THE LORD'S SUPPER AND MOUNT OLIVET
THE LORD’S SUPPER AND MOUNT OLIVET
Mark 14: 12 - 26; Hebrews 2: 11, 12.
JT It might be of help if we were to consider for a moment the surroundings in connection with which the Lord’s supper was instituted as we get them in this chapter. It might be helpful as indicating how souls may be guided now as to where the Lord’s supper can really be celebrated.
The Lord sent two of His disciples into the city, saying, “a man shall meet you carrying a pitcher of water; follow him”. I think the man with the pitcher of water is very suggestive of spiritual guidance. He was to be followed. “Follow him. And wheresoever he enters, say to the master of the house, The Teacher says. Where is my guest-chamber where I may eat the passover with my disciples?”
RSS What is it suggestive of?
JT I would say that it suggests means of refreshment.
Rem Does the thought suggest the Spirit in any way?
JT I think it does. Many souls have perplexity as to where to partake of the Lord’s supper, so that I think the setting given here is to afford guidance for us.
FL I think we are justified in connecting it with the Spirit. A ministry of the Spirit is a sure guide for souls in these difficult days.
JT Yes, and we ought to look for it.
JB As to the man with the pitcher of water, it was God’s arrangement that he should be there.
JT Yes; and it is also God’s arrangement now if the spiritual refreshment which I think the man represents exists. Everything that we get in [p. 200] the way of guidance and help is by divine appointment.
JP I think your opening remark is very important, because the moral conditions that obtain in connection with the institution and the first celebration of the Supper remain the same now, and I believe it is of the greatest importance. When Paul rehearses it to the saints he mentions that it was the same night in which the Lord was betrayed, 1 Corinthians 11: 23. And here in Mark’s account, the Lord alludes to His betrayal by Judas.
JT And another thing to be noticed is that the Lord says, “say to the master of the house, The Teacher says, Where is my guest-chamber where I may eat the passover with my disciples? and he will show you a large upper room furnished ready”. The “master of the house” recognises the rights of Christ; he recognises what is due to Christ.
RSS I notice Mr. Darby gives it, “Where is my guest-chamber”. The Authorised Version says, “Where is the guest-chamber”. I suppose the former is correct, and very significant.
JT It is very significant if we apply it to the present time. There is a spot where He is recognised and where His rights are recognised. It is not as though He were asking the loan of the chamber. And there is no question on the part of the man in supplying what the Lord demands; “he will show you a large upper room furnished ready”. The place was evidently commodious.
FL It is large enough for all. We do not want to get narrow in connection with the Lord’s supper.
JT There is plenty of room there, and all the requisite furniture; no additions were needed.
JB And would you say that when any one wants to find the guest-chamber there is always to be found, figuratively speaking, the man with the pitcher of water?
AFM That is to say, a ministry in [p. 201] the power of the Spirit affords guidance into this blessed place of privilege.
JT The activities of the Spirit are, in a way, public, so that they can be taken account of, and one effect is to direct you to the spiritual sphere that belongs to Christ.
FL And really, we may almost say, that is the only guidance there is in this day of perplexity and confusion.
JT You might have a table spread with the elements, and all the outward forms of the worship of God, but there is no guidance in that. You will find, as a rule, that exercised souls follow the light; they are drawn to that which is enlightening and refreshing.
HP The truth held in terms is not a test, but the truth ministered in living power by the Spirit is.
JT It is a question of what is refreshing and what cleanses morally. We know they had water in the guest-chamber after supper, and the Lord used it, John 13.
RSS And you can speak of it as living water.
Ques What would you say as to the man who bears the pitcher of water? Is the thought that he has the water?
JT Simply that he is bearing that water for a purpose. He does not turn out of the way; he is going to where the Lord had appointed; the disciples are told to follow him. The pitcher of water is the main point. They are led to a place in which the rights of Christ are recognised. “The Goodman of the house” immediately shows the upper chamber, and the room is already furnished. You have no need to bring furniture with you.
AFM The man who is carrying the pitcher of water would attract to Christ, would he not?
JT Undoubtedly. But the order here is that he leads into the house, and the “good man of the house” into which he goes recognises the rights of Christ. They say to him, “The Teacher says, Where is my guest-chamber, that I may eat the passover with my disciples”, and he shows an upper room ready furnished, so that all is ready.
ARS The “Goodman of the house” is in charge, and that would bring in the assembly and the government of it; in the assembly the rights of the Lord Jesus are fully owned.
JT Evidently He is well known there and His rights are respected. In the present broken state of things in Christendom there is a great deal of confusion, and souls have difficulty as to where to go, and I think the Lord gives refreshment where His rights are owned.
RSS It is a great thing to be led to where the rights of Christ are owned and maintained. I think you would find a measure of refreshment where Christians are; but there are very few places where the rights of Christ are owned.
JT Then you have a very interesting thought in “furnished ready”.
JP What is your thought about it?
JT In ordinary human religious places there is such a thing as furniture. You go into any so-called place of worship, and you will find it furnished with what is considered suitable furniture for such a place, but they are all humanly devised and arranged.
