Communion Message
(How do you paint the scene of Calvary?)
January 22-23, 2000
Pastor Donald Sheley

For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me." In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes. Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

In the gospel according to Luke as he describes the scene of Calvary, he says: And when they were come to the place which is called Calvary, there they crucified Him. Lingering at Calvary inspires the believer with a holy desire to penetrate more deeply into the mysteries of the cross. We do that each Lord's Day. We spend time contemplating that scene that took place 2000 years ago, and this obviously leads one deeper into the very heart of God. You see Calvary is luminous with love and with mercy, and they commingle in a voluntary substitutional act on the part of the Savior for those who otherwise, like you and me, would absolutely have no hope whatsoever. Calvary. It's the divine means whereby destitute men through faith contact elevating power, that divine power, to rise to new dimensions of hope and happy expectations. Calvary is more than a lighthouse for sinking souls. It's a lifeline for our salvation, and the exactions on that cross were unspeakable, for there our blessed Savior met treason, treachery, and shame. And while the cross bore heavily upon His weary body, the reproach pressed more weighty upon His blessed Spirit. The combined load, however, could not overbalance the weight of love that He had for our poor, helpless, hopeless souls. For greater love hath no one than this, that one should lay down his life for his friend. 

Instead of honor, it was a place of dishonor. Instead of reverence, it was cursing. Instead of appreciation, it was deprecation. And instead of reception, it was rejection. Instead of a throne, it was a cross. There, silhouetted, not only against horizon's sill, but against history's outline, He was numbered with the transgressors so that you and I could be counted with the redeemed. Is it to be wondered that the sun refused to shine? Is it surprising that the heavens groaned with thunderous reverberations? Is it to be thought strange that the breast of Mother Earth should tremble? The King eternal, God incarnated was led by wicked men to a point of shameful indignity and in the company of condemned criminals. For this reason, for this reason alone we might object to the translators of Luke giving the place such a sweet sounding name has Calvary. Golgotha is a trifle harder, while The Skull seems most appropriate, for Calvary was a place of disrepute. The Bible says, and they that passed by reviled on Him wagging their heads. Passed by, the most unpardonable of all their acts. They were passing by the only door to heaven, for it was He who said, I am the door, by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved. They were passing by the world's only Savior, for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. They were passing to their eternal doom, and it seems superfluous to sing, pass me not O gentle Savior, hear my humble cry, while on others thou art calling, do not pass me by. 

That hymn should be rewritten and it should more accurately say it is not the Savior who is passing by men, it is men who pass by the Savior. And even though the sinners at the cross taunted Him, jeered, mocked, smote, pierced, and maltreated Him in a multiplicity of ways, paradise would have been their prospect, indeed their realization, if only they had joined with the one malefactor who said, Lord, remember me, but they passed by. We choose not to pass by today. In fact, every Lord's Day we place the cross in the middle of our worship service because it's there at the cross we receive our sight. It's there at the cross sin's burdens are lifted. It's there where sin's stain is washed away. And it's the cross; it's the very center of our Christian faith. I find it difficult to try to find words to explain a scene that took place 2000 years ago in history. A hill, not padded pews. Mockery, not a spirit of worship. Taunting, not an attitude of adoration. Hate, not an environment of love. How do you paint the scene of Calvary? I can't. I can only kneel in reverence to my Christ who died there.

Would you kneel with me please? Lord Jesus, Sunday after Sunday we come to Your cross trying to penetrate more deeply into Your very heart, O God, and understand the majesty and the awesomeness and the wonder of a scene of Your intense and eternal love. To think, dear Jesus, that You would go there to die for us. You left heaven's glory to come to a world who mocked You, hated You, ridiculed You. That You came to die for me. How can it be that You loved me so much? All I can say Jesus, thank you. And these simple yet profoundly wonderful emblems, of the bread which bespeaks Your body and the cup which bespeaks of Your blood, every time I hold them I wonder again at the greatness of Your love as these emblems remind us of its vast and eternal dimensions. Thank you for loving us. Let's take the bread together, shall we? And then the cup. And everybody said, amen. Let's stand and greet one another, shall we?