A very full day of normal things, Father, but it has still worn be out! May our time tonight be productive in a way that would bring glory to You. Amen.
Luke 22:21-23 (<<click here to read the passage)
Not too long ago we grabbed a bite at one of our favorite eateries, Skyline Chili. We don’t go there too often anymore but it was a treat!
Shortly before we left a family of 6 came and sat in the booth behind us. We were in the last booth on one wall and they were in the last booth on the other wall so I could plainly see their interactions.
The father was a big burly man and I quickly saw that he was in charge…and not in a nice way. Before they all got situated, very quietly he spoke to the oldest child, a boy. He spoke softly but I could tell from the boy’s flinching that what was being said normally came with physical contact – not a hug but probably a slap.
As they got seated the father made the boy move to the other side of the booth while he got a highchair for the youngest child. Before the server even made it to the table, he laid into the oldest boy again – once more it was in a voice just above a whisper, but the boy’s face communicated that he was being berated. His eyes were downcast in shame. And reading the father’s lips, he was ready to drag them all out of the restaurant right there and then. The whole time, the mother’s eyes were downcast, and her face was straight but strained. The server saved the day by her arrival and things seemed to settle after that.
It was a very disturbing interaction and it was not the least bit surprising that when the server arrived, the father was all smiley and jovial, even, as if nothing at all was wrong with his “happy” little family.
How often do our words and our actions not match? Others see one thing and reality is something totally different…and most distressingly it may very well be something so very wrong.
Jesus reclined at this last supper with those whom many would have called his closest friends, and many were…but one was a traitor. The traitor knew it. Jesus knew it. But none of the others had a clue.
Read what my study Bible* had to say about Mark 14:19 (a parallel to today’s passage).
“It is easy to become enraged or shocked by what Judas did; yet professing commitment to Christ and then denying him with one’s life is also betraying him. It is denying Christ’s love to disobey him; it is denying his truth to distrust him; it is denying his deity to reject his authority. Do our words and actions match?”
That is one great thing about a regular observation of Communion – we should come face to face with answering that question in our own lives. Lord Jesus, do our words and actions match? And if they don’t, if they are askew in some way, that is when we should make amends and set things right with the One we have hurt the most…our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
*Life Application Study Bible New Living Translation
July 25th, 2019, Thurs, 9:39 pm
