Interestingly, the Lord’s Supper was not always kept in the way we may be familiar with today. Nowadays many people celebrate the memorial of the Last Supper and Jesus’ death with small, identical wafers of bread, and small measured portions or sips of wine for all the participants. But things were not always that way.
In the New Testament, we find that the apostle Paul reprimanded the church at Corinth for the way in which they celebrated the Lord’s Supper. Apparently, people took their own food and drink to the event – the rich taking much, and the poor very little. As Paul wrote: “when you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat, when you are eating, some of you go ahead with your own private suppers. As a result, one person remains hungry and another gets drunk” (1 Corinthians 11:20-21). Paul tells the church they must eat together and indicates that restrained amounts should be available for all (verse 33).
This was the regulated form which became practice in the remembrance of the Last Supper that is the celebration of the Lord’s Supper in many denominations today. But although we may remember this New Testament story, another change that we may not be aware of has occurred through time relative to the Last Supper.
Although we may be conscious of the abundance that many people enjoy in the developed world today compared to many other areas, we may not be as aware of the abundance so many have in today’s world compared to what was available in the past. Fascinating but little publicized research conducted several years ago at Cornell University throws light on the abundance which many of us take for granted.
In a careful study published as “The Largest Last Supper: Depictions of Food Portions and Plate Size Increased Over the Millennium,” researchers Brian and Craig Wansink analyzed the amount of food depicted in fifty-two paintings of “The Last Supper” produced over the last thousand years. Each painting was analyzed in order to ascertain the content of the meals depicted, and changes which occurred over time in the size of portions in the paintings. Cleverly, the sizes of the loaves of bread, the main food dishes, and the plates were all compared to the average size of the heads shown in the paintings in order to gain a benchmark reference of size. A computerized CAD-CAM program was used to allow selected parts of the paintings to be scanned, then compared in order to get accurate size comparisons to calculate the food portion sizes with more precision.
As the researchers suspected, the number and size of the food portions in these paintings increased dramatically over time. From AD 1000 to the present, the amount of the food depicted in the paintings increased by 69%, and the size of the depicted plates increased correspondingly by some 65%. This is certainly not a matter of chance, the researchers say. There is no question that the amount of food available to people in much of the Western world has grown dramatically over the hundreds of years covered by the study and this is reflected in artistic representations. What was first shown as a simple meal has grown in artistic interpretations to more recent depictions of the Last Supper which suggest almost feast-like proportions compared to earlier paintings.
Today, many of us enjoy much greater abundance than our ancestors, as well as those less fortunate than us in other parts of today’s world. Representations of the Last Supper can remind us that we have much to be thankful for physically, as well as spiritually. Paul himself reminds us of this when he refers to the cup of the Lord’s Supper as “the cup of thanksgiving” (1 Corinthians 10:16) – something we can, and should, appreciate physically as well as spiritually.
And the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, who said to David, “You will not come in here, but the blind and the lame will ward you off”—thinking, “David cannot come in here.” Nevertheless, David took the stronghold of Zion, that is, the city of David. And David said on that day, “Whoever would strike the Jebusites, let him get up the water shaft to attack ‘the lame and the blind,’ who are hated by David’s soul” (2 Samuel 5:6-8 ESV).
This passage in the book of 2 Samuel is puzzling at first sight. Did David really hate the lame and the blind? Some translations attempt to smooth out the statement – the NIV, for example, renders the verse “those ‘lame and blind’ who are David’s enemies,” but the translation “‘the lame and the blind,’ who are hated by David’s soul” found in the ESV is an accurate and a quite literal one.
First, we need to ascertain who “the lame and the blind” were. Most modern commentaries presume that the Jebusite inhabitants of Jerusalem believed that the fortifications of their city were so strong that even those who were mobility or visually impaired would be able to ward off David and his army. While this interpretation might seem very reasonable, it leaves unanswered why David would say his soul hated the lame and the blind. We also see that “the lame and the blind” could not have simply been a verbal taunt as David told his men that because of the situation they should secretly enter the city by way of a hidden watershaft. Finally, we see that David offered a large incentive – the rank of “chief and captain” (1Chronicles 11:6) – to anyone who would lead the way in attacking “the lame and the blind.”
