Christian teaching

When we share together in the Lord’s supper there are a lot things going on:

• We are remembering Jesus
• We are proclaiming his death and the salvation that comes through this
• We are offering up a sacrifice of praise and thanks for our salvation
• We are recovenanting with God – or to say it a bit differently, remembering our baptismal commitment to walk in Jesus’ way
• And we are sharing fellowship with Jesus and each other

And then one other, which is our focus, we are looking forward to the great celebration. This great celebration is called . ..

The Messianic banquet

. . . or the banquet of the Messiah. This is when we will celebrate with Jesus his victory and our salvation in the age to come, after his second coming. It was seen as a kind of Passover meal. A celebration of deliverance on a cosmic scale. Jesus agrees with this as we will see below.

Perhaps the best known reference  to this is in Revelation 19:9, which talks about this meal as “the marriage supper of the Lamb.”

The most detailed text, however, is Isaiah 25:6-8. The banquet itself is described in v.6 – “On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all people a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.” This will be an amazing feast with fine, luxurious foods and wine.

Why will we celebrate? God will take away death. This will be the time of resurrection. Vs. 7-8a – “And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever.”

Also, we will rejoice, for God will give us peace and joy. V. 8b – “and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.”

Jesus talks about this party a lot

1) It will be “a great banquet” – Luke 14:16 (from the parable of the banquet). There will be wine – Mark 14:25, and excellent food. In a parable that speaks of this it talks about “oxen and fattened calves” – Matthew 22:4. It is also compared to a wedding feast in Matthew 25:10.

2) Jesus will serve at table – Luke 12:37 (from another parable about this event). This speaks of the second coming when Jesus will return. Speaking of himself, Jesus says, “Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them.” Its pretty cool to have Jesus serve you dinner.

3) The Old Testament saints will be there – Luke 13:28. He says, “Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets” will be there.

4) The apostles will be there – Luke 22:28-30. He said to them, “You are those who have stayed with me in my trials, and I assign to you, as my Father assigned to me, a kingdom, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”

5) Lots of other people will be there too – Luke 13:29. “And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God.” There will be people from different periods of time, different races, continents, cultures and nations. All those who respond to Jesus’ invitation to come will partake – Luke 14:21 (parable of the banquet). And the table will be full – Matthew 22:10 (parable of the wedding banquet).

It will be an awesome celebration! What I want to say, then, is that

The Lord’s supper is an anticipation of this celebration

Jesus himself makes the connection between the Lord’s supper and the Messianic banquet in two places:

First in Luke 22:15-16, just before they share the Lord’s supper together. He says, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” He connects the Lords’ supper with the Passover meal and then connects both of these to the coming Messianic banquet

The other place is Matthew 26:29 just after the he has shared the Lord’s supper with them. He says, “I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.” He connects the Lord’s supper with sharing a meal with them in the future – the Messianic banquet.

So the Lord’s supper points ahead to something greater than it. And every time we partake we are reminded of and anticipate what is to come when we will celebrate with Jesus in the Kingdom. So we are waiting for this – but also, and this is amazing, so is Jesus!

Even now Jesus is waiting for the great celebration

We already looked at Matthew 26:29, so lets look at Mark’s version. Mark 14:25 says, “Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.” Jesus promises not to celebrate until that day – when we are all united and celebrate together – the salvation he has given to us.

Jesus is not off celebrating without us. Jesus is waiting and anticipating when we can all share together as well.

Lets remember this and think of this as we partake of the Lord’s supper together today. William Higgins