Read: Luke 22:14-23
You prepare a table before me. (Psalm 23:5a)
My mother loved to entertain others at our home. She prepared our dining room table with her fancy tablecloth, finest chinaware, silverware, and crystal glasses. She beautifully arranged them according to the rules of etiquette. She cooked a gourmet meal and presented it like artwork. She generously blessed her guests.
Luke speaks of another table that was prepared in the presence of Jesus’s enemies. Outside of that room, people wanted to kill Jesus. Inside the upper room, Jesus became the host of the Passover meal for his disciples. He generously provided this meal for them, a meal that held eternal significance. Jesus told them the bread symbolized his body and the cup the new covenant in his blood (vv. 19-20). We also are invited to this meal in the Lord’s Supper, or Communion. When we receive this meal, we profess that Jesus died for our sins and rose again to give us eternal life. Eternal life in Christ is a gift of God’s grace, and it’s free. We don’t have to earn it. Paul says, “By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” (Eph. 2:8).
How can we respond to such generosity? Isaac Watts’s hymn “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” says this kind of love shown for us demands our soul, our life, our all. Will you give him your life today?
As you pray, accept God’s grace and commit to sharing this gift with others.
About the Author
Nancy Boote, an ordained minister in the Reformed Church of America, lives in Holland, Michigan, with her husband.
