This nonagenarian author writes (and surely you agree that nonagenarians deserve a careful hearing!):
“The Final Word article in the April-May UPLOOK entitled “Looking at the Lord’s Supper” has certainly taken hold of my attention. I was grieved to know there are some not regarding it as our highest privilege this side of heaven. Like brother Norbie, I was brought up in denominational groups, but saved when 14 at an assembly Sunday School. When I chanced to visit a very few Breaking of Bread meetings as a new believer, I thought, ‘This must be almost like heaven!” It quickly won my heart.
“My unsaved family soon forbade me to go back to that Sunday School, taught by Dr. Walter Gill of the Westfield, NJ, assembly, nor could I see the Christians any more. However, Dr. Gill gave me a set of C. H. Macintosh’s Miscellaneous Writings, and I read them constantly until 18 years old, when I could make my own choices. These books shaped my whole life, and his article titled “The All Sufficiency of Christ,” taught me N.T. church truth. I knew that was what I wanted and for all the rest of my life. Now, aged 91, I am a resident of Pittsboro Christian Village, and praising the Lord for the beautiful, reverent and worshipful Lord’s Supper meetings we have here. They must be the nearest thing to heaven one can find on earth.” (signed) In Him…forever! Eva Rummell
The last evening our Lord Jesus spent with His disciples was one of deepest significance. They knew He must return to His Father; now He gave them a very earnest request to remember Him when He was gone. They must have wondered why He thought they could forget Him, but how well He knew.
The evening was full of remembering. It was the celebration of the Passover supper, that memorial feast God commanded them to keep to all generations. God wanted to be remembered for His past blessings to the nation of Israel.
They ate of the Passover lamb, and thought about the blood sprinkled on the lintel and doorposts so the angel of death would spare the firstborn in every Israeli family. There were bitter herbs also, to remind them of all God had done for them in delivering them from the oppression of the Egyptians.
It was at this appropriate time of remembering that the Lord Jesus taught His disciples a new Remembrance Supper far more important than the Passover. He was about to die as the Lamb of God for the sin of the world, and He wanted to be remembered.
We know the story well. “And He took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is My body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of Me” (Lk. 22:19). What amazing love! He could give thanks for bread that spoke of His own body about to be given in death for sinful man.
“Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in My blood which is shed for you” (Lk. 22:20). Again He gave thanks: this time for the wine which so vividly depicted His very life-blood being poured out for us. He gave thanks even though He knew the cross lay just ahead of Him. His hour had come when He could fulfill His early promise to His Father, “Lo, I come do Thy will, O God” (Heb. 10:7). He fully knew the anguish soon to be endured on the cross, yet He counted His Father’s will to be the “joy that was set before Him” (Heb. 12:2) and He gave thanks. What immeasurable love He showed toward His Father, giving thanks for the bread and cup, fully knowing the reality of their significance. What immeasurable love He showed toward sinful man, that He was willing to give His body and blood to atone for man’s sin.
He then passed the bread and cup among His disciples for each one of them to partake of the emblems He had chosen, emblems to help them remember Him until He would come again.
He did not appoint any special disciple to take His place after He was gone. In the upper room discourse He had carefully taught them who should take His place among them. “Even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him” (Jn. 14:17). “He shall bring all things to your remembrance” (Jn. 14:26).
That very evening their precious Lord was taken from among them. They saw Him arrested, tried, and condemned to die a criminal’s death. It must have torn their hearts to see Him hanging on the cross. He had taught them many things hard to understand; now the meaning was becoming clear. After being constantly with them for three years, He was gone from among them—but they had His wonderful promise, “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them” (Mt. 18:20).
Scripture does not describe how the disciples conducted that first Supper in memory of their Lord. Surely their words spilled easily from overflowing hearts as they talked about the Son of God living intimately among them and how very much they loved Him. Then as they spoke of His love for them in dying on the cross, the words must have trembled from their lips. In their Lord they saw the fulfillment of God’s promise through His servant Moses: “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for the soul” (Lev. 17:11). Their Lord was God’s chosen Passover Lamb laid upon the altar, now fashioned into a cross.
Each time they remembered Him in this way, they saw it all happen right before their eyes. How could they ever forget that scene? It was so very real, so very fresh, as if it happened yesterday. Now they understood why He asked them to remember Him by breaking bread and drinking that cup. It must have been a holy moment to them whenever they obeyed His request.
CAN IT BE LIKE THAT FOR US TODAY?
How wonderful to attend a Lord’s Supper meeting like that today! It is possible, for the Lord Jesus Christ is in our midst as He promised. The Holy Spirit is present to bring all things to our remembrance. If we are sensitive to His leading, our hearts will overflow with true praise and worship to our Lord and Saviour. It should be a holy moment to us also when we partake of the bread and the cup in His memory.
How privileged we are when brethren who have been spending time in His presence, preparing their hearts, are prompted by the Holy Spirit to lead in worship. The women also worship in their own silent heart language that our Lord understands so well. Much depends on our heart preparation as to the depth of remembrance and worship which we will have to offer Him.
The story is told of two women attending a Lord’s Supper. Later, one said to her friend, “Did you see what Mrs. So and So did during the meeting?”
“No, the friend answered quietly. “I was in the Holy of Holies.”
It can be like that at a Lord’s Supper meeting. It can seem very near the edge of heaven, as if catching an echo of the worship there that will continue through all eternity. It is that unique place where a believer can meet together with God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ in the secret closet of the heart—in company with other believers yet as being in private audience with Him.
How wonderful to keep this privileged appointment with our Saviour each new Lord’s Day. May our remembrance of Him always be so very real, as if it had all just happened yesterday.
Written by Eva Rummell