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Fulfilled

Luke 22:16, "For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God."

As I was reading the Bible over this past week, I ran across the above verse in Luke's account of the last supper. As Jesus passed out the bread and the wine to His disciples, He gave them this verse. I think the implications of this verse to our faith are immense.

For months, the question, "Who killed Jesus?" has been reveberating throughout our country in response to Mel Gibson's film, "The Passion of Christ." This verse gives us the answer. Jesus' body and blood were being offered up voluntarily by Him to fulfill the will of the Father. He knew without a doubt what was about to happen to Him, and He accepted it freely and without reservation. That is why He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemene, "Not my will, but your will be done." And what was God's will? That Jesus would give us His body and His blood as an atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world. That is also shy Jesus could cry from the cross, "It is finished." He was saying, in effect, "It is fulfilled. It is completed. God's will has been done, the sacrifice has been made, and salvation has been offered."

The next time you take Holy Communion or the Lord's Supper (or whatever you call it), think about what is meant by the symbolism of the bread and the wine. This is not just a way to remember Jesus as the text suggests, but a way to identify with His atoning sacrifice and to agree with Him that God's will has been fulfilled.