St. Boniface House

In our sermon text this morning we heard Jesus call us as his disciples to “deny ourselves and take up our cross”.  We spent some time talking about how that is a call to renounce our right to live, and how it means that because Jesus’ death was not death for the sake of death nor suffering for the sake of suffering, we must follow him in dying with a purpose by ordering our lives for the sake of service to one another.As we come to the Lord’s Table I want to highlight another facet of what it means for us to “take up our cross”.  Remember who could be crucified in the Roman Empire: only  those who were not Roman citizens.  Only those who were not official citizens of Rome could die the death of crucifixion.  Thus although Mark makes more of this than Matthew does, Jesus is calling his people to a certain political stance, as a complement to a life ordered so as to be laid down for the sake of others.  To “take up your cross” is to reject citizenship in the kingdoms of this world to the extent that they reject the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus.

This is what we do when we come to the Lord’s Table.  This is a meal with the King in which the boundary lines are drawn, so to speak.  As we also saw in the passage this morning, Jesus came as “True Israel”, went into exile in his death and was restored from the exile in his resurrection, so that all those who are his disciples, all those united to him in baptism by faith through the power of the Holy Spirit are heirs of all the covenant promises that were given to Israel.  We are the holy nation and the royal priesthood, and by serving in his house and sitting at his table we are declaring and pledging our allegiance to the one true King, to whom every knee must bow, and concerning whom every tongue must confess that he is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

And as always, I would have you note who the King has invited to his table, who make up the body of this great nation: young and old, weak and strong, rich and poor, mature and immature, and so on.  Unlike Rome, and unlike modern nation states, all citizens of this nation receive all the benefits and blessings of membership. To the extent that a “classless society” is even desirable, it can only happen under a King so gracious as ours, whose death has secured the salvation of all his people, and whose resurrection life enlivens us all that we may be sanctified, and pass from glory into glory.

This is the Lord’s Table…