sons of the earth
Chorus (Paris, “How Beautiful”)