A Martyr's Supper

This past week marked 469 years since the English Reformers, Latimer and Ridley, were burned at the stake in Oxford. They were found guilty of three charges – each one a Protestant teaching that we share regarding this sacrament we are celebrating now.

After his trial and while awaiting his execution in prison, Ridley took the time not to find a way out or to consider recanting, but to put plainly in writing his doctrine of the Lord’s Supper, as a testimony to the world and his flock who he cared for deeply. 

When that work was published after his death, a note to the reader was added, which reads,

Understand, good reader, that this great clerk and blessed martyr Bishop Nicholas Ridley sought not the vain glory of the world, nor temporal friendship of men for his present advancement… but forsook lands, goods, world, friends, and himself withal, and testified the truth in this book to leave a sure monument and love-token unto his flock, and he hath registered it by his own pen, and sealed it up with his blood…

I share all of this as a reminder to us of God’s kindness to His church throughout the centuries. He has not left us alone, but has given us His Word and His Spirit, which will always lead His people into all truth. Whenever the light of the church appears to be growing dim against the darkness of the world, we must remember God’s faithfulness, and earnestly pray again for Him to send reformation and revival – beginning in our own lives. 

And this covenant meal is a weekly reminder of that faithfulness. As you partake, thank God for the holy martyrs of our faith, who all died in imitation of our Lord, who Himself offered His body for His church. 

So come, and welcome, to Jesus Christ.