A Twilight Musing

           There is a wonderful little chorus that we used to sing when I was young called "Let the Beauty of Jesus be Seen in Me," and after the first line it went, "All His wonderful passion and purity."  When we partake of the Lord's Supper, we are told that it is in memory of Him and that it proclaims His death until He comes again.  But it is not a mere act of memory of our Lord's death, even in awe and respect and love, nor yet again a recounting of the event of His crucifixion; but rather it is always to be a fresh submission to letting His presence dwell in us so that our very lives are proclamations of the living Jesus.  As Paul says, we are "crucified with Christ," so that it is no longer we who live, but Christ in us (Gal. 2:20); and thus, indeed, His beauty will be seen in us.

           We must remember that in partaking of this Supper, we are not giving thanks for something that was wrapped up in the past, but we are acknowledging something that is still in process through the transformation of our lives into copies of Jesus.  And in that process, we are not reservoirs, but wells springing up and making the water of life real to those who observe us.  As we take the bread within us, we affirm again that we have taken on His crucified Body, so that we can contain His Spirit; and as we take the wine, we embrace the power of God that inhabits us and empowers us.  The world cries out with the Greeks who sought out Jesus (John 12:21), "We want to see Jesus!" and in this Supper each week, we determine afresh that by God's grace and enablement, the world will see Him in us.

Dr. Elton Higgs was a faculty member in the English department of the University of Michigan-Dearborn from 1965-2001. Having retired from UM-D as Prof. of English in 2001, he now lives with his wife in Jackson, MI. He has published scholarly articles on Chaucer, Langland, the Pearl Poet, Shakespeare, and Milton. Recently, Dr. Higgs has self-published a collection of his poetry called Probing Eyes: Poems of a Lifetime, 1959-2019, as well as a book inspired by The Screwtape Letters, called The Ichabod Letters, available as an e-book from Moral Apologetics. (Ed.: Dr. Higgs was the most important mentor during undergrad for the creator of this website, and his influence was inestimable.