Being Present
Have you ever been present but you weren’t really present?
You know what this is like, right?
Your sitting at the table with your wife who is talking to you and you can hear her, but then she stops for you to answer the question she just asked and you have no idea what it was! You’re there at the table physically, your in her presence, but mentally you’re not present. You’re a million miles away.
We’ve all experienced it. It happens across all our relationships. It happens for different reasons. But we all know what it’s like to physically be present but not really be there.
Seeing Jesus at the Table
One of the ways we see Jesus is in a spiritual practice we participate in called Communion. The Lord’s Supper.
It’s something Jesus started some 2000 years ago. It’s something the very first church practiced every single week.
Whenever they would gather for a meal they would take time to remember Jesus together. To tell stories of how they had seen Jesus.
And here’s the thing… Some of them had actually seen Jesus. They were there the day he healed the blind. They were there the day he fed 5,000! They had first-hand stories to share of Seeing Jesus!
Throughout the history of the church, this has been an important practice for the church. To gather around a table, to take a little bread and a little wine, and remember Jesus. To recall how we’ve seen Jesus at work in our lives. And to share those stories.
I think this is one of the places discipleship happens for us.
It’s in this moment when we stop, when we see Jesus, and we share the story once again that teaches everyone around the table what we believe. That Jesus is who He says He is. That He is alive. That He wants us to see His face and follow His lead. That whatever it is you are going through in life, Jesus is the answer!
Sometimes it’s hard to see
But sometimes it’s hard for us to see Jesus.
It is.
Our lives are busy. Distracted. Complicated. Hard. Sometimes, it’s hard for us to see Jesus.
We’re physically present in the moment but it’s like we’re a million miles away.
It’s even hard for us to see Jesus when we come to this moment. When we gather as a church. When we stop to see Jesus, to remember Jesus in Communion.
He’s present, but we aren’t. Not really.
The Last Supper
It was time for Passover. This was the annual festival and holiday where everyone in Israel stopped what they were doing and remembered that time when God delivered them from Egyptian slavery into freedom. From darkness into light. From their chains into the promised land.
During this meal, it was the job of the host to retell that story of deliverance.
On this night Jesus is gathered with his disciples. He’s hours away from facing the cross. But Jesus doesn’t retell the story of past deliverance. He makes this moment all about what’s about to happen. About sacrifice and a new deliverance that is on the way.
Matthew tells the story this way…
Matthew 26.26-28
As they were eating, Jesus took some bread and blessed it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, “Take this and eat it, for this is my body.”
And he took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it. He gave it to them and said, “Each of you drink from it, for this is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and his people. It is poured out as a sacrifice to forgive the sins of many.
Jesus tells us WHY he’s about to face the cross. Why he’s about to sacrifice his life. It’s all for one purpose. One goal. One desire from the heart of God.
“… to forgive the sins of many.”
His closest disciples were present at the table with Jesus. They were there. They could see Jesus. But they still couldn’t really see Him, could they?
They still had no idea what was about to happen. What it all meant. What role they would play in the story. And how this moment at the table with Jesus would transform every future moment at every future table.
Remember and See
Whenever we come to this moment we can see Jesus here. We can see Him when we remember that no matter what we’ve done, no matter who we are, no matter where we’ve been, no matter how far we’ve gone, when we see Jesus at the table we can remember that we are forgiven and free!
[Tweet “When we see Jesus at the table we remember that we are forgiven and free!”]
Whenever we do this. Wherever we do this. Whoever we do this with. We can always see Jesus in this moment and remember this powerful truth. We have been delivered. A sacrifice was made on our behalf. We are no longer slaves of sin. We are loved with the greatest love the world has ever known. We can see Jesus in the bread, in the cup, and we can remember that we are forgiven and we are free.
[Tweet “We are loved with the greatest love the world has ever known.”]Where will we see Jesus this week?
I can only imagine what it must have been like for Peter, for John, for the other disciples as they met in homes with different churches. As they gathered around different tables to share meals with other believers.
My guess is that at every table, with every bite of bread and every cup of wine, with every conversation with every fellow believer they saw Jesus. They remembered that night. That table. That time when they were present but they didn’t quite see Jesus then. But now, they see Hime every time.
Here’s the point, whenever we gather, wherever we gather, with whoever we gather together with, we too can see Jesus in at the table.
A few months ago when my wife and I were in Israel I was amazed by something that most people probably didn’t even notice. At every meal, every lunch, every dinner, there were always three things present. It didn’t matter what the main course was. It didn’t matter what restaurant we ate at. At every meal in Israel, there was bread. There was wine. And there were fellow believers.
At every meal, there was an opportunity to see Jesus. To see Him in the cup. The bread. And in each other.
May we take every opportunity this week to see Jesus. To see this extraordinary truth in every ordinary moment. That through Jesus we are forgiven and we are free!
