"REMEMBER ME"
JOHN 13
Commemorated by traditional Christianity on Thursday March 20, 2009
According to "Crucified " it would be Wednesday evening. ( 3 days, 3 nights in tomb )
THE LAST SUPPER
"REMEMBER
ME"
JOHN 13
Commemorated by traditional Christianity on Thursday March 20,
2009
According to "Crucified " it would
be Wednesday evening. ( 3 days, 3 nights in tomb )
"the
Lord Jesus the same night in which He was betrayed took bread:
And when He had given thanks, He brake it, and said,
'Take, eat: this is My body, which is broken for you:
this do in remembrance of Me
For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup,
ye do show the Lord's death till He
come." 1 Corinthians 11: 23-26
JOHN 13
Whenever my soul longs for intimacy with the Lord, I go to the
chapters containing the Last Supper episode. Here I find the last
tender moments of Our Lord with those He loved. This is also my
refuge whenever a loved one dies, for it talks about seeing them
again later on. There is much comfort and solace in these
passages
(John Chapters 13 through 17).
And there is much truth and insight.
It is our belief that Jesus was celebrating A PRE-Passover Meal
with His disciples on the night before He died. We do not believe
that Jesus was celebrating THE Passover Seder
(which would be celebrated by all Jewry the following day).
Our Lord Himself was and is our Passover, (1 Corinthians 5:7 ) and He was
slain---crucified--- the next day at exactly the same time, 3:00,
as all the lambs in the Temple were being slain for the evening
meal.
Jesus, our Passover, was slain ON the feast of Passover.
This scene here was the day of preparation....the day BEFORE
Passover. Jesus was most likely celebrating a PRE-Passover meal
with His loved ones.....a meal unique in its own right.....a meal
of Remembrance.
HE LOVED
THEM UNTO THE END
"Now BEFORE the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that
His hour was come that He should depart out of this world unto
the Father, having loved His own which were in the world, He
loved them unto the end." John
13:1
Jesus is the Great Shepherd of our souls.
Hebrews 13:20; 1 Peter 2:25; 1 Peter
5:4.
He loves us "unto the end".
There are different endings:
Yes, the rapture is real....and so is the Great Tribulation. And
we are to Pray to be counted worthy to escape all that is coming
upon the world. God has two methods of escape....one is out
of the situation and the other is through
the situation :
.
Furnace
Faith / Deliverance
Daniel Chapter Three
SUPPER WAS
ENDED
In the Gospel of John, the supper was ENDED as we come to this
intimate discourse. The emphasis in John's Gospel is the
heart-to-heart talk Jesus is having with His own by candle light.
The first thing Jesus does (before teaching His students the
greatest lessons they will hear) is to rise, gird Himself and
then bend low before each one (including Judas) to wash their
feet. This washing was not done as a ceremonial ritual before
eating a meal, since the meal was over by now. This washing
pertained to the Gospel, and Jesus commissioning them all. The
Sent One, sending. He still offered hope to Judas.
Here the Master Teacher---their Rabbi---was teaching the utmost
lesson of lessons---that humility comes before greatness
(opposite:pride comes before the fall). That even though our Lord
was the greatest among them, it behooved righteousness to be as a
servant to them.
Our Lord became the Suffering Servant of us all as Isaiah 53 reveals.
One who teaches, one who ministers (especially the Gospel) must
gird himself with the Scriptures and then bend low to make the
lesson as understandable as can be, in the eloquence and
simplicity of a child or servant. The servant lays aside self,
and girds himself with the WORD. In obedience to the Holy Spirit,
he lets the waters of the Word cleanse those souls who have come
thirsting..... "He must increase but I must decrease." John 3:30.
Luke 12:37 tells us that Our
Lord will gird himself at the Marriage Supper and serve us
meat...the meat of the truths we have longed to learn all our
sojourning life down here.
In the washing of the feet the great I AM ( John 13:13) commissions them
all to follow suit, to do likewise. Our Lord knew that His time
on earth would be ending. His specific mission would be fulfilled
and finalized. Yet the Gospel message must go on.....without His
bodily presence. Jesus was now delegating the responsibility to
His disciples to carry the Gospel message forward without Him
here on earth.
TRUTH
TELLERS
It was the Message, irregardless of messenger.
