March 7th, 21- Day 66 Year 7

Lift the Cup

Our readings today are Deuteronomy 5-6, Psalm 43 and Mark 14.  We are reading through the New Living Translation.

On the way, Jesus told them, Tonight all of you will desert me.  (Mt 26:31)

There’s something that Peter, Judas, all the disciples, and even you and I, have in common.  We have all betrayed him.  Despite our best intentions, despite all the resolve, we have betrayed him, with our lips, our words, our feet, a kiss. We’re all guilty of falling away.  Jesus said so. All of humankind has fallen away.

All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the LORD laid on him the sins of us all. (Isa 53:6)

All of us have bought into the lie that we can have a life apart from God.  We have all bitten into that deceitful fruit, all the way back to Adam and Even, in the garden.  We’ve all been intoxicated by the lie that somehow God is holding out on us and that we can have life without Him.  So Jesus takes the cup, that’s going to mean bitter suffering and death, for him.  It’s a cup of his blood, shed for you and me and all that have betrayed him.  But when He hands it to us, something changes.  It becomes a cup of life and hope.  He takes the bread, that for him is the bread of brokenness.  His body is going to be broken.  But for us, who have all betrayed Him, when he hands us this broken bread, it is the bread of healing and life.  He offers up his body and blood, so that we can be mended and made whole.  He offers up this meal of Himself, to us, today and anytime that we gather together. We can have this meal anytime, and everyday, if we want to.  We can start the living now. Because of the death He died, I can have the life he lived, then.  I can have it now.  This is a good meal for us, that gives us abundant life.  But there’s a day coming when He will share this meal with us again, and it will be far better. Because he will be joining us!! Mark makes sure to let us know that Jesus said,…i will not eat or drink until the day….

Jesus is waiting until we are all together, to lift that cup and bread again. And It won’t be a cup of suffering or the bread of brokenness.  No.  The next time, it will be a party all around.  At that table will be you and me, and all those who were broken but have been made new.  I can’t wait.  What a day that will be!

Lift up the cup of salvation. Take the bread of His brokenness.  Give thanks. And find your life and healing, each day, in the the life He offers, right now.  And one day, you will live it there, with Him.

What can I offer the Lord for all he has done for me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and praise the Lord’s name for saving me. (Ps 116:12-13)

You are loved!