On the first Sunday of the month, the Table was set.
Bread. Cup. The same words Jesus spoke to His disciples the night He was betrayed:
"This do in remembrance of me." (Luke 22:19)
"For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come." (1 Corinthians 11:26)
The room was thin. Not because people stopped believing. Not because anyone woke up and decided they didn't love the Lord. Something else called them, an other voice — something loud, something public, something that felt like it couldn't wait.
And there we sat there looking at the bread and the cup, and a question wouldn't leave us alone.
Not about politics. Not about compassion. About order.
Which voice gathered us that morning — the One who said "Do this in remembrance of Me," or the one who said "Come stand with us"?
The Command That Doesn't Bend
Some things in Scripture are invitations. Some are wisdom. Some are warnings.
The Lord's Supper is none of those.
It is a command.
"This is my body, which is for you: this do in remembrance of me." (1 Corinthians 11:24)
"This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me." (1 Corinthians 11:25)
Jesus said do this. Not "when life is calm." Not "if nothing else is happening." Not "when the week allows it."
And Paul tells us what happens when we obey: we proclaim the Lord's death until He comes back. (1 Corinthians 11:26)
So when the church scatters on the day the Table is prepared, something more than attendance is lost. The proclamation is lost. The gathered obedience is lost. The body stops acting like the body.
"Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching." (Hebrews 10:25)
"They continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers." (Acts 2:42)
The early church wasn't scattered by every wind. They continued stedfastly. That word means something. It means the Table wasn't something they fit in when nothing else was happening. It was central.
Mary Chose. Martha Was Busy.
There was a house in Bethany. Jesus walked in. Two sisters loved Him.
Martha served. She cooked, she cleaned, she carried the weight of hospitality. Nothing she did was sinful. It was useful. Respectable. It even looked spiritual.
Mary sat at His feet and listened.
And Jesus corrected the order — not the service.
"Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her." (Luke 10:41–42)
The lesson is what happens when "many things" — good things, even — crowd out the one thing that matters.
Martha wasn't rebellious. She was busy. She was cumbered. She had reasons.
"Martha was cumbered about much serving." (Luke 10:40)
And Jesus looked past all of it and said: one thing is needful.
That sentence searches every generation. Because in every generation, the church faces the same test — not whether we love Christ, but whether Christ stays first when many things compete for our attention.
It happened again in Gethsemane. The night before the cross, Jesus asked His closest disciples to do one thing: stay awake.
"Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." (Matthew 26:41)
He went to pray. He came back. They were asleep. He went again. Came back. Asleep again. Three times.
"What, could ye not watch with me one hour?" (Matthew 26:40)
Not a complicated request. Not a heavy theological task. Just — stay. Be here. Watch with Me.
And they couldn't do it.
The spirit was willing. The flesh was weak. The pull of sleep was stronger than the voice of Jesus standing right in front of them.
That's the pattern. Martha was busy with many things. The disciples were heavy with sleep. And on that Sunday, the church was pulled by a crowd. Different reasons. Same result. Jesus asked for one thing — and something else won.
The Hard Word in Luke 14
Jesus said something that shakes people when they read it for the first time.
Luke records it with the edge left on:
"If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." (Luke 14:26)
Matthew records the same demand with the comparison laid bare:
"He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me." (Matthew 10:37)
So Luke's "hate" and Matthew's "more than" are the same blade turned two ways. The point is not cruelty. GOD forbids dishonoring parents (Exodus 20:12). The point is supremacy.
Christ does not share first place.
Not with family. Not with self-preservation. Not with causes. Not with crowds. Not with moments that feel urgent and righteous and absolutely necessary.
When the pull comes — and it always comes — that is the moment Luke 14 is written for. Not easy Sundays. Hard ones. The ones where something else feels like it must come first.
The Sabbath Tells the Same Story
Before Moses, before the Law, before Israel even existed — GOD did something strange for a world that never stops. He stopped.
"And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it." (Genesis 2:2–3)
He wasn't tired. He was making a point.
"Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy." (Exodus 20:8)
However someone understands Sabbath practice today, the creation principle still cuts: there is a kind of holiness that looks like stopping. A kind of obedience that looks like sitting still while the world screams that you should be doing something.
"Be still, and know that I am God." (Psalm 46:10)
The world trains people to believe the urgent thing is always the righteous thing. Scripture says no. There is a time to stop, to gather, to remember, to be still — not because the world's problems aren't real, but because GOD is greater than every one of them.
"It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep." (Psalm 127:2)
Rest is not laziness. Gathering is not avoidance. Remembrance is not passivity.
It is the church declaring: we are not ruled by panic, but GOD and GOD alone.
GOD Is in Control — Not the Loudest Voice
Here's what bothers me most.
People went to stand with a man because a man asked them to. On the same day Christ asked them to sit at His Table. And the man won.
Scripture has something blunt to say about that.
"Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help." (Psalm 146:3)
"The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will." (Proverbs 21:1)
"He removeth kings, and setteth up kings." (Daniel 2:21)
We can pray. We can grieve. We can weep with those who weep. (Romans 12:15)
But we cannot let a human summons replace a divine command. We cannot let a political moment rearrange the order that Christ set for His church.
Because the question is not whether we care about suffering.
The question is whether we trust GOD enough to obey Him first — even when the crowd is moving the other direction.
"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." (Matthew 6:33)
The Quiet Rebuke
Nobody preached a sermon about it that day. Nobody had to.
A table was prepared. A cup stayed full. Bread stayed unbroken. Chairs sat half empty.
That is the sermon.
And the difficult truth is this: it didn't feel like disobedience. It felt like compassion. It felt like solidarity. It felt like "we had a good reason."
That's exactly what makes it dangerous.
Because Martha had a good reason too. And Jesus still said: one thing is needful. (Luke 10:42)
And here is the part that should sober every one of us:
"The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God." (Psalm 14:2)
"For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him." (2 Chronicles 16:9)
GOD is not distant. He is watching. He looked down that Sunday — the same way He looked down in the garden when the disciples slept, the same way He looked into Martha's kitchen while Mary sat at His feet. He sees who gathered at His Table and who gathered somewhere else. Not to condemn — but to see if there were any that did understand.
And Malachi tells us something that should stop us in our tracks:
"Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name." (Malachi 3:16)
A book of remembrance. Written by GOD Himself. For those who feared Him and thought upon His Name.
The Lord's Supper is about remembrance — we remember Him. And Malachi says GOD keeps His own book of remembrance — He remembers us. The ones who showed up. The ones who feared Him enough to gather when the world pulled them elsewhere. The ones who thought upon His Name when a louder name was calling.
Next Time the Table Is Set
Next time two voices call on the same day, the decision is worth settling beforehand.
"Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth." (Colossians 3:2)
"For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." (Matthew 18:20)
The Table first. The remembrance first. The gathered obedience first.
Then go. Go and care. Go and pray. Go and stand where conscience leads.
But go as people who have already obeyed Christ — not as people who postponed Him for something that felt more urgent.
Because the loudest crowd in the city is not the highest authority in our life.
Jesus is.
"Do this in remembrance of Me." (Luke 22:19)
Resources
You might find the following resources helpful:
- Daily Bread Video Creator App: https://peplamb.com/daily-bread-video-creator-seamlessly-share-gods-word/
- Free Audio Bibles: https://peplamb.com/free-audio-bibles/
- Bible App: https://bible.peplamb.com
- Davar App: https://davar.peplamb.com
- Click the following Bible versions to hear the audio playlist of above verses:
