Sup part 3
It IS kind of a tricky subject... the idea of eating WITH Jesus by EATING Jesus. In fact, when He preached about it He lost a bunch of followers. Because it seems, well, crazy. Especially, I imagine, back then when a real life flesh and blood person was telling people to eat His flesh and drink His blood. But, of course, Jesus was speaking Spiritually. There is no recorded account of anybody taking any bites out of Him. And He even went on to explain during what we've come to know as communion that the bread was His body and the wine was His blood. But I think even more so than the physical act of eating the bread and drinking the wine (which, for the record, I'm not against), the important part is the "remembrance of me" part. Supping with Him by supping with each other. Sharing that meal. That experience. I'm completely convinced that experiences are more real, and more powerful, when they're shared. "Did you see that movie?" Because we want to know if other people felt the same way we felt. We want to be moved... together. To know that we're not alone. And even if I saw it and liked it, and you saw it and hated it, at least we both went through the same thing. I think my memory verse for today is going to be Genesis 2:18, "And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone: I will make him an help meet for him." And, truth be told, I'm a pretty solitary guy. I don't flourish in social interactions. I've had people tell me that I come off as rude, or standoffish. When the truth of the matter is... I'm just really awkward. I'm good at writing, but that's how I get my words out. Anyway, my point is, even as a pretty solitary guy I know that lonliness is a killer. And there's nothing worse than feeling lonely when you're surrounded by people. Not having any connections to anybody. Feeling like nobody gets you. That's hard. And I think a lot of us feel that way. We're so desparate for that connection that we'll settle for just about anything. We'll stay in abusive relationships because "something's gotta be better than nothing, right?" But I know--I KNOW--that its not until you get the RIGHT thing that you'll truly be "ok." When you find that source of that love that you so desire, and stop looking for love in all the wrong places. We try so hard to fill that God-shaped (love-shaped) void that we feel inside of us. And I mean, we'll try ANYTHING to fill it. But nothing will fit a God-shaped (love-shaped) void... except God. Except love. That's why God gave us His Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth--so that we might know and believe the truth. The truth that God is love and He loves you. Nothing will satisfy our appetite except the love feast that Jesus prepared for us in the presence of our enemies. Nothing else can. We want love. That's why the Word Love in our key verse for this Rant series (1 John 4:8) MEANS "love feast." Because we are what we eat. What we do flows from what we believe. Jesus was always talking about food. To the point where He identified Himself as our meal. Because we are what we eat. When we feast on love--and tomorrow I think I'm going to hit the point about what a feast really is--when we feast on love we get filled up. To overflowing. So that what's inside can come out. Naturally. The LOVE inside can come out because we know and believe that its (HE'S) in there!