“This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”
– Luke 22:19 –

Easter invites us to the Table of Christ so that through the one Gospel all people may receive and share the joy of forgiveness. On the night the Passover lamb was to be sacrificed, Jesus gathered for a final meal with his apostles. In the darkened upper room, the Light of the World was present. As they reclined around the table, Jesus disrupted every expectation and sense of honor as he “began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him” (Jn. 13:5). Jesus – with hands that had formed the stars, embraced the lepers, and raised the dead – touched calloused, wandering, unworthy feet. Easter is the Table of Christ where joy is found in forgiveness and re-formation. Are you a traveler who is tired? Come to the Table and find rest in Christ where our weary wounds can be washed. Come to the Table that sends us back into the world – not to climb but to kneel and serve.

Having demonstrated that the only true posture of power is humble service to others, Jesus then sat at a common table in the openness of friendship even with those he knew sought him ill will. Though there was a cup at each placement, Jesus took one cup and invited each person to drink from his singular cup saying, “This is the blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Mt. 26:28). Without reserve, Jesus held nothing back but poured out his blood that all people in all places may know the forgiveness of their sins.

Easter is the Table of Christ where love is broken open and poured out. Are you burdened with sin and shame? Come to the Table and drink the cup of Christ’s grace and know forgiveness full, merciful, and complete. Come to the Table of Transformation. Come and receive so that cycles of retaliation change into reconciliation, and we may be sent into our common world not to claim but to offer to our neighbors the cup of forgiveness.

Jesus then took common bread, daily bread, bread for the hungry and he broke it, blessed it, and gave it saying, “This is my body given for you” (Lk 22:19). Jesus gave and not because of good work. Jesus gave. Jesus took everyday bread and gave to those who were in need. Jesus gave that our hunger may find an end, not only the hunger of the body but the deeper longings of the soul. Jesus demonstrates that hunger ends when we take what we have and share with those in need. Is someone hungry today? Easter is the Table of Christ where the story of redemption becomes a shared meal. Come to the Table and find the bread of life who invites us to become bread for the world. Come to the Table that calls us to go to every child in quiet desperation, every single mother with an empty kitchen, every refugee who has been called undignified, every family trapped amidst falling bombs and sustained violence and sacrificially give that they may eat.

Easter is the Table of Christ where eternity enters into our present. Jesus is resurrected! Hallelujah. “Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory” for “blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb” (Rev. 19:7, 9)! There are many people but one Gospel, many cultures but one Table, many nations but one family, and all are invited to the one Table of Christ. This is the Table of Christ where heaven meets earth, where forgiveness frees, where a people are gathered in shared life and shared mission, and where the future promise of eternity is tasted even now.

This Easter, on behalf of the Baptist World Alliance, a family in 138 countries and territories, will you come to the Table of Christ and find the power of forgiveness? Will you allow Christ to send you from this Table into the world as transformed witnesses of resurrection hope, as a people of boundary-breaking love, who serve and feed so that all may experience welcome and all may rejoice in the joy of the Lamb?
 

Rev. Elijah M. Brown, PhD
General Secretary & CEO