Thought for Thursday
Now when the even was come, He sat down with the twelve. Matthew 26:20
Sometime in 1498, the great painter Leonardo da Vinci completed one of his most famous works, a mural named The Last Supper, which covers an end wall of the refrectory of the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, in Milan, Italy. The painting shows Christ and the twelve disciples seated at a table. The painting purports to show the reaction of the disciples as the Lord Jesus tells them that one of them would betray Him. An examination of this great mural is fascinating, although we have no idea how far it is from showing exactly what that last supper was actually like. We do know that some details, such as the use of a table, are definitely wrong. But we can see that for centuries, what transpired in that room has been of great interest to many. It is certainly of great interest to us today.
It is difficult for us to imagine what life for us would be like today if the event we know as the last supper had never occurred. Suppose for example the Lord Jesus had been seized by soldiers as He and His disciples were entering or leaving the city, or even as they made their way to the place where the Passover was to be eaten. We would never have the Lord’s revelation of the betrayal of Judas, nor the great institution of the Lord’s Supper. We would also not know about Peter’s boast of not denying his Lord, nor the washing of the disciples’ feet and the accompanying teaching of humility. We would never know of the Lord Jesus’ promise to prepare a place for us in His Father’s house, nor the promise of the Holy Spirit. We would also miss out on the Lord’s teaching of the vine and the branches, the warning about persecution, and the Lord’s great prayer of intercession for His own. With all that and much more, we are deeply thankful today that the Lord Jesus sat down with His disciples for that Passover feast.
But is that the last time the Lord Jesus had a meal with His own? We read of at least two occasions when He ate with them after His resurrection: the upper room when He first showed Himself to them, and the lakeside scene where He had prepared breakfast for the disciples. But the new feast He instituted while at the last supper has been repeated millions of times since that great event. And each time a little company of His, gathered to His Name, meets to eat this feast, He has promised to be in the midst. Just as He desired to eat the Passover, and to institute the Lord’s Supper, with his disciples, so He desires to sit down with His people today. Just as any of the disciples would have missed much by being absent at that last supper, we will miss much by being absent at the Lord’s Supper.
It is touching to think of the Lord of Glory sitting down to a meal with His dearest companions. He does that with us once a week. -Jim MacIntosh