Eucharistic mediation

Philippians 3:7-8: Whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ.

Because He was the very form of God, Jesus did not cling to equality with God. Because He was God, He was not proud or envious. Because He was God, He humbled and emptied Himself and took the form of a servant.

Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus, Paul says. Paul sets the example. Though he has much to boast about as a Hebrew of the Hebrews, a zealous Pharisee, a blameless law-keeper, he considers it all garbage, all loss. He gives it all up in order to know the Lord Jesus, who gave it all up too.

Every change is initially experienced as loss.

The loss is obvious when the change is for the worse, but even joyful changes feel like loss. You move to a new place, and you fondly remember your old home. You get married, and you lose the security you had with your parents. Even sanctification can feel like loss. We become so attached to our sin that it comes to define us, and when we finally give it up, we no longer know who we are. Sin makes itself at home; it disguises itself as comfort.

We who eat and drink here are called to deny ourselves and follow Jesus. We are called to loss. But Paul says that under the gospel our gain is all out of proportion to our loss.

This meal embodies the exchange of the gospel. We lay aside our sin; and God gives a taste of the kingdom. We strip away our rags; and God invests us as priests and kings. We hate father and mother; God adopts us into His family. We abandon old loyalties; and we become table fellows of the Son of God. This table is God’s pledge that in Jesus nothing of value will finally be lost. Having demanded all, Jesus gives back everything, and more than everything.