I recently preached a sermon that was followed by the Lord’s supper. In my preparation time, I was reminded of a sermon that Ligon Duncan preached at the Together for the Gospel conference in 2018. In that sermon, he brought to light that in the Last Supper, Jesus takes the invitation that tempted man to sin and uses it to bring redemption and the reversal of the fall.

Duncan referenced the words of Derek Kidner in his sermon (and in some of his writings since). In fact, since the message in 2018, there have been numerous articles, blogs, and sermons that have used this quote:

“So simple the act, so hard its undoing. God will taste poverty and death before ‘Take and eat’ become verbs of salvation.”

At the Last Supper, Jesus said take and eat to point the disciples forward to his impending death and our salvation. The supper was the Passover meal where all of Israel was taking and eating in remembrance of God’s saving work hundreds of years before in Egypt.

Jesus shifts the meal with the disciples from a meal of remembrance to a meal of anticipation— just like the first Passover in Exodus 12. And, now, as Ligon Duncan said: 

“When believers partake in Communion, Christ reverses the tragic fallout of Eden by offering Himself as the true sustenance and salvation.”

I pray that this simple truth blesses you today, and I invite you to hear the Word of the Lord:

“I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the Lord; let the humble hear and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together! I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and delivers them. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!”

Psalm 34:1-8  (ESV)