Two Communion Heroes

A sermon preached by Dr. James Flamming
Pastor, Richmond’s First Baptist Church
Sunday, September 1, 2002

Text Luke 22     

We are spotlighting Biblical heroes these days, heroes in the shadows.  Why in the shadows?  Not many of us would see ourselves as a Moses or an Abraham, an Isaiah, maybe a little more like a Simon Peter, but after all, look what he did.  But those heroes in the shadows that God uses in just such a remarkable way--they’re like we are.  The two heroes to which I turn this morning made that first Lord’s Supper possible.  It is not much of an exaggeration to say we are observing communion, we are gathering around the Lord’s table today, because those two did what they did two thousand years ago.  Heroes in the shadows.

           I will begin reading Luke 22:7:  This was the last week, indeed the last day of our Lord’s earthly life. 

          “Then came the day of unleaven bread on which the Passover Lamb had to be sacrificed and Jesus sent Peter and John saying, “Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.”

          “Where do you want us to prepare for it?” they asked.

          He replied, “As you enter the city a man carrying a jar of water will meet you.  Follow him to the house that he enters and say to the owner of the house, the Teacher asks,  ‘Where is the guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’  He will show you a large upper room, all furnished.  Make preparations there.” 

          And they left and found things just as Jesus had told them and they prepared for the Passover.

          Verse 14:  When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table and he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.”

          17:  After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, “Take this, divide it among you for I tell you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom comes.” 

          And then he took the bread and he gave thanks and broke it and gave it to them saying, “This is my body given for you.  Do this in remembrance of me.”

           In the same way after the supper, He took the cup saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood which is poured out for you.”            Thanks be unto God for his written word.

          Here’s what happened.  It was Jesus’s last day.  He wants to have a meal, a Passover meal with his disciples and once again Jesus did not leave things for the last minute.  His preparations were fully made.  And the two disciples were to go and, as they entered the city, find a man carrying a water jar.  What a strange request, designation, identification.  But you see in those days, it was not so unusual at all for this to be the designated one to give directions.  See, men did not carry water jars.  Women did.  It would have been as conspicuous, would have been as conspicuous as those guys who root for the Redskins that are called “Hogs”.  They wear dresses, the hog masks, the lady’s wig or hat. How many of you men would go watch a football game with that paraphernalia on?  Let me see your hands. I bless you my brothers!  I want you to do it for me too.     

          Now there was one exception to this - men carrying water jars.  For some, it was a business.  You see, in those days women could not hold a job.  They were not allowed.  The water jars they carried, they carried for their family.  There was no running water, so every day a family had to go to the well.  The wife would take the water jar, put it on her head, walk home.  The family had water for the day.  (Truth is, a significant population of the world in third-world countries still do that every day. It is the woman who carries the water.)  But there were well-to-do families in that day just like there are today.  And the wives of those well-to-do families didn’t want to carry those water jars anymore.  And so enterprising entrepreneurs set up the business of delivering water to a house.  And in my thinking, that is who is carrying the water now.

           Do not miss this.  What Jesus does is just so like him!  He uses a guy right in the middle of his workday doing what he is about in his work and uses him for his purposes right then.  He does not say to that man who has got his business of carrying water, he does not say, “Become a rabbi.”  He does not say, “Become a priest.”  He does not say, “Go study at so and so.”  Jesus must have come up to him at some time and said, “Now you have been such a good friend of mine.  We have been close.  You have followed me.  You have listened to me teach.  Now I want to ask you to do something for me.  When my disciples come and they want to know where the Passover will be observed among us, I want you to take them to that house where you deliver the water.  Jesus could have drawn a map.  Jesus could have given directions.  Why did he go through somebody?  You have not caught on!  Jesus does not do it that way.  He is always about maximizing a lay person like you and you and you going right into the workplace, using you right where you are, calling out the gifts that you have and what you can do for him right there, and that is what he does here.  And that is what he is still doing.  Doing it every week, doing it every day in the workplace with one who is willing to listen, with one who is willing to share, right there, right then.

          On that day, when the disciples came, the man took him to a well-to-do place.  We know that because it had a large upper room.  Houses in that day and time, just like today, the wealth of them was determined by the size.  But in that day and time, they were built very much like just little rectangles, like a matchbox.  And it was a big matchbox--pretty wealthy folks.  And they would have a second story and that second story was invariably given for entertaining, welcoming guests and the like.  What Jesus did was reach the top of the economic bracket and the bottom of the economic bracket.  The lepers on the one hand, the leaders on the other hand.  The rich folks on one hand and the poorest of the poor on the other and they all felt part of his family.  Incredible! 

          Now he goes to the Upper Room.  He takes his disciples.  It is all prepared.  The host is so grateful.  There is something about the Holy Spirit that loves homes.  And anytime you open your home, something of believers or a Bible study or a fellowship, or you are letting the young people come in.  I am going to tell you something.  The Holy Spirit has a special place for the home-treasured gospel.  Always will.  In mission field after mission field after mission field that is how churches start, in homes. Still does.  

          You know what those two men did?  They put together a memory that for 2,000 years has been in the Christian memory bank.  The Upper Room.  Now the image many of us have will be Leonardo DaVinci’s “Last Supper.”  It is more of an “Italian” Upper Room than it is a “Judean” Upper Room, but that is all right.  Just think about all the Christians who through all of the centuries have read that and heard that and have had in their minds that last scene when Jesus gathered his disciples together around him.  Do you realize that you would not have that image, you would not be able to remember Leonardo DaVinci’s painting had it not been for two faithful laymen that made it all possible?  What is God trying to make possible through you and through you?

          Now it is time for the Passover and the Lord does some significant things in a rather brief time.  Twice in Luke’s account, Jesus raises the cup.  And each time he does he teaches an invaluable lesson for all of us.  The first time he raised the cup he said, “I am going to pass this around.  I want each one of you to take some of it.”  He shared the cup, his cup.  His disciples are taking from the same cup he has.  He says, “My destiny is going to become your destiny.  My calling I share with you.  That for which God sent me I now send you.  Take this cup.  It is not only mine, it is yours.  I am called to love, you love.  I am called to speak, you share.  I am called to forgive, you become forgivers.  I am called to fulfill the promise and you are now called to fulfill the promise and he takes the cup and he passes it all around so that the apostles are with the very same purpose and promise and task and sinness that Jesus came with.  The Messiah shares himself. 

          And then he took the bread and he broke it and he said, “This is my body which is going to be broken for you.”  Hmm.  Why is it that for Christians this bread has such a significance? It is ordinary bread.  Well you see, this bread for us is a carrier of what he is about and what he has done for us.  It is a carrier of his love. 

          You may not know the name, Sir James Bary, but if I say to you, “Peter Pan”, now you will know.  You see, James Bary was the playwright, the author of Peter Pan.  Very distinguished, honored man in England in the early part of the last century.  He was knighted.  I think it was 1917.  When his mother died they found as they were going through the things that she left behind, they found all of the envelopes that had contained the checks he had written to his mother and sent every month so that she could be provided for.  And they were lined up one after another after another, box after box.  He had lovingly cared for her and she had taken those envelopes from her famous son and kept them.  For those who were going through all of the things, they were just old envelopes.  But for that mother, they were carriers of a son’s love.  When we take the bread, it becomes for us carriers of the Son of God’s love for us.

           And then he took the cup again and he raised it and he said, “This is the new covenant.”  The new covenant!  Six hundred years they had waited.  Jeremiah had said it would come.  “I am going to establish a new covenant and the new covenant is not going to be like to old covenant.  The new covenant is going to be based upon the inward spirit of God within you and it’s going to be based upon forgiveness.”  That’s back in Jeremiah 31.  Now it’s happening on this night at this place!  Jesus raises the cup and announces, “It is here!  The day has come!  The promise is fulfilled!  The prophecy is now! 

          Let us talk about covenant a minute.  See, covenant is simply a way in which we describe human relationships--how we transact.  How we relate to one another.  Covenants happen every day.  For example, the most common is Request-Response.  You are in a classroom.  The teacher says, “Get out your pencils, I am going to give you a quiz.”  Request-Response.  She gives the quiz, you write it down.  You are in a restaurant, you have a menu.  You make your request, bring back their response.  Request-Response.  A manager tells her secretary, “I want you to take these letters.”  Request-Response. 

          Sometimes however that is not enough.  And in any disciplined skilled area of human relationship and human endeavor you have to have more than request.  It becomes command.  Command-Obey.  August has been here.  Whew!  Every August I believe this is true.  Every August, any man who has ever played football gives God thanks he is not out there doing “two-a-days.”  As good as it was, my goodness.  And at the end of it is wind sprints.  And it’s pure Command-Obey.  I have never had anybody that I ever played with say to the coach, “Now Coach, let’s be intelligent about this.  You know it just does not make any sense to wind up a hard practice with wind sprints.  That is ridiculous.  Let us negotiate this.”  Won’t ever happen.  Why?  Because when you sign on, you sign on to a covenant relationship (you don’t call it that, but it is there) that what the coach says, you are going to do.  And if you don’t do it, you are not going to be on that team very long.  You can either do it and be a winner, or you can quit and be a loser.  That is it.

          Now, in the Old Testament, it is very essential to put in place Command-Obey.  The Ten Commandments:  Command-Obey.  Moses goes before the people and he says, “I put before you life and death.  If you want life do this, if you don’t...”  But there is one thing about that that will not work.  When you put it in a family basis, or a marriage basis or a parent-son-daughter relationship, Command-Obey, needs fulfilling.  Now you need something that is based upon an inner “want-to” instead of an outer “forced-to.”  And the Old Testament covenant is coming in from the outside, “Do it!”  The New Testament covenant is coming out of the inside “because we want to” and it is based upon forgiveness and a new beginning!  No wonder when Jesus raised the cup and announced that the new covenant was coming into being, everything got quiet.  And on this day when we celebrate it all, oh my!  Do not let it pass and take it for granted because what the Lord did was hand you not only Command and Obedience, but Forgiveness and a New Beginning!  He did something else.  He shared the cup.  “As I forgive,” he said, “you have to forgive.”  He made it even stronger.  Sermon on the Mount he said, “If you do not forgive your friends who have hurt you, I won’t forgive you, the Father in Heaven won’t.”  That means that forgiveness always, always (if it is true forgiveness) always means change.  It takes change to receive forgiveness.  It takes change to give forgiveness. 

          One other thing.  Cost.  True forgiveness always costs.  If you have never truly forgiven, you do not realize the immense cost from the most inside heart of you to take in somebody who has hurt or somebody who has rejected you and you finally are able to say, “I forgive and what a cost it is.” 

          And you say to me, “This is not fair!  God is way up there in his heaven, far removed and he puts all these things upon us!  Where is he when all of this real life is happening?”   Maybe you missed it.  Maybe you missed it.  On the night he was betrayed, he took the bread and he broke it.  There is the cost that heaven is willing to pay.  And then he took the cup and he said, “This is the new covenant in my blood which is shed for you, it is poured out for you.”  That is the cost.