Today, do we focus on the messenger, accepting the wrong with the
right because of the popularity of the one speaking? We need to
be more discerning and re-focus on the truth of the message,
irregardless of messenger. Our Lord can use a donkey if need be (Numbers 22:28) to get His message out, so we
must never think more highly of ourselves than we ought. Romans 12:3
sidenote: Can this
also pertain to the Christian music industry?
Remember when worship consisted in communal singing? Today the
emphasis is upon the individual artist. Though singular artists
have their place, their place has been overly enlarged. Today
some forms of worship have been equated with entertainment and
commercialism.
"If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet: ye
also ought to wash one another's feet".....you ought also to
have 'plan B' going for your ministry at all times. You ought
also to delegate. Let your mantle pass. We must not try to be the
whole answer for the congregation, as Zethro told Moses who then
appointed the 70 elders. We must be replaceable at all times. We
must have peers within the Body of Christ who can lead in worship
with the same Spirit and zeal. The Gospel is not a
Johnny-one-note. The members ought to be as strong in the Word as
the pastor.
THE SOP
The next concept we come to in the Last Supper is BETRAYAL. One
does not know the
penetrating sting of rejection until one has been betrayed by one
of their own........ family friends, "christians",
fellow "believers".... "false
brethren" 2 Corinthians 11:26 and Galatians 2:4
During the Holocaust of W W 2 the Jews ( and righteous
Christians) understood well the treachery of relatives and
neighbors....those who "go along, get
along"....following the Politically Correct ways.
[You may as well know, Timothy, that in the last days people will
be treacherous.]
2 Timothy 3:4. paraphrased.
Treachery is sweet to the traitor. It's a heady feeling of
superiority. Judas tasted that sugary ego trip as he shared the
sop with Jesus. These two men were entering into 2 different
covenants. Jesus was extending one more time the covenant of Life
to Judas...Judas was consummating his covenant with death by
hardening all feelings against the only One who loved him at that
moment. Such is the elasticity of love. It can embrace the
traitor before the evil work is done. Jesus was teaching the
lesson of Agape love. Judas was rejecting the only love left to
save him.
Once the heart is hardened by our own free will, there is nothing
even God can do. He will not violate our free will. People often
ask, "How can a loving God send people to Hell?"
Well, God doesn't send anyone to hell...we send ourselves to
hell.
"God is not willing that any should perish but that all
should come to repentance."
2 Peter 3:9
LEANING,
LEANING
The Gospel records that John leaned on the bosom of our Lord and
that he was the disciple "whom Jesus loved". In our
competitive spirit we take that to mean 'whom He loved more than
the others'. But that is not what the Gospel says. It says that
John was the disciple whom Jesus loved. Jesus loved them all. It
says so just a few verses earlier.
The one REALIZING Jesus' love for himself is the one most loved.
Do we REALIZE that Jesus would die on the cross for us
individually, even if we were the only person
in the world ? Well that is the truth. He didn't die for any one
person specifically over another. He died for anyone needing and
wanting Him. The love cannot become realized until we recognize
how uniquely we are loved, and then we are to respond in kind.
Rachel Joy Scott, Cassie Bernall ( martyrs of Columbine High
School 1999 ) and other modern day martyrs understood how
uniquely they were loved and they loved in kind.
Please see Spiritual Warfare www.cybertime.net/~ajgood/little.html
Whenever we come to verse 23 in John
Chapter 13, let us lay ourselves at the bosom of
Christ and call ourselves the disciple whom Jesus loved. When we
truly understand and realize that, then we too can love in kind.
We lay-persons must ask ourselves....are we reclining and
abiding at the heart of Christ?
IT WAS
NIGHT
All these events of the Last Supper took place before sundown, as
evening was coming on----the meal, the washing of the feet, and
the incident of betrayal.
It was only when Judas left the scene, that it was actually the
dark of night.
Now the candles glowed brighter in the room, the anointing of
fellowship was heavy in the air. The sweet perfume of deep and
abiding friendship enclosed each one. Now came silver words from
a golden tongue.
"The words of the LORD are pure
words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven
times."
Psalm 12:6
How each one of us longs to have been there on such a night of
depth and bonding.
We can be there by the
Holy Spirit. We can read these passages as one sitting at the
table. We must join into this moment for the nourishment of our
own soul.
