Passage: 1 Corinthians 11:17 to 24
Can you imagine eating with someone that just totally betrayed you. I wouldn’t even want to be in the same room as someone who JUST betrayed me. When I say betrayed I am talking about ‘handing you in’ to the corrupt society of people that were looking for you only to crucify you.
As I read this passage this week I asked God to share with me something different about it that I had never appreciated before. I wanted to read this passage and feel renewed and more in love with my Savior and thankful for what He has done for me on the cross. So here is what God gave me this week:
In almost any version you read your Bible in verse 23 mentions “On the night when he was betrayed…”
Here is the whole portion of this part of the chapter in its context:
23 For I pass on to you what I received from the Lord himself. On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread 24 and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and said, “This is my body, which is given for you.[f] Do this to remember me.” 25 In the same way, he took the cup of wine after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this to remember me as often as you drink it.” 26 For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord’s death until he comes again.
I just think about this and it makes me shudder. The Lord Jesus sat around the table with those who would deny Him and betray Him and yet He continued to do as He was commanded to fulfill the scriptures. He was not just betrayed by some gossip, or a lie but unto death. Even though He knew this would happen I can’t imagine it hurting any less. I think about the people I have betrayed and those that have betrayed me. No one has betrayed me unto death but even those that have betrayed my trust or my reputation I couldn’t imagine sitting down to dinner with. First I would have to take time to be mad, angry, cry and feel hurt. Than later (but not minutes before dinner) with God’s help I would have to forgive them as God has forgiven me. Since I am guilty of betraying others too I can’t imagine being treated any differently than I would treat them. But what I appreciated most out of this new thought is that God thought it was so important for us to know that the Lord Jesus was betrayed just before sitting down to the Last Supper. It really has nothing to do with the Last Supper right? Wrong….What a testimony of a mature, forgiving and gracious way to treat others. How long have I taken to forgive others? How long did the Lord Jesus take to forgive his disciples and to forgive me? The Lord Jesus didn’t judge them or ask them to leave the table…the Lord Jesus knew that God would place His judgment upon Judas and He did. I still can’t believe the Lord Jesus didn’t ask Judas to leave the table but allowed him to take of the bread and wine and the LAST SUPPER! Wow. That puts judging others into a whole new perspective for me.
27 So anyone who eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily is guilty of sinning against[g] the body and blood of the Lord. 28 That is why you should examine yourself before eating the bread and drinking the cup. 29 For if you eat the bread or drink the cup without honoring the body of Christ,[h] you are eating and drinking God’s judgment upon yourself. 30 That is why many of you are weak and sick and some have even died.
31 But if we would examine ourselves, we would not be judged by God in this way. 32 Yet when we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned along with the world.
How often have I looked around at others and judged them. Sometimes perhaps even doubting their salvation in Christ? This is awful and something that I have tried to stop doing. It used to be a big problem in my life and still can be. But by God’s grace I have been trying to stop judging people. The thought of judging others hit me hard one day when I learned that people judged me based on the same standards I judged them. That made me put my mallet down very quickly.
Unfortunately the people I used to judge the most were Christians. But God is so wise isn’t He? He has included verses like verse 27-31 in the Bible so we can put our mallets away and just focus on ourselves because God has all the ‘judging’ under control. I just need to judge myself and be concerned about my own walk with God. We are in a Church full of people whom some of which I know personally and others I do not but I don’t need to look around to see who is partaking in the Lord’s Supper or not. This is because God has that covered. I just have to be sure that I am there with a clean heart. I also need to be aware of how easy it is to judge and how easy it is to forget that we are all on the same team! God want’s all to work together to bring Him honor and glory. I love the second to last verse in this chapter which never stood out to me before but I think I get it now 🙂
33 So, my dear brothers and sisters,[i] when you gather for the Lord’s Supper, wait for each other.
In the clay,
Chantal Dube