LS-23-The Lord's Guests
The Lord’s Guests The Master saith ... where is the guest-chamber?--Luke 22:11.
Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat.--Matthew 26:26. The disciples were the Lord’s guests at the passover. The indications are that this love feast had been in His mind for a long while. He had arranged with some unnamed friend to provide the room for His guests when the time came. With that friend He had even planned the time and the place for meeting the disciples whom He would send ahead of the company to prepare the passover. "Go to such a place," He said to His disciples, "and there you will meet a man with a pitcher of water. Follow him, and in his house you will find the room ready for us. Prepare the passover there." It was as He said, and when, later, He met with His band, He told them how this meeting at the passover feast had been on His heart, and filled His desires.
It has always been the custom in the East to attach special significance to eating in company, and especially to the acceptance of hospitality at the meal table. That was esteemed as a sacred bond of friendship, which no man could lightly or honourably break. Dastardly as the act of betrayal on the part of Judas was, from any point of view, the deed was stained a darker hue because one who had eaten of the Master’s bread had lifted up his heel against Him. Jesus showed that He felt this aggravation of the betrayer’s crime. "I say unto you," He exclaimed sorrowfully as they sat at meat, "One of you which eateth with Me shall betray Me."
We are His guests today. This Table is the Table of the Lord. He invites us here. Common articles are these which are provided for us, yet we recognise that this Table is "spread with more than angel’s food." It is a spiritual feast to which we are invited, and as we take the bread and drink of the cu13, we partake in a richer deeper sense of the provision of the Master’s house. These emblems signify to us the Bread of Life and heavenly refreshment, which only He could supply. As we receive them at His hand, He welcomes us to a loving fellowship, and we pledge ourselves in loyal devotion. And not alone to the Lord do we bind ourselves today. We partake in company, sharing in a fellowship that is holy, because it is formed in Him. He receives us all. You are His guest, and so am I, and as we sit at the Table with Him, may His gracious spirit bind us to Him and to one another in ties of loyalty and service.