By Not Known
New Year is a time of reunion meals. These are times to remember the past,
celebrate the present and anticipate the future. At these meals we cement the
ties that bind us to loved ones and re-launch our family for the New Year.
The Old Testament Hebrews had a similar annual meal in the Passover festival
(Exo 12:1-20).
Passover was a great occasion when people would return home and gather as
families. It was time to look back on God’s salvation in the exodus, to look
forward to its completion as they enjoyed the promised land and to recommit to
be loyal to God in the present.
Jesus morphed the Jewish Passover into the Christian Lord’s Supper (Mat 26:26-30).
We too look back on God’s salvation in the new exodus of the cross of Jesus.
We look forward to its completion as we enjoy the promised land of eternity in
God’s place. (The meal will be most bountiful there: Ps 23:5-6; Mat 22: 10.) We
also recommit to the Lord in the present – grateful for his past and hopeful of his
future.
The Lord’s Supper is a Christian reunion meal:
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We unite with our Saviour-King as we sit as his guests at his table.
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We unite with our fellow worshippers at ORPC: for we are all fellow-sinners
who are saved by grace and struggling to live it out. -
We unite with Christian people of other races, cultures, denominations
and continents. The unbelieving world has nothing quite like the bonds of
global Christian fellowship! -
We also unite with the church of heaven, for they too sit at the Lord’s
table – only theirs is the reality of which ours is the shadow.
Let’s make the most of God’s reunion meal! Let’s prepare our hÄ—arts well and
participate with faith and devotion. Let’s thank God for our ancestors in the faith
who show us what it means to trust Jesus. Let’s especially keep our eyes on God
our host and on his Son Jesus who makes it possible to eat and drink from his hand.