Preparing for Eucharist

In Alister McGrath’s newest book, The Passionate Intellect: Christian Faith and the Discipleship of the Mind, four themes connected to eucharist are explored briefly, and I want to reflect on each one over the next four weeks. Today is our second theme.

Anticipation. One of the more remarkable features of the two earliest Lord’s supper accounts is anticipation. Both in Jesus’ own last supper words, where Jesus promised he would not drink of the cup until he drank anew with the disciples in the kingdom (Mark 14:25), and in Paul’s own account of the Lord’s supper where he says we are to do this “until he comes” (1 Cor 11:23-26), this meal is a meal that anticipates the full banquet of the marriage supper of the Lamb (Rev 19:9).

Often the Lord’s supper becomes sober, and there’s a place for this. But there’s a theme of joyous anticipation in this meal: an anticipation of the Day when justice is established, when love will brim over the top of our cups as the overflowing grace of God fills us, and of shalom for all.

As we eat and drink even this day, may we eat and drink as a toast to the Great Day when kingdom fully arrives.