Communion Meditation

April 5, 1987

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Two stories very quickly, by way of contrast and comparison--One from the Old Testament...the other from the New.

One from the life of King David...the other from the life of King Jesus. One from a cave, underground...the other from an Upper Room.....Both have something to say to us as we prepare ourselves for Holy Communion.

The early days of David’s reign as King over Israel were spent battling the Philistines, trying to keep the frail nation from toppling altogether.

The Philistines controlled most of the countryside, had cut off key supply routes, and threatened to isolate the King and his tiny band of warriors so they could cut them down one by one. THOSE WERE DARK DAYS FOR GOD’S PEOPLE IN ISRAEL.

See in your imagination David and a few loyal followers hiding in the Cave of Adullam. Not far away in the city of Bethlehem, David’s hometown, the Philistine army encamped, totally in control.

David, despairing, but not frantic, was planning his strategy. He could almost see Bethlehem from the mouth of the cave. He knew every nook and cranny of the dusty city.

As he thought, and prayed, and made his assessment of the situation, lining up how best to deploy his meager forces, his mind went back to that old water well with which he was so familiar, the well near the gate in Bethlehem.

He had known that well all his life, had drunk from it since he was a boy, could almost feel and taste its cooling wetness as he sweated out his strategy making in the cave.

Oh, he said longingly, knowing it was an idle wish since Philistine soldiers patrolled every street of the city, “if only someone would give me water to drink from the well of Bethlehem which is by the gate.”

3 of his soldiers heard him say it, and translated his wish into an order. It may have been uttered as a pipe dream, but they heard it as a mandate. It’s a mark of the devotion David stirred in his men that his mere statement of yearning should produce that kind of response. It’s concrete evidence of the magnetism of his leadership.

The 3 soldiers, out of fidelity to David, stole out of the cave, sneaked through the Philistine lines, made their way somehow into Bethlehem to the well by the gate, and secured in a cup, maybe a cup made of gourd, a supply of water which they triumphantly brought back and presented to the King.

You can say a lot of things about David. He may have been a rounder. He could sin lustily, and sometimes was pig-headed,.... But there was a nobility in him that at its best rose to occasions magnificently. This was one of those occasions. He poured out that precious, risked-for water, poured it out on the ground, and said, “Far be it from me before God that I should do this. Shall I drink the life blood of these men? For at the risk of their lives they brought it.” NO WONDER THEY LOVED HIM SO MUCH.

The other story takes place a thousand years later in an upper room, in a typical two-story Jewish house in Jerusalem. Jesus and the 12 have gone there for supper. It is the last time they would all be together in this life.

Arrangements had been made, tradition says, with the family of John Mark, the young man who later would write the earliest Gospel.

Like David and his men before, Jesus and the disciples were also, in a sense, in hiding. They were being pursued, they were hunted men. Jesus especially had a price on His head. They were looking for Him, and even as they ate together, the soldiers of the High Priest, having been told by Judas where the Master probably would go when the meal was over, were making their way to that secluded Garden so they could intercept him and haul Him before the authorities.

It was during the meal, that brief period of serenity before the storm broke around him, that Jesus took a cup...maybe not all that different from the earlier cup David’s soldiers had used to bring water to the King...certainly a simply, unpretentious cup...

...He took that cup, and gave them an object lesson they could never forget. It became so firmly imbedded in their consciousness that it has come down through the centuries as part of the worship experience of the Church.....

He took that cup and said to them, “This is my blood of the Covenant, which is poured out for you, and for many, for the forgiveness of sins.”

How could anybody forget that action, that symbol, that identification? He was doing it for THEM. No wonder they love Him so much.

Two cups, one from the Old Testament, one from the New, one from a cave, one from an upper room....Both emptied of their contents out of love and enormous respect.

David’s cup of water poured out on the ground because of the cost of sacrifice for the King..... Jesus’ cup of blood poured out on the ground as the cost of sacrifice FROM the King.

In a way both say to us a powerful, awesome thing.... LOVE, REAL LOVE IS COSTLY. It is willing to take risk, it is willing to make sacrifice.

As Paul says, it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things....it never gives up. This is what we celebrate as the Body of Christ.

We come today on this Communion Sunday during Lent to drink again from that cup which stands in a special, unforgettable way for the costly love of God which has been poured out for our redemption.

DON’T EVER THINK YOUR SALVATION WAS A FLIPPANT MATTER TO GOD. He cared enough to shed his very blood for your soul and mine.

Will you receive him today as we recreate the sacrifice of Calvary in this worship service, the gathering of His people? A costly thing has been done for our benefit. His cup has been emptied that our cups may overflow in fullness of life, and FOR service in His name. Far be it from me before God that I should take it lightly.