Joe Foltz
Luke 22:14-30
A lot of traditions around Advent and Christmas have to do with meals. In my own family, what we eat for dinner on Christmas Eve and for breakfast on Christmas Day have become traditions that haven’t changed in decades.
Thus, it shouldn’t seem unusual for this text, primarily the story of a meal, to be part of an Advent devotional. We tend to think of the Lord’s Supper as a meal that is more associated with Good Friday and Easter than Advent and Christmas. Yet Jesus says to the disciples in verses 15-16 of our text, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I tell you, I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.”
Jesus institutes this meal that he will not partake of again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God, and it is that fulfillment of the already but not yet that we long for during Advent. We look for the parousia, Christ’s royal coming, where the world will be brought back to right and Jesus and his disciples will once again gather around the table together.
This meal with his disciples even includes some of the discussion that can happen at our family gatherings and get us into trouble. A dispute arises among them about who should be regarded as the greatest. Jesus rebukes them, reminding them that they are not to gather as those who are served at the table, but as those who are the servants waiting on the table. It is to those servants that Jesus will give the invitation to join him at his table in his kingdom. How might you be of service to someone else today?
You are holy, O God of majesty,
and blessed is Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord.
You sent him into this world
to satisfy the longings of your people for a Savior,
to bring freedom to the captives of sin,
and to establish justice for the oppressed.
He came among us as one of us,
taking the lot of the poor,
sharing human suffering.
We rejoice that in his death and rising again,
you set before us the sure promise of new life,
the certain hope of a heavenly home
where we will sit at table with Christ, our host.
and blessed is Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord.
You sent him into this world
to satisfy the longings of your people for a Savior,
to bring freedom to the captives of sin,
and to establish justice for the oppressed.
He came among us as one of us,
taking the lot of the poor,
sharing human suffering.
We rejoice that in his death and rising again,
you set before us the sure promise of new life,
the certain hope of a heavenly home
where we will sit at table with Christ, our host.
- Reprinted by permission from
The Worship Sourcebook,
© 2004, Faith Alive Christian Resources
The Worship Sourcebook,
© 2004, Faith Alive Christian Resources
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