Episode Transcript
The following program is a first person narrative using authors'license to tell stories drawn from the Bible and the books of Ellen White. Welcome to Family Storytime with Karlie Fraser. Join us as we step back in time to hear about the Lord's Supper.
Ah, welcome. My name is Lydia for those I haven't had the pleasure of meeting yet and it's so great to see you all. I love it when we come together like this.
Now is everybody comfortable? Have you had some refreshments? There's some food on the table at the back if you're hungry. We've got apricots, dates, bread. I'm pretty sure there's some grape juice too, so feel free to help yourselves to it anytime.
The silence was deafening. I remember John speaking of that night with tears in his eyes as his voice was a strange mix of shame and sorrow. He said they had been arguing before they entered the upper room so everyone was already on edge.
Even Jesus wasn't his usual joyful self and it appeared as though something was weighing heavily on his mind. When we asked John what they'd been arguing about, he said that they were reacting to a request that he and James had made. Apparently they'd asked Jesus if they could sit in places of honor on either side of him when he received his throne.
They believed that Jesus'kingdom would be an earthly one and were seeking the highest places of honor. How often do we do that? Do you do that? Maybe not as brazenly as the request of James and John, but how often do we seek the attention and appreciation of others for the glorification of ourselves? When you complete a task to the best of your ability, do you wish others would notice and applaud? How often do you compare yourself to those around you? Are you constantly running a comparison score? Their outfit is beautiful and they look better than me today. I'm down three points.
This food I made is amazing. Up three points. Ah, they got promoted and I didn't.
I'm down five points and on it goes. See? The disciples had played the comparison game and in doing so judged each other to be inferior, placing themselves above their peers. This rivalry and jealousy stirred their emotions so much that it even tainted their entrance to the upper room.
John recalled Judas jockeying for the place of honor on Jesus'left as he filled in the place on his right. And then the silence became deafening. There was the basin, there was the towel and where was the servant? Evidently some rookie had overlooked this aspect of the feast.
There was no servant to wash the filthy feet of the disciples. Jesus paused for a moment watching the faces of the friends that he had spent three years walking beside. Friends who called themselves his disciples.
They had studied his life of service and yet were very deliberately pretending to ignore the act of service in front of their faces. Have you ever done that? Had a situation present itself where you have been called to serve someone, and yet suddenly so many excuses flood your mind that you don't know which one to pick? There's something about lowering ourselves in order to lift others higher that seems to require a heart reconstruction. And if you're anything like me, you know that's something that you can't do on your own.
Slowly, Jesus rose from his place of highest honor, took off his coat, wrapped a towel around his waist, and knelt to pour water into the basin, the action sounding like a waterfall as silence continued to rain and the disciples struggled to deal with reality. Their Creator, Rabbi and Lord was kneeling before them, lifting each of their dirt encrusted feet into his lap. And with hands that had fashioned Adam, was carefully washing their filth away.
While Jesus'hands washed their feet, his actions washed their hearts. The disciples'attitudes of self promotion and judgment towards each other were worn down and washed away in the overflow of his grace. While previously they had been unprepared to partake of communion with Jesus, now, humbled as they were, they were ready to be united together in his love.
Have you ever thought about how we don't wash things that are clean? Why would we? It's only when we acknowledge that something is dirty that the concept of cleaning even becomes relevant. But it's hard to admit the dirt, the mess that we carry around inside us, the mistakes we've made, the fear that keeps us up at night. But it's there.
And I don't know about you, but I add to it every day. If I took out my heart to show you I know what you'd see. You'd see stains of selfishness.
You'd see pride and jealousy smeared all over it. And if you looked closely, you'd notice fear and distrust buried in the cracks. Among many other things, you'd see a heart in dire need of cleansing and healing.
And that's something that I can't do, no matter how hard I try. There is only one way to fix a heart in this condition, and that's to return it to its Maker. How is your heart? What does a normal day look like in your life? Would you say that you live with an attitude of service? Do you think more about others than yourself? If not, when was the last time you returned your heart to your Maker and asked Him for a reconstruction to wash it clean and to heal it? That's what I love about celebrating the Lord's Supper together.
It's a chance to take a moment to serve one another and to pray for each other, to do some focused soul searching and ask God for forgiveness and healing. It's been said that the only greatness is the greatness of humility. Jesus demonstrated this when he stepped down from his throne in heaven to kneel at the feet of humanity.
He then said since I, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you should wash each other's feet. I have given you an example to follow. We have the opportunity to serve one another today, remembering how Jesus loved and how he has called us to love each other.
But the disciples, they just didn't get it. They didn't understand. 4000 years of history had led up to this moment.
For 4000 years, God had been telling his story. The feasts, the sacrifices and the ceremonies had all pointed forward to Jesus Christ as the perfect Lamb slain for the salvation of the world. And yet they didn't understand.
