Whenever we gather to partake of the Lord’s Supper, we join in remembering something we didn’t witness—Jesus’s crucifixion. We attempt to somehow “see” what we didn’t see. Is this even possible?
When Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper, he told his followers to eat in remembrance of him; but I wasn’t at the cross and you weren’t either, so how can we remember? And we’re not the only ones who weren’t there. Except for one, that rag-tag group of apostles who had followed Jesus during his three-year ministry weren’t there either.
You know who stood beneath the cross of Jesus when he was crucified? His mother. Why? One word: love. Hers was the undying devotion and amazing love of a mother. Despite the absolute horror she was about to witness, no one—neither the Jewish religious elite nor the Roman government—could have kept her from being at her son’s side when the world was at its darkest. There’s nothing in this life more powerful than a mother’s love. It is only eclipsed by God’s love who sent his son to die on the very cross beneath which Mary stood.
The Bible records several other women were present, but where were all the men? Where were the apostles? They’d run. Matthew 26:56 says simply “…all…left him and fled.” John—the one whom Jesus loved—also stood beneath the cross of Jesus. Apparently, he’d fled with the others; but love stopped his flight and, despite the danger, he returned to be with Jesus. Of the apostles, then, only one—John—saw Jesus crucified. The others had fled for their lives—the very lives Jesus was sent to save. Perhaps later, to their shame, when asked if they had seen the crucifixion of Jesus, they had to reply, “no, I wasn’t there.” When these ambassadors of Christ who preached the gospel throughout the known world joined with fellow Christians in taking the Lord’s Supper, they likely felt pangs of guilt as they sought to remember something they had not seen.
So, again, the question: Can we remember what we’ve not witnessed? Can we “see” what we’ve not seen? Can we stand beneath the cross of Jesus and see him crucified? I think we can. I believe we are standing beneath the cross of Jesus when we assemble to partake of the Lord’s Supper.
How can I say this? Because faith is all about “seeing” what we haven’t seen. Hebrews 1:1 says, “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” A bit later in the chapter—in verse 27—the writer describes faith somewhat differently. He says faith is “seeing the unseen.”
Elizabeth Clephane—a young Scottish poetess—wrote the lyrics to a hymn we occasionally sing. Sadly, she died at the young age of 39, long before her work was published. One of her poems put to music is entitled “Beneath the Cross.” Elizabeth believed we could “see the unseen” and she believed—despite not having been there—that we could stand and take a stand—even today—beneath the cross of Jesus.
Consider her beautiful lyrics:
Beneath the cross of Jesus
I fain would take my stand,
The shadow of a mighty Rock
Within a weary land.
A home within the wilderness,
A rest upon the way,
From the burning of the noontide heat,
And the burden of the day.
Upon that cross of Jesus
Mine eyes at times can see
The very dying form of One
Who suffer’d there for me.
And from my smitten heart, with tears,
Two wonders I confess:
The wonders of redeeming love,
And my unworthiness.
I take, O cross, thy shadow
For my abiding place.
I ask no other sunshine than
The sunshine of His face.
Content to let the world go by,
To know no gain nor loss,
My sinful self my only shame,
My glory all the cross.
mjhennecke@gmail.com