"Wash up for dinner!"
The boys are playing ball on the back lot -- just a group from
the neighborhood, gathered at random for the afternoon game -- maybe a girl or
two, if necessary, to fill out the line-up. It has been another hard-fought
contest, in which winning seemed all-important at the time, but the next day who
could even remember which team came out ahead! The fun was the game itself, and
no parents intruded to coach or cheer or criticize; it was our game, not
theirs!
But the afternoon shadows are lengthening, and one by one the
players are straggling off home. Then comes the call from the back door:
"George, Wesley. Time to wash up for dinner!"
"Just a minute, Mom! We'll be right there!"
And then -- hot and tired -- we head for the house. Long hours
had been spent outside, in the Texas summer, but it never seemed like work. It
was what we did. And what we would do tomorrow, and the next day, days
stretching interminably on into the fall.
And now one thing was needed to complete another practically
perfect day. Dinner!
But it wasn't just the meal; it was the washing up beforehand,
the gathering around the table, the comfort of father and mother being there
with us, and us with them -- although we wouldn't have known how to articulate
that supreme blessing at the time. It just... was!
And there was the unspoken sense of security, of rightness. As
the light gave way to twilight, and then to the darkness of night, it was being
safe in our own house, with our own things -- toys, books, pet dog -- and our
own family, and our own beds waiting for us later.
*****
Washing up!
For all of us, there is the need to "wash up". The world is a
dirty place, and we are thoroughly wrapped up in it -- we are a part of it, and
it is no less a part of us!
" 'Come now, let us reason together,' says the LORD. 'Though
your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red
as crimson, they shall be like wool' " (Isa 1:18).
The world of sin has left its mark on us, and IN us! For it is
not just THEIR sins -- it is also OUR sins! We need a place, and a time, and a
means, whereby we can be "washed".
"Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my
iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is
always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in
your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you
judge" (Psa 51:1-4).
Our sins are the problem, and that problem is
insurmountable... by our own efforts. But the compassion of our Heavenly Father
has provided a means by which our sins may be washed away!
"The law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with
blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness" (Heb
9:22).
But it is not just the "body" which is unclean through sin; it
is the mind, the heart, the conscience. And so...
"Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full
assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty
conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water" (Heb 10:22).
Like the blood of the special Passover lamb, that was
sprinkled on the doorposts of the Israelites' houses in Egypt, so the blood of
Christ "our Passover lamb" (1Co 5:7) is sprinkled upon our hearts. Thereby the
mind conscious of sin is cleansed of its guilt, and renewed, and mind and body
alike are protected from the Angel of Death!
Paradoxically, the washing by which we are cleansed is not
accomplished with water -- perhaps we should say, not with water ONLY! True, we
are washed with water when we are baptized, but -- figuratively -- we are being
washed in the blood of the Passover lamb:
"They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood
of the Lamb" (Rev 7:14).
Naturally speaking, this is an impossibility. But with God it
is a requirement. No amount of washing with water, and soap, can ever be enough!
It is in fact impossible that we can be truly cleansed apart from being
immersed, or baptized, in his blood! But once we have touched that blood, and
that blood has touched us, then -- for the first time -- we may be truly
clean!
All of this is of course simply another way of saying that our
sins may be forgiven through our faith in the man who lived a life without sin.
But the Bible doesn't stop with so mundane a statement. It enhances it, and
embellishes it, with one "picture" after another. In Christ our sins
are:
- "covered" (Psa 32:1),
- "removed" (Psa 103:12),
- "cast behind God's
back" (Isa 38:17),
- "blotted out" (Psa 51:1; Isa 44:22),
- "washed away"
(Psa 51:2,7),
- "remembered no more" (Jer 31:34),
- "sought for but not
found" (Jer 50:20), and
- "cast into the depths of the sea" (Mic
7:19).
And so Paul can write to the Romans that there remains "no
more condemnation" to those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:1) -- and he can mean
it!
*****
"It's time for dinner!"
One thing Jesus greatly desired, as the end approached. It was
to partake of a special meal -- HIS special meal -- with his closest friends.
Even while armed men sought to arrest him, and no place in or near Jerusalem was
safe, he shepherded his disciples to a special room in a special house, where
all the provisions had been made to celebrate the Passover.
And there, while they jockeyed for positions of honor at the
table (cp Luk 14:8-14), and for positions of office in his coming Kingdom --
which they were sure was about to be established -- he, the Lord and Master of
all, "took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After
that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying
them with the towel that was wrapped around him" (John 13:4,5). He "humbled
himself" (Phi 2:5,8), being "clothed with humility" (1Pe 5:1-6). And he showed
them that the road to the crown was by way of the cross. They looked for a
revelation of glory, but they saw, instead, a servant kneeling at their
feet.
Peter, possessing uncommon insight, sees this "contradiction"
and protests: "Lord, are you going to wash MY feet?" (John 13:6). But Jesus
turns this protest aside: "You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you
will understand... Unless I wash you, you have no part with me" (vv
7,8).
So the time of the great meal was preceded by a time of
washing. The dirt of the road and the field must be lovingly washed away by the
one who came to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Only then could
the meal begin.
"While they were eating..." (Mat 26:26). The Lord's supper,
shared with his disciples, reinforced the point that they were a family, with
one Father: a family committed to love one another, and to serve one another,
and to walk arm in arm toward a shared goal, helping each other along the way.
The Lord's supper, shared with his disciples, reminded them
ever so subtly that they needed nourishment, and that that nourishment could
come only from the Father.
The Lord's supper was to be partaken in company with other
family members. A meal eaten in solitude is no real meal. God has placed the
lonely and solitary in a family, and the food is to be shared out amongst all
the family members.
The Lord's supper, shared with his disciples -- on that
special night before his arrest -- taught them, one more time, that safety and
security could be found only in the circle of believers... inside the house
sprinkled with his blood. Outside was only darkness and fear and impending
death. But inside was family... and friends, and love, and life.
The Lord's supper was also:
- a memorial of Christ's sacrifice: "This is my body... this is my blood"
(Mat 26:26,27).
- a feast of remembrance: "Do this in remembrance of ME" (1Co
11:24).
- a celebration of victory -- for it is the place where the "dead" are
brought back to "life" again (Act 20:7).
- a token of fellowship (1Co 10:16)
-- for the act of eating the bread and drinking the wine is the means by which
all participate in the sufferings of Christ, and in his glory as well.
- a
confession of hope: "For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you
proclaim the Lord's death until he comes" (1Co
11:26).
"UNTIL HE COMES..." "Until the trump of God is heard... until
the ancient graves be stirred... and with the great commanding word... the Lord
shall come!"
For this meal, the Lord's supper, exists, all at once, in the
past, the present, and the future.
The believer takes the bread and the wine, and looks back to
the Upper Room in Jerusalem, and a little flock waiting for the voice of their
Shepherd.
The believer takes the bread and the wine, and looks around
himself, at others who are not just part of his "family", but part of the
eternal "family" of God, tied by sacred cords of memory to all who have walked
the same path before them.
And he takes the bread and wine, and looks forward: "I tell
you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when
I drink it anew with you in my Father's kingdom" (Mat 26:29).
*****
The "game" of our lives is just about finished. The shadows
are lengthening, and the dusk draws on. Soon we will hear a voice calling for
us: "Time to wash up for dinner!"
We will go, tired but joyful, into that warm and comfortable
house. Soap and water and towels are there. We hurry to wash up. Then we gather
around the table that has been prepared for us.