Our Lord spoke words of love and commitment that night that no
other religious leader in all of history could dare to equal.
They cannot, for these are the words of Life spoken by the author
of Life.
As our Lord looked over each one lovingly, He could see past
their visage and into their future martyrdoms. Oh how tenderly He
must have loved each one.
And still His eyes looked past this scene in 33 AD and Jesus saw
all of His believers and followers and disciples and martyrs down
through the ages....until He saw the generation of 2007 and onwards.
He saw us....the 2007 +
generation . Here we are. Still clinging to His
every word. Still believing and hoping and loving in Him. Still
ready to lay down our lives with Him if need be.
"Neither pray I for these
alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their
word". John 17:20
He prayed for US
directly on that night long ago.
These 2007 years are as 2 days to the Lord.( 2 Peter 3:8) He sees the
future as if it were the present. He saw us in sweet communion
with Him then, as we do so today. The elasticity of "aortist
time"...the timing of God. Aorist time sees the ending with
the beginning. Aorist time is all time as one. Oh if we only
understood how included we are in that holy night.
Oh how He loves you,
Oh how He loves me,
Oh how He loves you and Me !
Hymn: "O How He Loves You and Me !"
http://www.jesusone.com/dailyhymn/hymnal.htm
http://www.jesusone.com/dailyhymn/ohowhelovesyouandme.htm
............................................................
"Wherefore whosoever shall eat
this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be
guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord.
But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread,
and drink of that cup.
For he that drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to
himself,
not discerning the Lord's Body.
For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep
(die).
For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be
judged." 1 Corinthians 11:27-31
The Lord's Table by J David Hoke
www.horizonsnet.org/sermons/tba22.html
Communion in Two Worlds ...J David
Hoke
www.horizonsnet.org/sermons/communion.html
The Last Supper by V. Hoagland, CP
www.cptryon.org/prayer/season/supper.html
Three Days (Triduum) V. Hoagland,
CP
www.cptryon.org/prayer/season/triduum.html
Devotional: The Last Supper
www.cfdevotionals.org/devpages/de970724.htm
Where Love Abides (God's
Transforming Love)
www.enc.edu/org//wollynaz/rmetcalfe/dad.where_love_abides
Questions asked during the Last
Supper
www.enc.edu/org/wollynaz/rmetcalfe/dad.when_your_children_ask_you_questions
Sermon Resources---Easter....R.
Fairchild
Richard and Charlene Fairchild's Easter Pages :
http://www.spirit-net.ca/sermons/easterpage.php
http://www.spirit-net.ca/sermons/easter.php
http://www.spirit-net.ca/sermons/easter1a.php
http://www.makedisciples.com/Easter/links.htm
http://www.rockies.net/~spirit/sermon.html
"On His Breast" by CH
Spurgeon
www.mountzion.org/fgb/Spring98/FgbSP5-98.html
Passover Meal ? Yes. THE actual
Seder ?....you decide. An article to ponder:
http://www.cin.org/users/james/questions/q060.htm
Jesus of Nazareth
fulfilled all the Messianic prophecies
http://web.archive.org/web/19990503164626/http://www.yeshuatyisrael.com/moshiach.htm
Recipe for
Unleavened Bread (Quickest Bread)
In a large bowl mix:
4 cups of flour
2 teaspoons of salt
1/4 cup of shortening (or oil, margarine or butter)
1 and 1/2 cups of water
Mix well until thoroughly blended.
Then knead your dough on floured surface for 3- 5 minutes.
Then divide your dough into 2 inch balls (makes about 10 balls)
With a rolling pin, roll out each ball on floured surface until
the size of a pancake.
Then prick each piece of bread with a fork throughout.
(our Lord's Body was pierced).
Then bake each bread piece on a dry griddle (frying pan....
NON-coated, like cast iron or metal)
over high heat until lightly scorched---golden--- on both sides.
(This takes about a minute or so on each side).
Then put slips of aluminum foil between each piece of bread and
keep warm
(lowest possible heat in oven)
in your oven---on a platter---until ready to serve.
For Communion, this bread is broken and shared; and then served
with grape juice.
For regular meals, you can roll and eat, and also dip into
sauces.
****
Next.....
to Gethsemane
Salvation: www.cybertime.net/~ajgood/sal.htm
Apocalyptic Hope: www.cybertime.net/~ajgood