Mark 14:22-24 And as they did eat, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and broke it, and gave to them, and said, Take, eat: this is my body.… Because the sacraments of the gospel are only two in number, it has sometimes been thought that they must be ordinances of minor importance. No mistake can be greater, or more calculated to depreciate the value of these divinely-appointed ordinances, which, from their very fewness, as well as from having received Christ's explicit command, should receive the Christian's strictest gard. The passage before us leads to inquiries respecting the meaning and design of this great sacrament. I. THE RELATIONS IN WHICH CHRIST HERE PRESENTS HIMSELF TO HIS DISCIPLES. 1. Propitiation. The object of the Lord's Supper is not to commemorate Jesus as a Teacher, though in this He was unlike any other; nor to perpetuate the memory of His example, although His was the only perfect one ever afforded. It is, to keep constantly in mind that He who was the one illustrious Teacher, and the only perfect Exemplar, employing these together with His incarnate Deity, to add efficacy to the offering, yielded up His life a sacrifice for sinners. 2. The whole benefit of His death is available to those for whom He died. All He did is placed to our credit. II. THE RELATIONS WHICH CHRISTIANS BY RECEIVING THIS SACRAMENT ASSUME TOWARDS CHRIST. 1. They confess their need of Christ. At the Holy Table supply and demand meet. Christ proffering and the disciple needing forgiveness, and all the attendant blessings purchased by His blood. 2. They confess their personal faith in Christ. At the Lord's Table disciples individually appropriate Christ's work to themselves. By receiving Christ they gain inward strengthening. 3. They consecrate themselves to Christ. Eating at His Table, they proclaim themselves His friends, and consent to His claims as their Saviour and Lord. Christ there enters into covenant with them, and they with Him. III. THE RELATIONS INTO WHICH BY THIS SACRAMENT CHRISTIANS ARE BROUGHT TOWARD EACH OTHER. 1. Brotherhood. The bond which unites disciples to the Master links them to each other. 2. Love. Ill-will is banished by the very desire to sit with Christ at this feast, and in its warm and sacred atmosphere animosities can no more exist than an iceberg in the gulf stream. (P. B. Davis.) Parallel Verses KJV: And as they did eat, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and brake it, and gave to them, and said, Take, eat: this is my body. |
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