The Holy Grail

This evening I watched the made-for-television movie Merlin with my boys. I originally saw this movie years ago. Not bad for a low budget movie. Magic. Wizards. The “old ways.” Even King Arthur and his search for the Holy Grail. Gave me a lot to talk about with my boys before bedtime.

Whether it’s King Arthur or Indiana Jones, it seems the world is intrigued with the idea of a Holy Grail, a magical cup with power to heal and grant unending life. Sadly, the world desires such a cup for all the wrong reasons, and thus misses the true Holy Grail each and every Lord’s Day on the Lord’s altar.

It’s not the cup, you see. It never was. When Jesus took the cup after supper, just hours before He was betrayed, He joined His Word to it.

“Drink of it, all of you; this cup is the new testament, in My blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. This do, as often as You drink it, in remembrance of Me.”

[Mt 26:27-28; Mk 14:24; Lk 22:20; 1 Cor 11:25]

Saint Paul calls this cup “the cup of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 10:21; 11:27), not because of the design or construction of the cup, but because of what the cup contains. This cup is precious, life-giving, and full of good gifts precisely because it contains “the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot” (1 Peter 1:19). This “blood of Jesus … cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). And where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation.

So don’t go searching from some imaginary Holy Grail. The real one has been right in front of you all this time. Simply come to the Lord’s table in faith and receive the cup of the Lord and therein the true blood of Jesus Christ, shed for you for the forgiveness of sins!

“I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD.”

[Psalm 116:13]