SCRIPTURE: Matthew 26
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
He replied, ‘One of you who has just eaten from this bowl with me will betray me.’ [Matthew 26:23] In Jesus’ time, to eat together was an intimate, spiritually bonding experience. To break bread together meant you were one in heart and mind and spirit. This needs to be recalled when we hear Jesus say, “one who has just eaten with me will betray me”.
The risk of loving others is that they will not return our love, or worse, will betray our love. This passage reveals the agony that Jesus must have experienced as one of His twelve betrays Him, the three fall asleep while He is agonizing in prayer, the twelve flee from Him when He is arrested, and the ‘leader’ (Peter) denies Him with a curse. Add to that the fact that the very nation (and its leaders) set up by God to welcome Him are now scheming to kill Him. The ‘holy’ people are using every unholy trick in the book to have Jesus crucified. He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him. He came to his own people, and even they rejected him [John 1:10-11].
And yet He speaks of a covenant, and of forgiveness. A covenant is a committed relationship, a love bonded by blood and oath. Even though He is hurt by those He loves, He chooses to bond Himself to them through His willing sacrifice of love. The passover meal consisted of the meat of a sacrificed lamb, whose blood was painted on the doorpost to protect the people from the angel of death (judgment). Here He shows that He is willing to be that lamb, to die the death of judgment so that we can we restored, forgiven, set free.
Jesus takes a huge risk in loving me, and you. But here we see that He is prepared to pay the price of loving me. He will absorb my sin, so that I can brought back into loving fellowship with Him and with God. We are all like Judas, like Peter, like the disciples, like the Jews.
And He willingly chooses to eat with me, to be one in heart and mind and spirit with Him. Amazing love!
PRAYER:
Lord, thank You for the invitation to eat with You.
Discipleship. Fellowship. These words belong together. A disciple is a follower of the Master Teacher – learning The Way to walk. As the disciples have shown, it means total commitment. But walking with Him, there are holes in the road that must be avoided. Judas was focussed on the money matters of this world rather than serving Christ. Even the disciples had to be shown the Way by a woman washing Jesus’ feet with the ointment. Again they were thinking the money aspect. Only in Christ do we have the right perspective of life.
Judas thought of his own gain. The woman gave sacrifical love. How do I follow Him?
The cost of discipleship is great. Lead me and guide me in the Way I need to walk, avoiding the barriers of pride, materialism, jealousy, envey, etc And as Jesus met the needs of His disciples by eating with them to renew them, to strengthen them, to teach them, so too You come to me also on this day in fellowship to renew me along the Way avoiding the pitfalls of today. Thank You for Your presence here. Thank You for your amazing love/grace. May I always remember
God is Closer Than You Think.
All that I am I owe to Thee,
Thy wisdom, Lord, has fashioned me;
I give my Maker thankful praise,
Whose wondrous works my soul amaze.
Ere into being I was brought,
Thine eye did see, and in Thy thought
My life in all its perfect plan
Was ordered ere my days began.
Thy thoughts, O God, how manifold,
More precious unto me than gold!
I muse on their infinity,
Awaking I am still with Thee.
The wicked Thou shalt surely slay,
From me let sinners turn away;
They speak against the Name divine,
I count God’s enemies as mine.
Search me, O God, my heart discern,
Try me, my inmost thought to learn;
And lead me, if in sin I stray,
To choose the everlasting way.