R.S.S. What do you mean?
JT The pulpit and the pews and the organ, and all that is regarded as necessary in an ordinary co-called place of worship; but in the assembly of God the furniture is all spiritual.
JS So it was, I suppose, in the tabernacle?
JT The tabernacle contained furniture which was emblematic of spiritual things.
Ques What answers to that [p. 203] now?
JT In the assembly you have what answers to the altar, but that does not take you very far. I would not deny that Christians have in some sense the brazen altar, because they recognise the death of Christ, but I do not think they go beyond that; but the worship of the assembly does go beyond it; it goes to the holiest.
Rem Speaking of the furniture in the various systems, they cannot break bread unless a certain man is present.
JT Everything is humanly arranged in the systems of men; but in the assembly all is divinely arranged.
RSS What is the significance of the golden altar?
JT This morning some of us were dwelling on the prayer of Solomon after the temple was built; his prayer was at the brazen altar. In the court he constructed a scaffold of brass, five cubits every way, and three cubits high, and there he offered his prayer. That did not take him to the place of Christian prayer; the place of Christian prayer is at the golden altar, which was only one cubit; it was one cubit square, signifying divine unity; upon it was offered incense. Our prayer as Christians is in connection with the intrinsic perfections of Christ before God, and it is based on divine unity.
FL The idea of acceptance is at the golden altar. In Revelation 8 we read of the prayers of the saints being offered at the golden altar. The Lord adds the incense, which renders the prayers effective.
RSS Open up more as to how acceptance is connected with the golden altar.
JT We are accepted at the brazen altar on the ground of the death of Christ; at the golden altar we are of the priestly family, and acceptance there [p. 204] is on the ground of our relationship with Christ; but “accepted in the beloved” goes even further.
FL In the brazen altar it is a question of righteousness.
JT At the golden altar we are accepted in the perfection of Christ.
JP All this about the man with the pitcher, and the water, and following him into the guest-chamber, is connected with the passover. The Lord says, “where I may eat the passover with my disciples”. But after the passover has been partaken of, He discloses to them what was in His heart for them, and He institutes His Supper. I think the scene shows the conditions under which the Supper was instituted, and those conditions abide in principle. It is very important, because, as we all know, that the Lord’s supper, and indeed baptism also, have been taken up and perverted as a means of maintaining a worldly religious system of things in which many people, who are surely the Lord’s, are entangled; and it is well that we should be able to take account of these things in a spiritual way, so as to understand the conditions relative to the Lord’s supper.
JT You were speaking of the administration of Christ in the Supper, and the result of it being that we are led to the Father.
JP Yes, there are moral conditions in connection with the administration of Christ, and if these moral conditions are not met by us we shall never know the blessedness of the administration of Christ.
I do not think the Corinthian saints were in the good of the administration of Christ in connection with the Spirit, and they were not in the good of administration because they were utterly defective in moral conditions. It might sound a needless repetition, but the administration of Christ calls for a state, while on the other hand it is equally true that the administration of Christ produces a state.
[p. 205] JB The ministry of the apostle in the first epistle to the Corinthians produces the state that is apparent in the second epistle.
FL The Corinthians were defective in connection with the passover; they were not keeping the feast of unleavened bread.
RSS Will you state in a word or two, if you can, the difference between the passover and the feast of unleavened bread.
JP The Passover most simply is the death of Christ. “For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: therefore let us keep the feast”, 1 Corinthians 5.
RSS Which, of course, is the feast of unleavened bread.
JP The feast of unleavened bread is our side. It refers to our judging sin in ourselves, as God has judged it in the death of Christ. In the passover is God’s judgment of sin. Now I think, when the Lord’s death is before us in connection with the Supper, the judgment of God is not a prominent thought at all.
JT The feast of unleavened bread was for seven days, which sets forth the whole Christian period. Apart from the state involved in the feast of unleavened bread, we cannot really partake of the Lord’s supper.
RSS Did the feast of unleavened bread begin at the same moment, or did it follow?
JT They are intimately connected, and yet, according to Leviticus 23, quite distinct. The lamb was slain and eaten on the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month, and the feast of unleavened bread began on the fifteenth day.
FL In Luke’s gospel the passover and the supper are separated. The Lord Himself partook of the passover, but did not partake of the Supper. He simply instituted [p. 206] the Supper.
AFM You spoke of administration in connection with the Supper.
JP The spiritual character of Christianity has been departed from, and of course the attempt has been made to substitute it by things which are merely material, so I think of administration. One hears of Christians coming together for communion, and for some reason there is no clergyman and no consecrator and administrator, so that the poor people have to return home without communion. I think these thoughts arose from correct thoughts, but they are gross perversions of the truth. It is perverted things, not a perverse thing; a perverse thing is wrong from its base. But you may have the best kind of thing and it may be turned aside from the divine thought and intention, and becomes a perverted thing, and it is perverted things the Lord’s people are suffering from. Do not let us say to ourselves that we are quite clear if we are not.
