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A Re-centering Meal (Luke 12)

Brian Messerli
01/26/25 - Lord’s Supper Service

Luke 12:13-14 [This morning, I want us to think about how the Lord’s Supper is a re-centering meal because sometimes the difficulties and distractions of life can knock us off center and skew our priorities so we forget what’s most important.  The Lord’s Supper reminds us every week of what truly matters most, and it can kind of smack us in love and snap us out of our focus on, not just the wrong things, but also the less important things.  And I’d like us to look at a couple sections in Luke 12 because it shows us how re-centering it is to be in the presence of Jesus.] - His question to Jesus is SO absurd and would be funny if it weren’t such a sad reflection of his heart.  Just imagine if you had the opportunity to meet Jesus in person, the Creator of the Universe in the flesh, what would be the most pressing issue in your life that you would ask Him to help you with?

For this man, standing in the presence of God Himself, his most pressing issue is for Jesus to settle a petty sibling dispute about money.  Now, what’s interesting is he’s asking Jesus to be their mediator.  He’s saying, “We’ve got a problem in our relationship and my brother is hoarding all the land and money to himself and I need you to step in and do something about this.”  And of course, that’s ironic because Jesus WAS appointed by God to be our mediator.   

But Jesus is trying to get them to see, this is NOT the problem He came to mediate because there’s a much more serious and pressing problem that needs mediation than our concerns about money.  1 Timothy 2:5 says, “There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, and that’s the man Christ Jesus.”  This guy wants Jesus to be the mediator between man and man, he wants Him to fix his temporal relationships and the problems that seem most pressing to MAN.  Yet Jesus came to be the mediator between GOD and man, to fix our eternal relationship with Him, and to fix the problems that are most pressing to GOD.

It’s hard to think of a perfect analogy, but imagine this illustration.  Let’s say your marriage is in absolute shambles and you’re on the brink of divorce but you know that’s not what God wants and so you agree, “We have to go see a marriage counselor,” and so you get to the counselor’s office and the counselor asks you to describe the problems you’re having, and you say, “Look, I’ve just really been frustrated because my favorite football team keeps losing.  What do you think would be the best strategy for the coach to turn things around this season?”

The counselor would be stunned at the question because 1) that’s not what a marriage counselor is there for, it’s not their job to give their opinion about sports and 2) that’s not important!  There’s a much more pressing issue — you’re marriage and life are crumbling all around you, and all you can think about is sports?

Likewise, Jesus came to be our mediator and the marriage counselor between us and God because our relationship was in shambles because of our sin, yet when Jesus comes, this guy in Luke 12 says, “Hey, how do you think I can get this money from my brother?”  Not only is that NOT Jesus’ job, this guy is completely missing the real problem in his life, and it’s not that he doesn’t have money, it’s that he doesn’t have God.  So Jesus tells this brilliant parable to try to re-center this man on what matters most.

Luke 12:15-21 - The man in this parable had all the money he could ever want, yet in the end he found out it how unimportant it all was.  Yet he made money the center of his life, the central pursuit and goal, and was able to use that money to have extravagant meals, to eat, drink, and be merry.  Yet ultimately his merriment was based on an shaky foundation because money is temporary and you can take any of it with you when you die, so when it was all over there were no more meals and there was no more joy because He did not make God the center of His life.  It reminds me of Ecclesiastes 2:25, “For who can eat or have enjoyment without God?”  From my earlier analogy, it would be like if the husband’s football team started winning every game and even won the Super Bowl, it would give him some enjoyment yes, but it would be meaningless if he ended up divorced and lost his wife and kids.  What does football matter in the end when you’re left with nothing?  Likewise, what does money matter in the end if we lose our soul?

And herein lies the beauty of the Lord’s Supper.  When we eat this meal every week, we can have true enjoyment, we CAN eat, drink, and be merry at this meal because this meal is a reminder that we’ve been made right with God and our relationship has been healed through our Mediator Jesus Christ.  It re-centers us by reminding us Jesus died to store up treasures for us in Heaven, the only treasures that ultimately matter in the end.  And as we’re partaking of the Lord’s Supper, we ARE in the presence of Jesus, the Creator of the Universe, the Savior of our souls, and it’s helpful to ask ourselves, “What have I been thinking about and worrying about all week as the most pressing, most important thing in the world?  What am I thinking as I actually partake of the Lord’s Supper?  Is it money?  Is it sports?  Is it school?  Is it work?”  It’s not that those things don’t matter at all, but the Lord’s Supper reminds us they should not consume all of our thoughts, because the most important thing is our relationship with God and setting our minds on His interests over our own.

And here’s the second half I want us to consider.  When we know our relationship with God is right in Christ, it sets us free from worry and anxiety over the less important things in life, like money, and food and clothing and health and all of our other temporary problems.  It’s why Jesus follows up with this section…

Luke 12:22-34 - This section reads almost the same as Matthew’s version, until you get to v. 32 where Luke gives us an added detail we don’t find in Matthew.  Both Matthew and Luke record Jesus telling us to seek God’s kingdom first, to make God’s kingdom the central focus of our life.  But Luke adds this really powerful point in v. 32 that God loves us so much He has gladly given us the kingdom.  I understand this passage isn’t about the Lord’s Supper, but isn’t the Lord’s Supper a weekly reminder of the truth in this verse?  God loves us so much He gladly invited us into His eternal Heavenly kingdom even though it cost Him the blood of His Son.  The Lord’s Supper reminds us what it cost God to give us this kingdom, which again re-centers us on what’s most important.  Notice, He doesn’t say, God has chosen to gladly give you more money.  No, He’s chosen to give us something far more important than money or any other temporal concern, and that is a right relationship with Him and an exalted position in His kingdom that never ends!

That sets us free from worry about the lesser concerns because if God was willing to give us the kingdom even though it cost Him His Son, how much more willing will God be to meet our lesser, basic earthly needs like food, clothing, and shelter?  In fact, Luke adds another verse we don’t see in Matthew, and that’s in v. 33.  And if you think about it, the Lord’s Supper not only helps us not to worry about making more money and getting more earthly stuff, it re-centers us on Jesus who gave UP His money and all of His earthly stuff to save us and gladly give us the kingdom, which then inspires us to start thinking, not about how much more we can get like the guy earlier in Luke 12, but how much more we can give like Jesus.

When we partake of the Lord’s Supper, we’re in the presence of Jesus and that should have a tremendous re-centering effect on our hearts and minds.  It’s hard to think about making more money when we’re eating and drinking the body and blood of Jesus who died without any.  It’s hard to think about earthly concerns when Jesus’ only earthly concern was our salvation.  It’s hard to be filled with worry and anxiety about our life, when Jesus gave His life to give us an eternal kingdom.  So I don’t know what’s been on our minds this week, maybe the concerns of this world have been eating away at us.  If so, let’s allow this time with our Lord to re-center us on what’s most important, and inspire us to make Jesus our heart’s true treasure, as we are His.