Do You Want To Go Away Too?

Bread and Wine by LivingOS

Here are some musings on the Gospel and its relation to the Lord's Table drawn from John 6:48-49.

Drawing your life from Jesus Christ is what the Lord’s Table should impress upon you.  Our life is found in our relationship with God’s Son, the Lord Jesus Christ and through him with the Triune God.  The Table points us to the work of Jesus Christ on the cross – his body given for us, his blood shed for us and as such it reminds us of how his death was payment (penal payment) for our sins that we might be made right with God and thus restored to our original place before our Creator.  This restoration, however, does more than simply bring us back to where our first parents Adam and Eve were with God before the fall.  Rather, because we have been restored to God through the person and work of the God-Man Jesus Christ we are now justified, reconciled and adopted as dearly loved children of God.  We have more in redemption than our first parents did in innocence.

The Lord’s Table points you to the new life that you now have in Christ.  For the point that is made in our consuming the bread and the cup is that there is real and eternal life in Jesus Christ because Jesus is the door, the fountain of living water, the true vine, the good shepherd and the bread of life.  Because Jesus restores us into the privilege of God’s table and heavenly court we have thus been brought back to the true source of life.  Jesus has entered the garden of God by way of the flaming sword of the cherubim – taking upon himself the judgment of our sin and opening the garden of intimacy with the true and living God where alone is found the Tree of Life and we now see that the Tree of Life is truly the Lord Jesus Christ who gives life to those who trust and follow him as his disciples. 

So the question the Table puts to us every time we come is this: are you truly drawing your life from Christ?  Does the relationship you have with Jesus Christ by faith bring real joy to your heart?  Do you love following him, staying close to him, growing in knowing him, obeying his commands, living by the priorities of His Kingdom, trusting in His Father as your Father, and experiencing the work of the Holy Spirit in your life?  Is there a subjective, internal growing joy and peace in your heart that at the same time leaves you with an insatiable and unquenchable yearning and desire to press ever closer to Christ and to His Father as your Father? 

When the Lord Jesus was on earth those who followed him literally followed him.  That is how they demonstrated their faith in him and their allegiance to him.  Now there were many who followed him other than the twelve.  The Gospels tell us that there were certain women (many other women) from his Galilean ministry had followed him and cared for his needs.  Likewise many claimed to be his disciples other than these faithful women and the twelve.  There came a time at the height of his earthly popularity when Jesus performed probably his greatest miracle or sign other than when he raised people from the dead – that was the supernatural feeding of more than five thousand people from only a few loaves of bread and a few fish and afterwards he sent his disciples back to collect twelve full baskets of leftovers. 

When he began to unpack the meaning of this sign which pointed to the need in faith to come to him as the bread of life and believe on him as desperately soul hungry sinners in order to find true life – real ongoing transformation – it was too difficult for them to believe and they turned away from him.  Then turning to the twelve he asked them this question: “Do you want to go away too?”  

Of course Peter answered and rightly so, “Lord to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”  So Peter and the others continued to follow Jesus.  Yet one of those who followed him was later to betray him and Peter who answered him “Lord to whom shall we go?” denied him three times.  The others all ran away.  Judas, though following Jesus really did not believe that he had the words of eternal life and the others’ faith was so weak that under pressure they fell.  Yet Jesus restored the eleven and after his death and resurrection they were more certain than ever that he had the words of eternal life and was indeed the Holy One of God.  Yet how did they manifest their faith in Him once he was exalted – how did they follow him once he was taken up into heaven?  They followed him by following what he taught and his teaching was propagated within the context of His New Covenant Community as his teaching was preserved under the care and oversight of the Holy Spirit in the Canon of the New Testament.  So they followed Him as they heeded his word within the Covenant community of the local church. 

The Lord is asking us this question – we who profess faith in Him as our Lord and Savior – “Do you want to go away too?”  If we profess like Peter, “Lord to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God;” then how do we manifest the genuineness of this profession?  How do we today follow Jesus Christ and continue to follow him?

On this side of the death, resurrection and glorious exaltation of Jesus Christ we follow him by:

1. Being sure that by faith we draw our life from Him.  This means that we look to our relationship with Jesus Christ and find from this relationship supernatural grace to live for Christ.  Drawing your life from Christ means that your relationship with Him and through Him with the Father shapes your affections, priorities and choices.  This is what we find portrayed for us in the Lord’s Table for in faith as we eat the bread and drink the cup we are indeed drawing our life from Christ.

2. By having a hunger for His Word.  His words are words of life.  Peter acknowledged this about his teaching, while the vast majority found is words disturbing and they could no longer follow him.  A hunger for God’s Word specifically entails a hunger to hear his Word proclaimed.  The public proclamation of the Word is just as vital to your spiritual welfare in helping you draw your life from Christ, as is your participation by faith in the Lord’s Table.  Jesus Christ is present in both the Table and the Proclamation of His Word and we desperately need both if we are to follow Him.  

3. Finally you follow Jesus Christ as you remain with his followers as they are gathered in the local church. Jesus called his early followers individually but he called them to be a community.  This is still his pattern. They followed him as they stayed connected with the New Covenant community that came to tangible expression though local churches under the care of God ordained shepherds who where charged to faithfully preserve and expound the Apostolic teaching. 

Hearts that truly follow Jesus yearn to draw life from Jesus Christ by faith (the drawing of this life from Christ is depicted in the Lord’s Table) and have that life shape affections and priorities and choices.  Such hearts have a hunger for the Word, especially the hearing of the Word.  Such hearts see the value of Jesus’ community of followers and eagerly participate in the worship and fellowship meetings of that community.  As you do these things then you are saying to Jesus, “To whom else shall I go Lord, for you alone have the words of eternal life and I have believed and come to know that you are the Holy One of God.”