Archaeology may perhaps help us to better understand the situation. There is some evidence that the ancient Jebusites were connected to, and perhaps associated with the Syro-Hittite peoples of the Near East. As a result, in 1963, the renowned Israeli soldier, archaeologist, and scholar, Yigael Yadin (1917–1984), noted that ancient clay tablets that have been found with texts written by these people include instances of a ritual known as the “Soldier’s Oath” that may be relevant to what David said (Yigael Yadin, The Art of Warfare in Biblical Lands: In the Light of Archaeological Study Volume 2, pages 268-269). These “oaths” were magical rituals made against enemies in which blind and deaf individuals were paraded before them and it was then said:
“Whoever …. turns his eyes in hostile fashion upon [our] land, let these oaths seize him! Let them blind this man’s army and make it deaf! Let them not see each other, let them not hear each other! Let them make a cruel fate their lot! … Let them make him blind! Let them make him deaf! Let them blind him like a blind man! Let them deafen him like a deaf man! Let them annihilate him, the man himself together with his wife, his children and his kin!” (quoted from James B. Pritchard’s Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament, pages 353-354.)
This kind of sympathetic magic appears to be exactly what the ancient Jebusites were doing – placing a terrible curse on anyone who attacked their city. If this is the case, as Yadin suggested, the biblical text is certainly more understandable. This would perhaps explain why David told his men that because of the situation they should secretly enter the city by way of a hidden watershaft – perhaps to avoid the lame and blind “curse carriers,” and why he needed to offer a large incentive to anyone who would lead the attack under these circumstances. As for “hating” the lame and blind, David’s comments would most likely apply to the lame and blind curse carriers rather than to all people with these disabilities.
This certainly makes sense as the Bible clearly shows David did not hate such people – it documents in detail his love for and help of Saul’s lame son Mephibosheth whom he restored and invited to eat regularly at his table (2 Samuel 9:10-13).
Whatever the precise meaning of David’s words in 2 Samuel 5:6–8, it is clear that the king did not hate the disabled – and Yadin’s suggestion as to the king’s actual meaning is as good as any. In this case, as in many others, passages that seem to contradict what we know of plain biblical teaching are often better understood with historical background to illuminate them.
There is an old folk story that each day as we go into the world we pass through one of three doors. The first door is the dark way, the door of evil intentions, which leads to harm for ourselves and others. The second door leads to neither good nor bad intentions, and the third door leads to the good intentions of serving and helping others. The interesting thing about the story is that it continues by telling us that most people go out into the world each day by way of the door of no intentions – intending neither bad nor good – but when we do so, we invariably return by way of the dark door.
There is certainly some truth to this simple little story. How many times have we gone out into the day not intending anything in particular only to sooner or later run into traffic, coworkers, messages or whatever that rouse us to frustration, anger, fear, doubt, or other negative feelings or actions. According to the story, it is only as we go out into the day through the light door – the door of intending to do good – that we will return by way of the middle door, or, if our intentions are maintained, through the door of good intentions.
The story has a point, but its weakness is clear. We all know that “the road to hell is paved with good intentions” (as first stated by Bernard of Clairvaux), and that of themselves even the best of intentions usually are not enough. Simply put, the door of our own good intentions really only leads to a partial solution to the problem of how our lives will really play out.
But the old story can remind us, of course, of the words of Jesus which carry a much more profound lesson. The Gospel of John records Christ’s words: “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture” (John 10:9). This was part of the parable Jesus told of the sheepfold with the sheep and the door through which they entered and went out. But the words fit our old story well, too.
It is only as we go out into the world through the power of Christ – the true door – that our good intentions will be more fully realized and maintained. That takes conscious thought and determination, but if we remind ourselves daily of the door through which we need to walk, we will be much less likely to go out through the door of wrong intentions or that of no intentions at all.
The Indian Subcontinent (which includes the seven nations of India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, the Maldives, and Bangladesh) is home to almost 2 billion people – a full third of the world’s total population. Despite widespread and intense social and governmental pressure and anti-conversion laws, it is also a region of great growth in Christianity, especially in the central and northern regions. But many new believers in this area are without Christian literature in their native language to help guide, encourage, and inspire them. In some cases, literature is available, but it is beyond the purchasing power of many.
