This Table represents to us the death of Jesus Christ. Because the death of Jesus was the death of all accusation, and the peculiar kind of envy that fuels so much accusation, this means that the sins that betrayed Jesus to the cross were actually sins that were being themselves led to the cross, there to be crucified.
The Jewish leaders turned Jesus over to Pilate because of their envy, and because that, and through that, their kind of envy was turned over to God. So when Pilate under pressure turned Jesus over to the executioners, God in that same event, under no pressure at all, but all through His free grace, took our accusations, our malice, our envy, our bitterness, and our self-righteousness, and turned them over to the executioners.
Isn’t this a glory? Your innate sense of moral superiority and accusation was killed by Roman soldiers.
So then what do we eat? We are eating dead accusation. This is the way of life. The only alternative to this—apart from the cross of Jesus—is to have accusations eat you. Either you come to Christ, and in glad triumph eat and drink the death of sin, or you refuse to come to Christ, and the death of sin eats you.
The grain of recriminations has been ground to flour, and God has transformed it into the bread of life. The grapes of sour bitterness have all been crushed, and Jesus has done yet another miracle resulting in wine. The cup is now the cup of the new covenant, made such by the crushing of all the arguments we might level against our neighbors.
The grace of God was made out of the wrath of man. And this is why the bread is offered to us, and cup is offered to us, in the times of refreshing. This is the miracle of grace—death comes to life.
So come, and welcome, to Jesus Christ.