THURSDAY March 13th
There are a few more occasions for the word prepare that I want to turn to and the first is following on from the Passover Lamb and it is found in Luke 22:7-13, I suppose chronologically I should have put this devotion earlier, it was one of the first I thought about, but I have deliberately left it till now.
‘Then came the day of Unleavened Bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. So Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat it.” They said to him, “Where will you have us prepare it?” He said to them, “Behold, when you have entered the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him into the house that he enters and tell the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says to you, Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ And he will show you a large upper room furnished; prepare it there.” And they went and found it just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover.’
The day before Jesus was crucified, the evening in which he was betrayed, taken and arrested, was the day of unleavened bread, the celebration of what had happened way back in Egypt with the children of Israel. And Jesus wanted to share in this feast with his disciples and so he sent them ahead to the upper room to prepare for what was going to become a special moment not just for the disciples but also for you and me today.
And notice that Jesus had already got the directions prepared for them, ‘When you have entered the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you’, and they were to follow him and ask for the guest room.
And that night as Jesus was at supper with his disciples, he instituted what to me is what should be one of the most important features or aspects of our coming together and something that we need to be regularly participating in as the Church, the body of Christ and that is what we call the Lords Supper. In Acts 2, after the Holy Spirit had come on the day of Pentecost, and Peter along with the eleven had preached the gospel, 3000 souls were saved, and it says in Acts 2:42 that ‘they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.’
Too often and I have been in churches where this has happened, it would seem that the celebration of communion is just an add on if you want to participate, and only once in a while and quickly rushed over, I recall going to one church where it was just stated that if you want communion just go to the corner over there and help yourself, Jesus intended it to be far more than that. The annual memorial Passover Feast for the Children of Israel was important to them and it has become what we as the body of Christ call our memorial of what Christ has done for us in allowing his body to be broken and his blood to be shed, for the remission of our sin, but it is also our signpost toward the future, for we do this, that is celebrate communion together until he comes again, and when he comes again we will enter into all that he has prepared for those who love him.