Amen, Amen!

Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, “Amen, Amen.” How many “let it be so”s do you really need? Here is, apparently, yet another case where two are better than one.

Our time around the Lord’s table is double action, we eat and we drink. Because of Luke’s account of the institution of the Lord’s Supper, we know that the Lord Himself gave thanks multiple times. The body and blood, “Thank you, thank you.”

And our receiving is an Amen in action. When we eat the bread it’s a truth-chew. Not just our mind chews on the truth but our mouth says what we believe is true as we chew. We’re identifying with the flesh of Christ, spent on our behalf. Amen! When we drink the cup it’s an agreement-gulp, we are saying, without words, that the blood of Christ covers our sins and secures our reconciliation to the great God and our eternal life with Him.

The only time “great God” is used in the New Testament, Paul attributes it to Jesus: we are waiting for “the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13). And, “as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Corinthians 11:26). It is “Amen, Amen!” in action.