CHAPTER XIII

THE TABLE IN THE KINGDOM OF

GOD

THE Table in the Kingdom represents the fellowship of those each of whom is a member of the Kingdom of God. It is a communion that is limited to those who share Christ's experience of God. During his lifetime, Jesus never ate and drank with his disciples in the Kingdom. He could not have spiritual fellowship with men not one of whom had yet entered into fellowship with the Heavenly Father. They ate and drank with Jesus, but not in the Kingdom of God. "I will not eat and drink with you again," the Master said, "until I eat and drink anew with you in my Father's kingdom." That word, "anew," means in a new sense, or a new experience. Jesus anticipated that the next time he ate and drank with his disciples, it would be in the spiritual fellowship with him in his experience of God.

This fellowship Jesus symbolized by bread and wine, representing his body and his blood. "Except," he said, “ye eat my flesh and drink my blood, blood, ye have no life in you." What does this mean? Not that one must eat the very flesh and drink the very blood of Christ in order to have fellowship with God. It is incredible that men should have so misunderstood Jesus as to teach such an idea, especially as he distinctly declared that it would profit no one to eat his flesh and drink his blood, literally.

What did he mean by the symbols he used? Let Jesus tell us. The Church would never have made the mistakes that it has in interpreting the words of Jesus if it had permitted him to be his own interpreter. "The words that I speak unto you," Jesus said, "they are spirit and they are life," by which he means that we are to take his words concerning his flesh and blood in a spiritual sense. "Only as I give myself to you and as you receive me into your hearts is it possible that we should have that fellowship which only is life." For fellowship is life. How few there are that

thus give themselves to others! How much of themselves Christians reserve from those with whom they are closely associated! "Only those who love men as they realize they are loved of God give themselves wholly to men, as they realize God has given Himself to them." Christ's flesh and blood represent all of himself. No other man has given himself to everybody as freely and as fully as Christ did. He gave the bread and the wine, representing himself, not only to his friends but to his enemies; to one who was ready to betray him and to another who had bargained to sell him.

So men who bear his name should give themselves to one another-their best, when they are in fellowship with God and enriched through experience of his holy love. Oh, what life would mean if Christians were to do this! What a fellowship that would be in which all men, enriched by growing union with God, should give themselves freely, in costly expressions of love one to another. That would be the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, which is life eternal. This is what Jesus meant by the

ordinance of his holy Supper. This is what he had in mind when he said, "Do this in remembrance of me." Do what? "Give yourselves to one another, as I have given myself to you, love as I have loved, serve as I have served."

Where two or three thus give themselves to one another in holy love, there the fellowship of Christ and God is experienced. We are to give ourselves to one another as freely as God gives Himself to us.

So the Master teaches. His largest example of love he calls upon us to follow. After he had washed the feet of his disciples he said, "I have done this as an example for you." He expects us to measure up to his love for man and for God. He regarded it as his duty to love men as he realized God had loved him. How far short of this high ideal has the church fallen! The love-language of the New Testament has been largely lost from the church. Even we preachers rarely think of using it in our intercourse with one another. Not until we love men as Christ loved men shall we have Christ's experience of God.

The Lord's Supper, as it is administered in the Protestant and Catholic churches, is a pitiful shadow, at best, of the ordinance as Christ instituted it. That ordinance is never kept in spirit and truth except by those who are giving themselves in loving service to men. People who hunger for pure love like Christ's, should find it in his Church, as such persons found it in Christ. Oh, how he gave himself to the poorest and most sinful of men and women! He was angry when his disciples sought to prevent mothers from bringing their little children to him in order that he might bless them. Jesus was angry with anyone who sought to prevent him from giving himself fully to all those who desired his redeeming love. He found his keenest pleasure in sharing, with all who would receive it, the fulness of the love that he himself had received from his Heavenly Father. We may not hope to eat and drink with him at his table in his Father's Kingdom until we share with him his Father's love. We may have from God all that Jesus had from Him. Of His fulness we may all receive, grace for grace. No good