RSS Does the Scripture ever speak of the Lord’s supper as a feast, or is there that thought connected with it? I do not myself think it does, but that is only to bring out the difference between the feast of unleavened bread and the Lord’s supper.
JT You cannot be too simple in regard to the Supper, because it is simply a remembrance. It is a symbol of the Lord’s death, as baptism is the figure of death. The bread remains the bread and the wine remains the wine; there is no act in regard to the bread and wine which changes them. The blessedness lies in what they symbolise.
RSS Does not the thought of the feast suggest that God would have His people with Him?
JT I think it refers to God meeting with His people. The feasts of old speak of the people coming together and their having to say to Him in the place where He chose to place His name.
RSS God gathering them round Himself.
FL The Lord’s supper is the gathering, or rallying point, of the assembly, and it is in itself a sign that there is food in Christianity, and in that way administration may be connected with it, but in itself it is a remembrance. It is what the Lord has said about it which adds value to it. “This is my body ... this is the new covenant in my blood”. “This do in remembrance of me”. Luke really is the only evangelist who gives us the Supper proper, and he gives it as a remembrance.
Rem It is only in Luke that the thought of continuation is embodied.
FL Luke corresponds with Paul in every respect. The Supper is not a material feast; we simply take it as a symbol.
JT As a remembrance. It seems to me that what the Supper leads to is our heavenly associations. As indicated here, “having sung a hymn, they went out to the mount of Olives”. Connecting that with Hebrews 2, we may see the normal result of the Supper, especially as mount Olivet in the Scriptures is connected with heaven.
RSS You say the mount Olivet is connected with heaven?
JT I think so, judging from the connection in which it is found in Scripture. The Lord’s ascension is connected with the mount of Olives, and His return from heaven is connected with it. John tells us that each went to his own home, but Jesus went to the mount of Olives; chapter 8:1. It was the place of communication with heaven. Bethany was the place of communication on earth in connection with the remnant, but the mount of Olives, as it stands in Scripture, is connected with heaven.
RSS The feast of Bethany at the opening of John 12 would not be what we get here. It is not the assembly. I think the distinction between Bethany and the mount of Olives is very [p. 208] important.
JT Each mountain in the Scriptures has some significance attached to it, and from the fact that the Lord’s ascension to heaven is connected with Olivet, and His descent in the future is connected with it, there can be no doubt that there is connection between it and heaven.
Ques Are you connecting that with the Lord’s supper?
JT The connection is in the hymn. If you turn to Psalm 22 you will see that the hymn really is in resurrection.
RSS Was not the hymn connected with the upper room?
JT But mount Olivet follows on the hymn.
ARS Is this hymn the same as in Hebrews 2?
JT It is in principle the same. Though they were not yet risen, the hymn contemplates resurrection.
AFM What is it that occasions the hymn? There would be some reason for the hymn being sung.
JT I think it has reference to God. I think it is the result in our case of the place that God acquires in our souls under these peculiar circumstances.
Rem Paul in Ephesians speaks of singing hymns and psalms and spiritual songs.
JT I think a song is invariably a celebration, but a hymn is more the outflow of the sense you have of what God is under those peculiar circumstances.
AFM Would it suggest an intervention of God?
JT I think a song does, but it seems to me that the hymn here suggests the place that God had in that company.
RSS They sang the hymn and then went out, Earlier in John’s gospel Jesus went alone, but now He does not go alone even to the mount of Olives.
JT The disciples do not go to their homes here. No one goes to his own home in spirit immediately [p. 209] after the Supper, because the Lord is brought to your soul in such a way that He leads you to His home. In John 8 He went to the mount of Olives, and evidently He went alone, but He does not go alone after the Supper; they went with Him. He was alone upon earth; He only was in touch with heaven. He was “the Son of man who is in heaven”, but consequent on His death He has a company, and that company belongs to heaven.
F.L. Judas has gone out?
JT Yes; Ephesians comes in properly where the saints are wholly absorbed with Christ. The mount of Olives is a sort of heavenly retreat.
RSS It is very remarkable that He could sing at all under such circumstances.
JT I do not think He and the company could have sung together apart from what the Supper meant, so that in principle it was a resurrection scene, especially if you connect it with Psalm 22. I was saying Ephesians comes in properly when the saints give the Lord His place, because we are said to be accepted in the Beloved, and what answers to that is a suitable place, a place essential for such a company.
FL The mount of Olives suggests the Spirit and fruitfulness.
RSS This is all connected, then, with the assembly privilege, and follows on the Supper.
JP I was noticing one little word — “my”. “My” guest-chamber, “My” disciples. What concerned Him was His own.
AFM There is rather a lack amongst us in connection with praise going up to the Father.
JT And there is great inability to take the heavenly position; there is nothing more lacking than that.
JS So that this Scripture would indicate the order of the assembly as come together for the breaking [p. 210] of bread? The hymn would be sung on the other side of Jordan.
JT I think the praise is the answer to the making known of the Father’s name, John 17: 26. The Father acquires a place in your heart as His name is known, and the hymn is the response to that.