Lord's Supper Meditation--Palm Sunday

Lord’s Supper Meditation—Palm Sunday

April 5, 2009
John Turner

We have recently looked at Jesus under the headings, “I Am the Good Shepherd,” “I Am the Light of the World,” “I Am the Bread of Life,” “I Am the Way, the Truth, and the Life,” and “I Am the True Vine.” Easter Sunday, our heading is, “I Am the Resurrection and the Life.”

When Jesus said, “I Am,” he was identifying himself with the name Yahweh, which translates as “I Am That I Am.” John 8:58 reads, “Jesus said to them, ‘Before Abraham was, I Am.’” Abraham lived about 2000 years before Jesus walked in Galilee and Judea. In saying, “Before Abraham was, I Am,” Jesus was claiming that he was in the present tense well before two thousand years earlier, that he is in the present tense now, and that he will still be in the present tense when the scroll of earth’s history is rolled up, indeed that he exists in and beyond all times as the Eternal Now.

During the use of this worship theme, we have begun each service singing the Twila Paris worship chorus, “We will glorify the King of kings, we will glorify the Lamb, we will glorify the Lord of lords, who is the Great I Am.”

We heard the choir today sing during its cantata, “Lion of Judah, the Great I Am, Blessed Redeemer, Passover Lamb, Alpha, Omega, Beginning and the End, Jesus Christ Forever, Amen!” The song was claiming that Jesus is the divine Great I Am, the A and the Z, the Beginning and the End, the One who is Forever,

That is stunning enough, but there is more. The song is also claiming that Jesus is the Lion of Judah and the Passover Lamb. “The Lion of Judah” means that Jesus is the Messiah, the Royal Son of God, the agent of the eternal kingdom of God, the One who rules with all divine power, the One who determines all final outcomes, the King of kings. “The Passover Lamb” means that Jesus is the Suffering Servant of God, the One who offers himself as an atoning sacrifice for our sins, that he is, as the song says, our Blessed Redeemer, fully human and vulnerable.

It is hard for our minds to fit together Lion of Judah and Passover Lamb, Royal Son of God and Suffering Servant. But that is precisely what we do when we identify with Jesus by being baptized into his death on the cross and into his resurrection to eternal life. In our baptism, we are claiming our status as royal children of God, heirs of the eternal kingdom, and we are claiming our responsibility in this life to be self-giving servants of God’s redeeming love.

Here at this table, week by week, we gather to renew our baptismal vows, to die to sin and self and to be raised to walk in empowered newness, to be centered and transformed by our identifying in ever deeper and richer ways with the Lion and the Lamb, the Royal Son and the Suffering Servant, the Crucified Savior, the Risen Lord, the Eternal One, Jesus Christ. Do not miss being caught up in the mystery of losing and gaining yourself day by day as a disciple of Jesus. Enter more fully this day and every day into the wonder of your life in Christ. Once again, come to be in that place, to be formed anew in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, the Lion, the Lamb, the Great I Am.