James L. Price, Jr. - "Taken by Surprise" Communion Meditation (January 17, 1960)
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| - | Time of our first communion. | 0:03 |
| We have been taught to think | 0:05 | |
| on the meaning of what we do here. | 0:07 | |
| We have been encouraged to prepare ourselves, | 0:10 | |
| whenever we have come to the table of our Lord. | 0:14 | |
| It is possible that traditional beliefs | 0:19 | |
| and states of man leave us unprepared for the unexpected. | 0:22 | |
| If so, then our situation is not unlike | 0:30 | |
| that of the first disciples. | 0:32 | |
| As they were at the table eating Jesus said, | 0:36 | |
| "Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me. | 0:41 | |
| One who is eating with me." | 0:48 | |
| The gospel's report that Jesus had shocked his disciples | 0:52 | |
| when he had first said | 0:56 | |
| that he would suffer many things and be put to death. | 0:57 | |
| They could not reconcile this tragic consequence | 1:01 | |
| with their belief | 1:05 | |
| that he was the Messiah, the conquering hero. | 1:07 | |
| But imagine how startling this latest announcement | 1:12 | |
| must have been. | 1:15 | |
| Jesus' death would result from a betrayal by one of the 12. | 1:17 | |
| Mark tells us that for the moment, at least the security | 1:25 | |
| of all of the disciples was shaken. | 1:30 | |
| One after another they began to say to Jesus, | 1:35 | |
| "Is it I, is it I?" | 1:39 | |
| In that awkward interval of silences | 1:45 | |
| after Jesus had spoken, their self confidence collapsed. | 1:47 | |
| Did they hear the ominous words of Jesus | 1:54 | |
| which follow in Mark's account? | 1:57 | |
| Like the chorus in a Greek tragedy. | 2:00 | |
| Or the son of man goes as it is written of him, | 2:04 | |
| but woe to that man, | 2:07 | |
| by whom the son of man has been betrayed. | 2:09 | |
| It would have been better if that man had never been born. | 2:12 | |
| One might suppose that the finger | 2:19 | |
| of suspicion already pointed at Judas. | 2:21 | |
| Yet, there is little warrant for this assumption. | 2:25 | |
| As the gaze of Jesus was fixed on his intimate associates, | 2:28 | |
| a terrible question caught in their throat. | 2:34 | |
| Is it I, could it be that I am this betrayal? | 2:38 | |
| It is easy for us to point | 2:46 | |
| to the differences between ourselves and the 12 | 2:48 | |
| as we approach the table of the Lord. | 2:53 | |
| These men were in a position as we are not, | 2:57 | |
| to be loyal or disloyal to Jesus in the hour of his death. | 3:01 | |
| For us, the cross is an event in the long, long ago. | 3:06 | |
| But let no security be taken in this thought. | 3:12 | |
| The New Testament teaches that Christians | 3:18 | |
| can crucify the son of God on their own account | 3:22 | |
| and hold him up to contempt. | 3:26 | |
| For such persons, the fate of Judas impends | 3:30 | |
| unless we may believe self concern | 3:34 | |
| or perhaps remorse towards men, | 3:38 | |
| turns into a genuine repentance unto God. | 3:43 | |
| Now, can we forget that Paul solemnly warns, | 3:48 | |
| "Let a man examine himself | 3:53 | |
| and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. | 3:56 | |
| For anyone who eats and drinks without discernment," | 4:00 | |
| without recognition of the magnitude of Christ's sacrifice, | 4:05 | |
| "Eats and drinks judgment unto himself." | 4:11 | |
| The first disciples were taken by surprise | 4:17 | |
| that they should be forced to consider seriously their part | 4:20 | |
| in the death of Jesus. | 4:27 | |
| They were not allowed to shoulder | 4:29 | |
| the responsibility of guilt upon Jesus' enemies. | 4:31 | |
| Not to divide the burden | 4:34 | |
| upon Jewish officials or Roman officials. | 4:37 | |
| They were brought by Jesus to face the inescapable question. | 4:41 | |
| Is it I? | 4:48 | |
| Were you there when they crucified my Lord? | 4:53 | |
| Out of Negro folk tradition comes this haunting spiritual. | 4:58 | |
| The question may affect people differently | 5:03 | |
| but asked in the presence of the Lord's table, | 5:08 | |
| does it take us by surprise? | 5:12 | |
| Were you there when they crucified my Lord? | 5:16 | |
| The second occasion for surprise for Jesus' disciples | 5:23 | |
| was when he passed them bread and the cup. | 5:27 | |
| It is not clear after intensive research, | 5:32 | |
| whether this loaf and this wine | 5:35 | |
| held any religious significance | 5:38 | |
