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A Tiny Portion from the Feast
A Communion Meditation

by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson
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Free Email Bible Study Life of Jacob

I enjoy eating -- too much, I guess.

I enjoy stopping by the supermarket on a Saturday afternoon, just in time for samples in white pleated cups or on a tray bristling with colored toothpicks, displayed in all their finery by an aproned hostess at the end of a grocery aisle.

"They're on sale today. Wouldn't they taste good for dinner?" she suggests, hoping I'll put some in my cart. Yes, the tasty sample does make me hungry for a feast tonight.

Sometimes, though, I get samples from a feast that's already over. My wife comes home with leftovers from a women's club potluck lunch. "It was really good," she says. "I thought you'd like some." I do! I do! And for a moment as I snack, I can almost imagine the full meal as it must have been, dish after dish, spread out buffet-style.

Sunday morning during the Lord's Supper, as I partake of the bread and drink from the cup, I think about this as a small portion from the Feast. I savor the aftertaste of the bread on my tongue and the sweetness of the grapes on my lips, and I imagine.

I imagine partaking of the Passover feast, the Last Supper, along with the disciples. While I wasn't there to be served personally, it's like they saved some for me so I could have a taste and feel a part of the great fellowship of Jesus' Table that now circles the world.

Or are the bread and cup a foretaste of a feast to come -- our fellowship at Christ's Table in heaven? The Bible speaks of drinking the cup with Jesus in the Kingdom of God; of sitting down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; of participating in the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. The tiny portion I taste on Sunday morning whets my appetite and reminds me of my personal invitation to this Feast.

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It's not much to eat, I suppose -- a wafer, a fragment of bread and a sip, just a sip. But it's enough to recall who I am. To realize how privileged I am to belong to the band of Jesus' followers who are asked to eat of His body and drink of His blood. How privileged I am to know that my name appears on the guest list for the Great Feast to come.

"As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup," the Apostle tells us, "you proclaim the death of Jesus until he comes." Yes, it's a pretty tiny portion of the Feast, but it's enough for now. Quite enough.

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Some of the scripture passages referred to in this short Eucharist essay are Matthew 26:26-29; John 6:53-57; 1 Corinthians 10:16-17; 11:23-26; 2 Corinthians 5:5; Revelation 19:6-9; 21:27.

You can learn more about the Lord's Supper in my exposition of Luke 22:7-20 as part of the JesusWalk Bible Study.

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Copyright © 1985-2010 Ralph F. Wilson. <pastorjoyfulheart.com> All rights reserved. A single copy of this article is free. Do not put this on a website. See legal, copyright, and reprint information.