the Body and the Blood

posted for Brenda D.

The Thursday before Resurrection Sunday Christians all around the world gather around a table to have a meal with Jesus.

This special meal reminds me that God can take our broken lives and make something beautiful for himself. Jesus Christ came, remember, to heal the broken hearted, to set the captives free, to open the bars of those whose lives are in bondage and to restore that which is damaged through the hurt and trauma of life.

Our God is the God of new beginnings. When a human being commits their life to following Jesus Christ the Bible tells us that person is a new creation, the old has gone, the new has come, everything is made new and our God, the miracle maker, can do exactly that for every one who seeks him.

Gathering with his disciples around a table in a small upper room, Jesus took a loaf of bread and He gave thanks to God the Father and He said take it, eat it, in remembrance of me – this is my body. With those same disciples at that same meal Jesus also took a cup of wine and thinking about the blood that He was about to shed for the sins of the whole world on the cross so that we could be forgiven, Jesus said; this is my blood that is poured out for the sins of the whole world – do this in remembrance of me.

This is the God whom we worship this resurrection weekend; our God who is with us, ready to forgive our sins as we confess them, ready to touch our lives as we welcome him. The God of new beginnings!

Come, you weary and restless,
come, all who hunger and thirst.
Jesus calls us to dine as friends,
come, God’s feast of welcome awaits us.