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Lord's Day Liturgy

The Lord as Host

On the night Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper the disciples were not taking pictures to post later on Instagram. But even without that sort of missing-the-moment-distraction, there’s no way that they fully understood what was happening.

Jesus had prepared a table for them in the presence of an enemy, and enemies. Judas had already made plans to betray Jesus, and the soldiers were mustering to seize Jesus within a couple hours. In the midst of lies and schemes and envy and unjust arrest and murder, Jesus provided a feast to His men (who He knew would also scatter, Matthew 26:31).

David could not have known what that sort of supper would look like a thousand years before Christ came, but his description in Psalm 23 of the Lord as Host, the Lord as generous table-setter, can be connected.

We also don’t know the full extent of the Lord’s generosity toward us, or the fullness of animosity directed against us by enemies. Here is the Lord’s table, prepared for us in the presence of enemies. This isn’t about left or right, it’s not primarily a political party, but a spiritual reality.

Either the Lord will grant repentance and draw rebels to His table by grace, or He will keep filling our cups and protecting us from rebels. His cup of grace overflows to us. His goodness and mercy have followed us to the table. Because of Christ’s loving sacrifice we will dwell with the Lord, our Shepherd, all the days of our lives.