What happens when you cross American pop art with the Last Supper? Enter Invited to Dinner, a national call for intimacy with God. God wants intimacy. He seeks a personal relationship. He offers to unlock secret chambers in the heart, a tabernacle in which to abide. Few activities rival the intimacy that occurs when people dine together. God invites you to join Him for a private meal, a romantic interlude in the heart: “Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come to him and dine with him, and he with me” (Rev 3:20). You have been invited to dinner.
America used to have an intimate relationship with the Creator. We used to commune regularly with Christ, acknowledging Him for divine providence and in our daily affairs. But this is not the case in contemporary society. The center caption reads, “In America… Living life without limits.” This refers to the freedom for which America is renowned. But freedom has become a license for sin. We increasingly shut God out of our hearts and minds, preferring our cultural idols. This is symbolized by the center images of Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley. Monroe is the paragon of femininity and beauty, while Presley is commonly referred to as “the King.” The real King, however, is found knocking on the door of the heart, inviting men into personal relationships.
A gymnast performs a handstand on the U.S. flag, portraying “life without limits.” An egg emerges from her womb, a reference to the born again experience. Christ said that: “…unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (Jn. 3:3). The egg cracks and a man’s head sprouts, as if from a seed. The man’s mind appears as an illuminated circuit, an interconnected web of light. The adjacent captions read: “Rewire your Brain” and “The Art of Giving Birth,” both references to being born again.
The born again believer operates from the perspective of divine viewpoint. His paradigm is premised upon Christ, his foundation and internal frame of reference. His brain is “rewired” because he adopts Christ’s thinking. The man stares at the lamp in the corner of the room, light cascading from its shade. This pictures the believer’s internal transformation, the metamorphosis of character that occurs with spiritual regeneration. What the neophyte believer only “believes,” the mature believer “knows” as a reality. This is stated by the caption: “faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.”
Our time on earth is brief as the passing of a breeze, our days numbered before we return to dust. Therefore, our chance to accept Christ, to know God, is but a finite window. This is signified by the hand that pushes the egg down a gentle slope, across the dollar bill and gymnast’s leg, and into the urinal in the corner. The adjacent caption states, “America… down the drain… without God.” We must be born again, spiritually regenerated before our years expire, before that egg falls down the drain. Thus, the Bible says, “…now (today) is the day of salvation” (2 Cor 6:2), for tomorrow is not promised.
America has a history of putting portraits of presidents on its currency. A woman sits on a pink couch, at right, holding up a one dollar bill. Instead of George Washington, however, Christ appears on the note. This serves as a reminder that the United States was founded as “one nation under God.” We even print “In God we trust” on our currency. But we have strayed from this relationship we openly profess. The caption “synchrodestiny” refers to the prophecy of Christ’s one thousand year theocracy, His millennial reign in which He will rule the world from Jerusalem. He will be similar to a president, and believers will rule with Him as viceroys.
Three Last Supper scenes are pictured in the artwork, each representing successive levels of intimacy. The first level is Marisol’s The Last Supper, appearing at bottom center. Constructed out of wood, the least lifelike of mediums, the table with Christ and His disciples is set in the middle of the room, closest to the American idols. This symbolizes the spiritual neophyte, that God condescends down to meet people where they are at. We are invited to dine with Him as sinners, and He promises to lift us from our spiritual poverty. The welcome mat in front of the table symbolizes invitation into the secret communion in the heart, the first level of intimacy.
The second level of intimacy is portrayed by Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper, pictured left. A line of prostrate worshippers pray before the table. Christ’s head protrudes through a window framed around His body. This symbolizes connection between two worlds, the physical and spiritual. While the first level of intimacy involves invitation, symbolized by the welcome mat, the second level involves the sinner’s response, symbolized by the woman reaching out to Christ. The window frames the Savior, emphasizing personal relationship and one-on-one communion.
The third level of intimacy is depicted by Jacopo Tintoretto’s The Last Supper, which appears in the upper left corner. A golden stairway connects the second level with the third level, a bridge between heaven and earth. A gargantuan woman mimics the previous second-level believer in her geometric pose and the angle of her arm. This suggests spiritual growth experienced between the second and third degrees of intimacy.
The woman holds the table of Christ and His disciples under an oculus, examining them closely in the light. Christ, identified by His nimbus, communes with His disciples. Whereas the second level involved the believer reaching out to Christ through an interdimensional window, the third level finds the believer already in the heavens, signifying the spiritual realm. Christ and the disciples portray an ethereal, other-worldly quality.
It has been said that an elephant never forgets. I had this in mind when I pictured an elephant descending the staircase between heaven and earth. Above the creature, the text “Remember” is pasted. Believers should always “remember” the Great sacrifice of Christ, the meaning behind the bread and wine at the communion table. The Last Supper is memorialized as a solemn ritual that continues to this day. One need not a priest or an intermediary, just a cracker or any kind of bread-like substance, some wine or grape juice, and an open heart.
On the night Christ was betrayed, He took bread, broke it, and fed it to His disciples, saying, “…Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me” (1 Cor 11:24). He then took wine and offered it to His disciples, saying, “…This cup is the new covenant in my blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me” (1 Cor 11:25).
Why are there two elements at the table? First, we need a new body for eternal life. Flesh and bones cannot inherit the Kingdom of Heaven (1 Cor 15:50). This is symbolized by the bread, that we will receive a new resurrection body, spiritual and eternal. Second, the issue of sin must be confronted. Because sin results in death, and because the life of the soul resides in the blood (Lev 17:11), only Christ’s sinless life (His blood) is worthy enough to atone for our misdeeds. This is what is signified by the wine, an atonement for sin.
Christ abrogates the Old Covenant of law by leading a sinless life and following every commandment. This entitles Him to create a New Covenant, one based upon Love. The New Covenant is so simple even a child could follow it: we must Love God with all our heart, mind, and soul; and we are to Love our neighbor as ourselves. All the commandments are dissolved upon this Royal edict, the perfect liberty found in Love (Mat 22:37-40).
You have been invited to dinner. Christ knocks on the door of the heart and seeks a personal relationship with each person. The bread and wine pictures identification with the Savior’s sufferings and portends the promised glory that awaits each individual believer. Let us grow through the degrees of intimacy until we reach that sacred center, that secret tabernacle in the heart in which we have complete trust and surrender in His plan and purpose for our lives. By partaking in the bread and wine, we open that door in our hearts to Christ and call to remembrance that our Lord overcame the world, even death itself on our behalf. In this light, the Last Supper is as relevant today as it was during the time of Christ; for it celebrates the awesome price of our redemption and pictures the prerequisite components necessary for our future glory. May His Peace and Grace abide in you.
Larry Word
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