| It may be that on that evening Jesus celebrated the Passover | 5:42 | |
| with his disciples as Mark believed. | 5:46 | |
| But the identifying features of the Jewish Paschal meal | 5:50 | |
| are absent from the early accounts of the last supper. | 5:54 | |
| It is possible that when Jesus took into his hands | 6:00 | |
| the bread and the cup, | 6:04 | |
| his disciples saw nothing out of the ordinary. | 6:06 | |
| Only the characteristic gesture of their friend | 6:10 | |
| at meal table. | 6:13 | |
| Uncertainty must remain as to the meaning | 6:17 | |
| of Jesus' action for the disciples, | 6:19 | |
| but of this we may be sure. | 6:23 | |
| His words took them by surprise. | 6:27 | |
| "Take, this is my body." | 6:32 | |
| Or again, "This is my blood of the covenant, | 6:36 | |
| which is poured out for many." | 6:41 | |
| It's a mistake to assume that the disciples were prepared | 6:45 | |
| for these words. | 6:50 | |
| The gospels report that Jesus | 6:52 | |
| had repeatedly spoken of his conviction, | 6:54 | |
| that death would fulfill his mission. | 6:56 | |
| Tomorrow's events would hold no surprises for him. | 7:01 | |
| The son of man came not to serve, but to be served | 7:05 | |
| and to give his life a ransom for many. | 7:09 | |
| But the same gospels insist that the disciples | 7:13 | |
| had never understood that Jesus' death was necessary, | 7:17 | |
| that God willed it. | 7:22 | |
| By the time of the last supper, | 7:24 | |
| they had hardly begun to understand this. | 7:26 | |
| And their reaction | 7:29 | |
| on the following day makes this quite clear. | 7:31 | |
| Not for them was that day Good Friday. | 7:35 | |
| Why may we ask, were the disciples so ill prepared? | 7:42 | |
| Why were they so slow of heart to believe | 7:48 | |
| what Jesus was teaching them? | 7:51 | |
| The gospel report that the blindness of the 12 | 7:55 | |
| was due in part to a certain pre disposition | 7:58 | |
| of their minds and their will against such a thing. | 8:02 | |
| You see, they thought they knew | 8:07 | |
| what their basic problems were. | 8:10 | |
| They knew the kind of spiritual leadership they wanted, | 8:14 | |
| the kind of things they wished the Christ to bring them. | 8:18 | |
| They look to Jesus to fulfill their dreams, | 8:24 | |
| to satisfy their personal expectations. | 8:27 | |
| And as a result, they were deaf to what he offered them, | 8:32 | |
| to what he taught must be done for their salvation. | 8:37 | |
| They were not willing to hear what he must demand | 8:41 | |
| of them for their own good. | 8:45 | |
| And as a consequence, so inadequate for discipleship. | 8:48 | |
| What happened to the first disciples | 8:56 | |
| may very well happen to us, | 8:59 | |
| though not exactly in the same ways, of course. | 9:02 | |
| We have accepted the gospel of the crucified Christ, | 9:06 | |
| we have made of his cross a symbol of our faith. | 9:11 | |
| But are we any better prepared than these men | 9:16 | |
| for the shattering of our hopes? | 9:21 | |
| Hopes which we too place in Jesus? | 9:25 | |
| What is the ground of our trust in God? | 9:30 | |
| What are the needs that we ask him to fulfill? | 9:36 | |
| What are the terms of our discipleship to Jesus? | 9:41 | |
| How easy it is for us to hide from ourselves | 9:47 | |
| that we often look to Christ to further our personal plans, | 9:51 | |
| to bring to pass our dream. | 9:58 | |
| And as a result, how unprepared we are for the unexpected. | 10:02 | |
| How unready to accept what he has to offer us. | 10:10 | |
| How insensitive to the mystery of the cross | 10:14 | |
| as it relates to our lives. | 10:16 | |
| How inadequate in moments of peril or disappointment | 10:19 | |
| when life takes us by surprise. | 10:24 | |
| Like the disciples who had come with Jesus | 10:29 | |
| to the critical moment in their lives, as well as in his, | 10:31 | |
| we may have become disheartened and afraid | 10:36 | |
| when we see the glaring discrepancies | 10:40 | |
| between what we think should be the will of God for us | 10:43 | |
| and what actually happens to us | 10:48 | |
| and threatens the security we set for ourselves. | 10:52 | |
| Still, another surprise was in store for the disciples. | 10:57 | |
| It didn't dawn upon them all at once | 11:00 | |
| but when it overtook them, | 11:03 | |
| it was the greatest surprise of their lives. | 11:05 | |
| Jesus said to them, "You will all fall away." | 11:10 | |
| Now, wasn't it enough that one of the 12 should betray him? | 11:16 | |
