St. Boniface House

This past week our family spent a couple of days in Kansas City, and one of the things we did was to visit the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Our intention in going there was primarily to see the collection of artifacts from the Ancient Near East, from Egypt, from Greece and Rome, and Medieval Christian Europe. We were not disappointed. It was tremendously fascinating. Among the many things we saw was a relief—a picture engraved in stone, of an Ancient Assyrian King whose servants are bringing him bread and wine and other foods as he is seated at his table after a battle. We see this all over the place in ancient culture, and also in the Bible—that a king, after he victoriously returns from battle, sits down and drinks wine in celebration of his great conquests.

This is another picture of what is happening here at the Lord’s Supper. The Supper is the victory meal of the Great King, who has conquered the world, who has conquered the devil, who has conquered sin, and who has conquered death itself by his death and resurrection from the dead. He has won the fight, and now he sits down at the table to enjoy the spoils of war. Like the ancient Assyrian relief we saw, we his servants bring him bread and wine for his victory celebration. Also like the ancient world, we are able to bring that bread and wine only because the King has won the battle—because he has secured peace and prosperity for us. But unlike the ancient world, or the present world—radically unlike it—He then says to us, “Sit down and feast with me.”

The King has won the battle on your behalf. He has procured the forgiveness of your sins. He has defeated the devil and established his Kingdom. And now he shares with you the spoils of war—the fruit of the earth that you have inherited, that you may be strengthened to go out and continue the fight and complete the conquest—fighting not as Ancient Assyrian Kings nor as modern presidents, but gently wielding the strength that you receive from this meal with the Great King in compassionate service to one another and the world.

This is the Lord’s table…