So our FreeChristianE-Books.org website is now in the process of translating many of our free e-books into major Indic languages. We have already translated over a dozen of our books into the Nepali language (see here) spoken by some 30 million people, and have now begun translation of our books into Hindi (see here), spoken by some 600 million people.
As with all our literature, these translations of our books into the languages of the Indian subcontinent are being made available in multiple formats for reading on computers, e-readers and smart phones, and are completely free to download and free of advertising and other distractions.
If you know Hindi or Nepali, or know believers who do, download or share some of our translations today, and consider becoming part of our work by praying for the success of this initiative to bring free Christian literature to those who need it desperately in one of the world’s most populous areas.
Global warming continues to be a topic provoking concern, debate, and cries for action among many. We are used to meteorologists making accurate forecasts of the temperature even a number of days in advance – often to the precise degree – and so we may be concerned when climatologists forecast dangerous temperature changes.
But what would you think about a forecast that predicted temperatures several thousand years in advance?
Some two thousand years ago Jesus of Nazareth made such a forecast regarding moral and ethical temperature declines at the end of the present age, saying: “Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold” (Matthew 24:12).
Perhaps there has always been evil in this world and a resulting coldness in human hearts and interactions, but Christ clearly stated that there would come a time when the love of most would grow cold. The Greek expression (ton pollon) translated “of many” in some Bibles is better translated – as in the NIV – “of most” or “of the majority,” showing that this coldness was something that would eventually be widespread and would be the norm rather than the exception.
Spiritually, the problem our world faces is not global warming, but global cooling. We see this moral chill every day in news reports not only of atrocities committed by religious and political fanatics, but also hate crimes against total strangers, and even violence by parents against their own children and spouses against each other. Just as frightening is the fact that the immediate context of Christ’s forecast is not necessarily only talking about the unconverted of the world – it seems to apply to religious people as well.
If you or I heard a forecast of impending unbelievably cold physical temperatures, we would doubtless take action to do what we could to survive the situation and help offset the cold as best we could. But do we take Christ’s moral forecast seriously enough to take action in that regard? And what, if anything, can we do to offset the growing lack of love this world seems even now to be experiencing – and which also unavoidably affects Christians?
Fortunately, the same book that forecasts the cooling of love indicates things we can do to turn that climate change around, even if only in our own lives. Consider these four Christian climate warmers:
1) Forgiveness: The Gospel of John tells us the story of the woman who anointed Christ in the home of a disapproving Pharisee. Jesus told the Pharisee that although the woman had sinned much in her life, those who are forgiven much, love much (John 7:46-47). We can apply that principle to ourselves in terms of looking at those around us in the moral wilderness in which we live. As society worsens around us, it’s easy to become judgmental – like the Pharisee – if we are not careful. But reminding ourselves of how much we have been forgiven can help us feel and show more love to those whose lives are still in the grip of sin.
2) Prayer: We can and should be praying for God’s love, of course, but sometimes we have to remind ourselves to break that prayer down. Something that can help in this regard is to put names to the prayer. Praying for help to love person X and Person Y can be far more effective than praying for the “idea” of love. Try it and see for yourself.
3) Study: Regularly studying the life of Christ may be one of the most valuable climate warmers at our disposal. Actually seeing God’s love in living everyday action through the Gospel accounts of the life of Jesus shows us love in a way in which we don’t usually see it. It can help us by providing both a model and an inspiration. Notice these words of the apostle Paul: “… the goal of our instruction is love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith” (1 Timothy 1:5 CSB). Frequently focusing our study of God’s word on the topic of love becomes more important the colder society becomes around us.
4) Encouragement: The book of Hebrews contains these important words: “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds … encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:23-25). These verses make it clear that encouraging one another is directly related to spurring one another to love. The fact that this is said to be all the more vital as we see the end of the age approaching ties directly to Christ’s warning of the love of the majority growing cold in the last days.
In some ways these pointers seem so very basic, yet they are so very true. The Bible is clear that love is increased, fanned like a flame, by these specific things – and each one is something we can do personally if we are determined to do so. The important thing for us in the cooling world in which we live is to be sure to utilize these principles – to increase the love in our lives – and not to become numbed by the cold around us.
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