In this way, he helped his disciples realize that they needed his sacrifice for a perfect atonement for their sin - their failure to maintain a harmonious fellowship with God and his creation. Peter, after his denial, would deeply realize how much this was needed by all.
Jesus also taught his disciples that they needed a new type of covenant, a covenant in his blood. The covenant at Sinai was with tablets of stone which left their hearts of stone unchanged, still sick with sin. This new covenant would let God write his covenant in their hearts of flesh. God could then teach their hearts. They would be taught directly by God.
It would allow Jesus' disciples to have not only an external agreement with God, but also an internal fellowship. They would know the Lord without external mediation (Jeremiah 31:31-34). The only mediation for this new covenant would be Jesus, the perfect High Priest, offering the perfect sacrifice (Hebrews 5-10). Jesus therefore fully became The Way to God, The Truth and The Life (John 14:6).
The disciples welcomed the life of Jesus in them, they were thus ready to welcome the Holy Spirit in them, the Spirit that had dwelled in Jesus. In this way they would become themselves temples of the Holy Spirit, temples of the Spirit of Jesus, temples of the Spirit of God, thus temples of God. This is what Jesus was during his whole life, this temple that he would rebuild in three days through his resurrection.
A temple is a place where God's manifest presence dwells - what is called the 'glory' of God in the Bible. A temple is also a place where people can ask questions to God and receive answers. Presence and dialogue, the two keys to intimacy and love with God. Without God's presence it is futile to expect to be able to dialog with God. Without dialogs with God it is hard to develop a real love for God, a love relationship with God.
By welcoming the bread - Jesus' body sacrificed for them, the disciples received the power of the atonement for their sins. By welcoming the fruit of the vine as Jesus' blood poured for them for a new covenant in him, they prepared for welcoming the Holy Spirit, for this internal fellowship with God through his presence and teaching.
In the same way, we are invited, as disciples of Jesus, to participate in the Lord's Supper through faith.
As members of a community of faith, we can welcome Jesus' sacrifice for us in taking the bread. We can also welcome his new covenant as we drink of the fruit of the vine. In this way, we are by faith forgiven of our sins and invited to fellowship with God. These two elements are intimately related. Ultimately, sin is the failure to remain in fellowship with God, to listen to him and do his will, so that in response God would do what we ask from him. The healing provided by Jesus, the salvation (in Hebrew: Yeshoua - also translated Jesus), is to deliver us from our separation from God. We needed to be forgiven of our sins (bread) and reunited for intimate fellowship with God through a new covenant (fruit of the vine).
In this way, in Jesus, we could become temples of God, experiencing both the presence and intimate dialogs with God. This enables us to really love God with all our hearts, soul and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves. By being God-centered, spirit-filled, spirit-led, we are no more self-centered. We are not anymore alone in this world.
We can be filled with the presence of the living God, as Jesus showed us the way. We can be filled with this life that is eternal.
Do you believe this? Do you believe Jesus' promise when you participate in the Lord's Supper?
Are you ready to fully enter into this divine experiment of a life transformed by the Spirit of God? Jesus came for this single purpose, to allow us to be delivered from our sins and to enter in a new covenant of intimacy with God. That is the foundation and reason of the Lord's Supper.
It is all about love, God's love for us, God's love in us, God's love through us.
Are you ready to fully embark on this wonderful adventure?
Jesus is waiting for you!
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