#20.

The Lord's Supper Proclaims the Love of Jesus for His People
John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.
What a sermon is proclaimed to us each time we take the Lord's Supper, if we have ears to
hear! How much we have discovered already in this regard, and yet there is so much more for us
to consider.
This time, we want to dwell on the fact that the Lord's Supper proclaims the love of Jesus for
those He came to save. Why, though, didn't we deal with this one earlier, since it is a message
full of comfort and blessing to God's children? The reason is that until we had contemplated
some of the other proclamations from the Table, we could not rightly receive this one. To
understand that Christ loves us is one thing, but to see all that He willingly endured to save us
shows us that love in action, and demonstrates its depth and its magnitude.
In our previous meditations, we have reflected on the broken body of Christ and upon His poured
out blood. We saw that there is a reference here to the Tabernacle and Temple offerings, and in
the separation of body and blood a sign of death. We dwelt on the Scriptures that tell us of His
physical sufferings, His face marred more than any man's. We considered how alone He was on
the cross, deserted by human friends and family and cut off from His Father in heaven because
He was bearing our sin. We contemplated how beautiful and sinless He was, and yet what a
violent and implacable hatred that evoked in the sinners He came to save. We were reminded of
the warfare between man and God due to sin, and the justice of God that had to be satisfied if
any of Adam's descendants were to be rescued. We saw Jesus, plunged into darkness, bearing on
the cross the undiluted wrath of God His Father - hell itself - for those He came to save, and we
rejoiced to be reminded that those who trust Him now have peace with God instead of warfare,
through the blood shed on the cross.
How shall we describe the length, breadth, height and depth of this love of Christ? How shall we
gain any impression of its magnitude? Only by dwelling on what He voluntarily subjected
Himself to so that we might be set free!
In our text, Jesus tells us that His love for His friends is the highest and greatest love that there is,
which will be seen by the fact that He lays down His life for them. It is always an extraordinary
thing when someone is prepared to lay down their life for the good of another. But the death of
Jesus was no ordinary death. See what manner of suffering was His - physical, emotional,
spiritual, mental. If Jesus died this death for His friends, what shall we say of His love for them?
And this love is declared afresh to us each time we come to the Table. How eager we should be
to come to the Supper, then, to hear our beloved Savior say to us each time, as it were, "I love
you! See what I have done to save you and to make you mine!"
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