We Lift This Cup

Pastor Leithart has been working through the Olivet Discourse, Jesus’ teaching to his disciples about the destruction of the temple in 70 AD, and he has emphasized the fact that just because this refers to specific events that have already occurred this does not make it any less applicable to us. The pattern is throughout Scripture. We serve the God of death and resurrection, judgment and mercy. And this table is yet another instance of the same principle. This meal points in many directions every Lord’s Day. It points back to the death and resurrection of Jesus. It is a memorial of that judgment: Jesus said that when the Spirit came He would convict the world of judgment because the ruler of this world is judged. When Jesus was crucified, Satan was thrown down. But this meal also points forward, it points forward to the final Feast, the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, where the final judgment has occurred, where all have been raised, when all justice has been complete, when the world has been put back together. And of course the first judgment of the cross and resurrection is the down payment, the first fruits of that final judgment. But this table also points to numerous points in history too where Jesus has judged wickedness and cast it down, where Jesus has exalted the humble and lowly. The first and last judgments are connected, and they are not connected by an invisible, ethereal fiber optics line. They are connected by history. Justice is being worked out in history, the first judgment is climbing up to meet the last judgment and we are somewhere in the middle. And this meal is a constant reminder and proclamation of this fact. And so as we drink this cup we declare the Lord’s death and therefore the death of all sin, the death of all evil, the death of all death. We declare the first and last judgments, and we declare the judgments of God to world. We declare the judgments of Jesus to every enemy of God. To those who stand against King Jesus we declare the death of Jesus as their doom. To those who kill babies, we lift this cup. To those oppress the poor and fatherless and the widows, we lift this cup. To those who legislate immorality and wickedness, we lift this cup. To those who pour out the blood of the innocent on the altars of greed and lust and power, we lift this cup. To harsh and tyrannical husbands and fathers, we lift this cup. To bitter and critical wives and mothers, we lift this cup. To disobedient and rebellious children, we lift this cup. Jesus is in heaven, and He is ruling until every enemy has been put beneath His feet. So come, eat, drink, and rejoice in your King.