LS-24-The Coming Triumph

The Coming Triumph I shall not drink from henceforth of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall come.--Luke 22:18.

What boundless faith, what supernatural insight, is revealed in these words of promise and hope! For remember, it was the betrayal night. His enemies were in the ascendancy. One of His own group, a traitor, was about to deliver Him into the hands of His foes. The cross which had shadowed Him throughout His ministry was to become a reality on the morrow. His few disciples would be scattered; the things He sought to accomplish undone, and the Divine objective He had set before Him hopelessly dissipated. So it seemed. In that dark hour, when by all human estimates, His soul should be overborne by apprehension and fear, He looks forward with confidence to the triumph of His cause. He institutes a rite which was destined to be observed by His followers to the end of time. The life which wicked men, with diabolical cunning, seek to take from Him, He declares He gives for the sake of others. The blood for sight of which His enemies were prepared to commit any crime, He offers freely as an atonement for sin. The hour of deepest depression become the hour of Divinely prophetic assurance. Instead of needing comfort Himself, He speaks words of strength and cheer to those who, failing to understand His spiritual mission, would soon be scattered as sheep without a shepherd. He is about to die, but He declares that His body and blood are spiritual food and drink for mankind. The years have rolled by, reaching into millenniums, and we now know that of that group gathered together at the passover Table, the Man of Sorrows alone understood the meaning of the strange drama that was being enacted. The Via Dolorosa, which He traversed that night, which led to the cross, was the way to the goal of His achievement. The day would come when He would see of the travail of His soul, and be satisfied. In this communion of the Lord’s Supper, we have one of the most striking evidences of the reality of our faith and the truth of our gospel. It has been well said: "If all the records of Christianity had perished, and only the rite of the Holy Communion remained, it would still remain certain that One had appeared on earth who claimed to be the Divine Saviour of the world, and whose death was believed to have been followed by a glorious resurrection and ascension."