| Surely, the rest of the these men would stand by him | 11:20 | |
| in his hour of need. | 11:23 | |
| Peter's pride was the first to be offended. | 11:26 | |
| "Even though they all fall away," he says, "I will not." | 11:30 | |
| And Jesus said to him, "Truly, I say to you | 11:35 | |
| this very night, you will deny me three times." | 11:40 | |
| And Peter said vehemently, "If I must die with you, | 11:45 | |
| I will not deny you." | 11:48 | |
| And they all said the same. | 11:51 | |
| Why do you suppose the disciples were so blind | 11:56 | |
| to their moral weakness? | 12:00 | |
| I suspect that something more than defense | 12:03 | |
| mechanisms prompted their bold assertion of loyalty. | 12:05 | |
| Hadn't Jesus chosen them? | 12:10 | |
| Were they not the foundation of the community | 12:14 | |
| of the Messiah, the faithful remnant of Israel, | 12:16 | |
| men who must stand firm in the midst of apostacy? | 12:22 | |
| Had not Jesus just spoken of a covenant | 12:26 | |
| which God was making with them? | 12:29 | |
| If they were to fall away, then all indeed would be lost. | 12:32 | |
| Whatever the basis of their self confidence, | 12:42 | |
| it was to collapse, utterly collapse. | 12:45 | |
| And sad indeed are the words | 12:50 | |
| which are reported in the passion narrative. | 12:52 | |
| "And they all forsook him and fled." | 12:55 | |
| Yet with all the disciples | 13:03 | |
| were held fast in their relationship to their Lord. | 13:05 | |
| In the dark moment of delic, of separation from the man | 13:10 | |
| from whom they had fled. | 13:15 | |
| These remorseful, miserable cowards | 13:17 | |
| were taken by the greatest surprise of their life. | 13:22 | |
| He came to them in pity, but more in love than in pity. | 13:26 | |
| It was for such persons as themselves that he had died. | 13:33 | |
| This is what he meant when he had said, | 13:39 | |
| "Take, this is my body broken for you." | 13:43 | |
| Knowing all the while that they would desert him and flee. | 13:48 | |
| This was the good news that Jesus had proclaimed | 13:56 | |
| all during his life and at the time of his death, | 13:59 | |
| God loves the undeserving. | 14:04 | |
| Jesus had died a truly righteous man for unrighteous men | 14:09 | |
| that he might bring them to go God. | 14:15 | |
| But this surprise was not for the disciples alone. | 14:19 | |
| The church of Christ in its first proclamation | 14:23 | |
| offered forgiveness to those who had killed Jesus Christ. | 14:27 | |
| And a share of life in the new Israel, | 14:32 | |
| to those who had rejected him. | 14:34 | |
| God continued to be the great doer of the unexpected. | 14:38 | |
| Are we prepared today to accept this truth about ourselves? | 14:46 | |
| Not by our virtue, nor by reason of our faithfulness | 14:51 | |
| do we come to this table. | 14:57 | |
| Does this offend our pride? | 15:01 | |
| Do we begin to think that there must be something in us | 15:05 | |
| something we can offer Christ, which he needs from us? | 15:09 | |
| Something surely, do we begin to say, | 15:14 | |
| "Even though all should forsake, yet not I?" | 15:21 | |
| Or will our foolish pride give place? | 15:27 | |
| And will we list once again to him who comes to us | 15:32 | |
| in incomparable mercy, fully aware of our moral cowardice | 15:38 | |
| and of our disloyalties. | 15:47 | |
| Take eat, this is my body broken for you. | 15:50 | |
| This cup is the new covenant in my blood. | 15:55 | |
| God shows his love for us | 16:01 | |
| in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. | 16:04 | |
| Is there anything, anything as amazing as this? | 16:12 | |
| Let us pray. | 16:21 | |
| Oh, thall great doer of the unexpected. | 16:26 | |
| If we have come to this place, | 16:30 | |
| taking for granted a right relationship to thee, | 16:32 | |
| and to our fellows, | 16:35 | |
| make us aware of the insecurity of our loyalties. | 16:38 | |
| If we have to lightly measure the seriousness of our sin | 16:44 | |
| and the cost of our redemption, startle us by the truth | 16:47 | |
| then men just like ourselves made necessary | 16:54 | |
| the cross of Christ. | 16:57 | |
| If we are given a glimpse of our moral weakness | 17:00 | |
| or the cowardice of our discipleship, | 17:04 | |
| surprise us by thy mercy or God that we discover afresh | 17:08 | |
| the only basis for security in thee, | 17:13 | |
| and take this sacrament to our conflict, amen. | 17:17 | |
| (upbeat music) | 17:33 |
