Easter Dinner: A Pastor’s Prayer that Christ Will Save through Easter’s Reach

Nick Robinson

There is little in the world that I love more than a good helping of irony. Perhaps this is why I love being Presbyterian, a denomination that proclaims the abounding grace of God more concisely and affectionately than any other denomination I have been a part of. Yet when I speak with folks from outside our tradition, I find myself having to answer questions about our being “legalists.” On more than a few occasions, the criticism was made in reference to our history of not observing a “Christian calendar,” and this is ironic because it is the Christian Calendar that binds the conscience.

It is true, however, that most of our modern Presbyterian churches have moved away from strict abstinence from celebrating Christian holidays, especially Christmas and Easter. At Salem ARP where I minister, we celebrate these holidays, and I am glad that we do. These holidays are wonderful opportunities for preaching the gospel to folks who will only hear it once, maybe twice a year. These are two days out of the year where our churches can do the work of evangelism and not have to leave the pew.

These holidays are great for bringing in outsiders to sit with us under the ministry of the Word and prayer, those wonderful means by which Christ calls his sheep to himself.

But there is one Christian celebration that is not for outsiders. It is a celebration specifically for those who have called upon the name of the Lord, and that is the Lord’s Supper. It is a communion meal with Jesus Christ playing the part of both host and centerpiece. It is His table, and not our own. It is his broken body and his pardoning blood that are signed and sealed to believers, and not our own.

The Lord’s Table and our invitation to it ministers the grace of God to his people. We were rebels against the King of Kings, and yet, it is not our body and blood that are laid before us on the Table. It is the body and blood of our King, who was also the Lamb, and we are invited to come and feast upon his quickening benefits.

But not everyone is invited. Paul gives the church grave warnings against anyone coming to the Table in an unworthy manner (1 Corinthians 11:27-32). These warnings are to be taken seriously. No person seeking mercy would dare to enter a court of law absent either repentance or reverence. Even in earthly courts, whenever the judge enters the room, all must stand at reverent attention. He is the one who holds life and death in his hands. His power and office demand respect, and if it is his mercy the accused desires, then He is also deserving of our tears. If this is true of the courts of man, how much more are repentance and reverence required in the court of the Son of Man whose dominion is without end? (Daniel 7:13, 14)

As good and necessary as repentance and reverence are in our approach to the Table of the Lord, they are neither one the means by which we lay hold of the mercies of Christ. That is a task that belongs to faith alone. It is true that we must never separate repentance and faith, yet, it is vital to our comfort and true religion that we distinguish between the two. Our repentance is our turning from sin in sorrow for ever having committed it, hatred for its continued existence, and a godly affection for seeing it mortified in our flesh. However, if we are to turn from sin, we must be turning to something, and that something is someone.

Repentance cannot atone for even the least of sins. It is as Augustus Toplady wrote, “Not the labors of my hands can fulfill thy law's demands; could my zeal no respite know, could my tears forever flow, all for sin could not atone.” It is Christ Jesus alone who satisfies the laws demands. He alone can offer up the righteousness that the law required. He alone can offer up a sacrifice that atones for sin and propitiates wrath. Christian tears cannot extinguish the flames of hell, but the blood of Christ has. Faith, not repentance, is the gift of God’s Spirit which lays hold of the saving mercies of Christ.

And it is faith in what Christ does that causes our approach to the Lord’s Table to be mingled with the awe of reverence, the tears of repentance, and the joy of faith. We come to the Lord as He is portrayed before us in the bread and wine of the Table, by the same means by which we first approached Him as He was portrayed as crucified in the preaching of His gospel: by faith alone. So it is with reverence and repentance that we approach the table, but it is by faith that we feast and are made partakers of Christ’s merciful sacrifice.

The Lord’s Table is not set for the self-righteous, but for sinners redeemed by what is signed and sealed in the elements: the broken body and the redeeming blood of Jesus Christ. But not all sinners are redeemed. Many who come into our churches have no repentance, reverence, or faith. We may preach to and plead with them, but we cannot bring them to that Table. It is not ours. It is a feast unlike any other, but it belongs to Christ. He only invites those whom He has chosen (Matthew 22:1-14).

This Easter, as our doors are opened to outsiders and we invite them in to hear the good news of what Jesus has done to save sinners, it is my prayer that the Table of the Lord will cast a shadow of discontentment over the congregation. I pray that unbelievers will not be satisfied with the food that passes through the body, but that they will long for the food that never perishes. The Bread that has come down from heaven. May Christ use our Easter celebration to invite more sinners to His feast.