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.… I. LET US GLANCE AT THE GOSPEL FEAST, AS EXHIBITED TO OUR VIEW IN OUR PERIODICAL APPROACH TO THE TABLE OF THE LORD. What is it that we are to feast upon? What is it of which Jehovah Jesus says — "This is My Body, and this is My Blood"? It is His own Person — the glorious, perfect, complete God-Man. It is His redemption work, accomplished and perfected by Himself, which constitutes the gospel feast. 1. The redemption which constitutes good for our souls is perfect. Christ has not done His work by halves. He has not left His work in an unfinished state. 2. Moreover, the redemption that is in Jesus Christ is personal; and if it be not so, there is no eating of it. If you come to a meal, to make it personal, you must participate; you must receive for yourself. 3. Moreover, it is a permanent redemption. II. LET ME PASS ON TO NOTICE THE ORDAINED GUESTS. He took and brake it, and gave to them — His disciples. I do not believe that Judas was there at that moment, though some people do. I shall not stop to argue that point, however. There are two things, and only two things, essential to a welcome guest. The first is, vital godliness, as an essential qualification; and the second is, the imputed righteousness of Christ as the essential robe. III. LET ME NOW PRESS ON TO SPEAK OF THE ORTHODOX VIANDS THAT WE EXPECT TO FEAST UPON, OF WHICH MY PRECIOUS LORD SAYS — "Take, eat, this is My Body, and this is My Blood." The sacrificed Lamb is the great feast itself. This was ordered under the Levitical dispensation every morning and evening — a lamb to be sacrificed and presented to the Lord — the lamb of the Passover; and the same sacred emblem, pointing to the precious Christ of God, is declared to be the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world; and just such persons as I have been describing were welcome to partake of it. This feasting on the Lamb, the atoning Blood, the perfect satisfaction, and the sacred acceptance thereof, is announced by God Himself as a thing with which He is well pleased; and the soul that is under the teaching and the operation of the Holy Ghost can find nothing to feast upon short of It. If I go to some places I have nothing but a dinner of poisonous herbs: I mean the beauties of rhetoric, the eloquence of the creature, heathenish morality, and nothing to profit the precious soul that is born from above. The believer is able to do what the Israelites were commanded to do: he is able to eat a whole lamb; he is able to partake of a whole Christ. So we may well say again, "having Christ, I possess all things." Do not talk to me of feeding upon frames and feelings, and groping amongst "ifs" and "buts," and "peradventures," and probabilities, and contingencies, and conditions and uncertainties — they are enough to make all the people of God like Pharaoh's lean kine, if they do not absolutely starve them to death. IV. LET ME NOW LEAD ON YOUR ATTENTION TO THE MASTER'S WORDS — "This is My body;" and "This is My Blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many." Mark, I beseech you, that this sacred gospel feast is intended to nourish not the fleshly, but the spiritual existence. (Joseph Irons, M. A.) 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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