The Chew

George Sneddon September 12, 2023 1 1

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Mark 14: 12-26 (NRSVA)

12 On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed, his disciples said to him, ‘Where do you want us to go and make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?’ 13 So he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, ‘Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you; follow him, 14 and wherever he enters, say to the owner of the house, “The Teacher asks, Where is my guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?” 15 He will show you a large room upstairs, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there.’ 16 So the disciples set out and went to the city, and found everything as he had told them; and they prepared the Passover meal.

17 When it was evening, he came with the twelve. 18 And when they had taken their places and were eating, Jesus said, ‘Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.’ 19 They began to be distressed and to say to him one after another, ‘Surely, not I?’ 20 He said to them, ‘It is one of the twelve, one who is dipping bread into the bowl with me. 21 For the Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that one by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that one not to have been born.’

22 While they were eating, he took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to them, and said, ‘Take; this is my body.’ 23 Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, and all of them drank from it. 24 He said to them, ‘This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. 25 Truly I tell you, I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.’

26 When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

It’s easy to forget sometimes the importance and significance of Holy Communion. The Passover is fulfilled. We are not only partaking in a meal, with set aside elements and a well written liturgy, we are partaking of an event that has reached its conclusion. Jesus gave us the final Passover, one that will now be remembered well into eternity.

We are not only eating bread and wine alongside all those saints of eighty generations that have gone before us, we are sharing Passover with the millenniums’ of people right back to that night in Egypt when God made his promise. A promise that has now been fulfilled in the deepest way.

Mark has invited us in.

Witness the crust of the loaf as it breaks, recognising the brokenness to come in the body of the Lord. See the deep redness of the wine, swirling in the cup, ready to be drunk. Recall the taste. The chew. The way it passes your lips and into your stomach. The way it streams through your veins. This meal becomes part of you. Your very cells are fed by it.

PRAYER:

Lord, you are the promise
You are the fulfilment.
You are the new covenant
in bread broken
and in wine poured.

We are weak, but thou art mighty;
Hold me with thy powerful hand:
Bread of heaven, bread of heaven
Feed me till I want no more.

Amen.