So with calloused fingers that had opened the eyes of the blind, Jesus leant forward and picked up the bread. He gave thanks to the Father and broke it, sharing with all at the table. What would that scene have been like? Imagine the moment after Jesus said take, eat.
This is my body given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. What could he possibly mean by that? And then, as he reached for the cup, he said this wine is the token of God's new covenant to save you.
An agreement sealed with the blood I will pour out for you. And yet they didn't understand. How could they? I wonder if Jesus'words echoed in their heads when they saw him make no move to defend himself while his body was beaten to the ground by the soldiers? And as his blood ran from where the crown of thorns pierced his head and flowed from the stripes on his back did they realize this blood was sealing the new covenant between God and his people? This was God's love pouring out for the salvation of the world.
Did they understand that Jesus'sacrifice on the cross would bring an end to death itself? That the perfect Lamb, the unleavened bread and the unfermented wine all spoke of the Son of God lifted high on a cross? In a demonstration of God's utterly selfless love for each and every one of us? Do we understand that there is nothing in all creation that can ever separate us from the love of God revealed in Christ Jesus, our Lord? This completely destroys the comparison game. If we tried to play it, we would simultaneously win and lose because value is determined by the price of the purchaser. And Jesus paid for each one of us with his life.
There is no comparison. What can compare to the blood of Jesus Christ? We are entirely forgiven and eternally free. Free to serve one another in love, in a reflection of Jesus'love.
For us, communion is a memorial of God's gift and a reminder of Jesus'promise to one day return and bring us home. And in the meantime, while we're waiting, we serve. We learn to look outside of ourselves to those beside us in order to help lift them up.
And we do this by looking to the cross, by getting on our knees and laying our lives down just as Jesus did for each one of us. Will you pray with me? Dear Father, thank you so much for your love. Thank you, Jesus, for coming and for dying so that each one of us can be saved so that we can live that eternal life in relationship with you.
We don't understand it. We can't even begin to understand it, Lord, but we are grateful and we love you. And we just ask that you will send your Holy Spirit to fill each one of us so that we can learn to serve those around us in a very small reflection of the way that you serve Jesus and the way that you constantly gave of yourself.
We love you. We can't wait to see you. Amen.
I love it when we get to spend time together. And it's so good to see you all in our house tonight. It's so much fun to be able to catch up and talk about how life has been and what your plans are.
So don't leave. We're not finished yet. Hang out, grab some more food if you want, and yeah, let's just really spend some time getting to know each other.
Thank you, Karlie. Let's join Christopher and Jesse as they open the Bible to discuss today's story. Thank you so much, Karlie, for an amazing final story.
What better way to finish this journey together than with Jesus and his disciples eating the Last Supper? With this being our last Bible study, it's been such a blessing to be able to hear you tell the stories in God's word, and we have been blessed to share the thoughts God has given us on these stories every week. It's definitely been an exciting journey. As we've traveled all across the Bible, near and far, we've traveled with the Israelites in the wilderness, sat at the feet of Jesus with Mary, visited the Garden of Eden, and witnessed the faith of countless Bible heroes.
It's been a truly inspiring adventure and I know that I'm excited to study the final moments of Jesus in our last study today. Well, with that said, let's get right into our study then by looking at the story of the Last Supper. You know, Chris, it's fascinating that even to their last moments with Jesus, the disciples were still clambering to reach the top of the ladder of God's kingdom.
They all wanted to sit at the right hand of Jesus and be in a high position when his kingdom finally came down to earth. It is pretty funny, but there's just one big problem with the disciples'way of hmm, what's that? Well, the disciples were trying to climb a ladder that didn't even exist. Can you imagine that? Seeing people climbing up an invisible ladder? It would look ridiculous.
And well, you wouldn't get very far trying to climb up that ladder, would you? No, not really at all. Okay, but what do you mean? There is no ladder. I hear about people trying to climb the ladder of success all the time.
Whether it's getting a promotion at work or getting the top in your class, or maybe getting the most trophies in sports. Everyone, it seems, is trying to climb up this ladder of success. Well, that just means that there might be a lot of people who look pretty silly trying to climb up a ladder that isn't there.
You see, when God made humans, he made all of us in his image. That means that everyone, no matter where you are from or how old you are, no matter your shape or size, you are made in God's image, and that makes you valuable. Okay, does that mean that everyone is of equal value then? Exactly.
We are all God's children and we're all of equal value. I like to think of it as a long horizontal line. No matter who you are, you will be on the same line as everybody else.
No one is ever above or below the line because we are all of equal value. Ah, okay, so that means that when people are trying to climb this ladder, they are trying to go above the line. But can they really do that? Well, they can try as hard as they like, but no one can ever go above or below this line.
It doesn't matter if we get the best score in school or we didn't win any of the trophies at sports or in the case of the disciples. It doesn't matter if you're at the right hand of God or on the left. God loves all of us the same.
And our jobs, our achievements, our belongings, they don't change the value that we all share. So if there is no line, what happens when people try to climb up this non existent ladder? Well, maybe you can think of some examples in the Bible where people have tried to climb up higher than they already. Hmm.
What about the Tower of Babel? Let's see if we can learn something from that story. And so let's all turn to Genesis, chapter eleven and read verse four. Then they said, Come, let us build ourselves a city with a tower that reaches to the heavens so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.
It's interesting, isn't it, that the people thought that they could build a ladder, or in this case a tower, to reach up and be on the same level as God. But let's see what happens when they tried to climb this ladder. Let's read verse eight and nine.
So the Lord scattered them from there all over the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel, because the Lord confused the language of the whole world from there, the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth, just as the people were building themselves up. God tears them down, and he reminds them to be humble and to remember that no matter how tall they build their tower, they will still be of the same equal value as everyone else.
This reminds me of another story in the Book of Numbers that involved a classic case of sibling rivalry. Miriam and Aaron, the brother and sister of Moses, were becoming jealous that God was using Moses as the leader of Israel. They thought they deserved to be in a position of high authority like Moses.
And what happens when they try to climb the ladder? If I remember correctly, doesn't Miriam get leprosy for a few days? That she does. God had to remind Miriam and Aaron that just because they weren't leaders like Moses, it didn't mean they were of any less value. But perhaps the one person who never quite understood this was Lucifer.
Let's turn to Isaiah chapter 14 together. Isaiah chapter 14, and beginning in verse twelve, says this how you are fallen from heaven, o Lucifer, son of the morning, how you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations, for you have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north.
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the most high, yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the pit. If that's not trying to climb the invisible ladder, I don't know what is.
Lucifer is convinced that he can climb above his horizontal line and not only be equal with God, but he believes that he can be even greater than God. And what happens to Lucifer? He is thrown down from heaven. But Lucifer's problem wasn't just trying to climb the ladder.
His attitude was also wrong. He believed that the path to greatness was by being above other people, rising above the stars of God. Just like the disciples wanted to be rulers in Jesus'kingdom, like the people wanted to build a tower to heaven at Babel.
And like Miriam and Aaron, who wanted to be leaders of Israel like Moses, they all thought that being above others would give them more value. But we learned from Jesus at the Last Supper that this kind of thinking could not be further from the truth. Lucifer wanted to be the King of the universe, to be above God himself.
But Jesus became a human to save humanity. Imagine the God of the universe lowering himself to be a human. It's the exact opposite of Lucifer's type of thinking.
And not only does Jesus come down onto our horizontal line, but he actually considered other people of more value than himself. And he was the King of the universe. Listen to what Paul says in Philippians chapter two, verses three, and then six to eight, verse three says let nothing be done through selfish, ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than oneself.
And verse six says Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God. But he made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant and coming in the likeness of humans and being found in the appearance of a human, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Wow, that's amazing.
He valued our salvation more than his own divinity. It certainly is a crazy idea to put yourself below others, but it's the very same idea that Jesus calls all of us to do. At the Last Supper, we see Jesus provide a model for how we should live.
Jesus shows us that instead of looking for the highest spot, the place of the most authority, we should look for the lowest so that we can serve others. Listen to what Jesus says to his disciples. In Matthew, chapter 20 and verse 26, Jesus says yet it shall not be so among you, but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant.
Isn't it interesting that when people try to put themselves above others, god always brings them down and humbles them? But when people willingly humble themselves and put themselves below others, god rewards them for their humility. Do you remember what Jesus said to his disciples? That if they wanted to enter the kingdom of heaven, then they would have to become like little children. Now, Jesus isn't saying we have to crawl around or cry all day.
What Jesus means is that we have to have the humble attitude of children and consider ourselves below others in order to serve them and please God. And so we all discover that if we are to live like Jesus would live, we have to recognize that no matter what we do or who we are, god loves us and we are all of equal value with each other. And that if we want to help others, like Jesus did, it means that we have to become a servant to others, putting their needs above our own in order to help them know that they are all of value to God.
Well, thank you so much for listening with us and joining us on this spiritual journey. As we have read through God's Word and heard amazing stories of God's love, jesse and I have loved being given the opportunity to spend this time with you, and we hope that through us God has been able to communicate to you and that you have been brought closer to God. To finish, let's just pray together.
Dear Father, thank you so much for humbling yourself and coming down to this earth to be the greatest example of how to live we could possibly have. Thank you for loving each and every one of us and treating us equally. And we pray that you help us to live great lives of humility equipping us to serve others daily.
We pray all these things in your name. Amen. You have been listening to Family Storytime, a production of Three ABN, Australia radio.
