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The Lord’s Supper
Keith Sharp
In Washington, D.C., at
either end of the reflecting pool, are granite monuments to two of our
presidents: the tall spire of the Washington
Monument honors the father of our
country, while the simple majesty of the Lincoln Memorial commemorates the
man who saved the Union from dissolution and
freed the slaves. The birthdays of both these men were once national
holidays. These are the ways men in their wisdom choose to honor great men:
erect
large, permanent monuments and celebrate their birthdays.
God’s
thoughts and ways are as far above ours as the heavens are above the earth
(Isaiah 55:8-9). He wants us to remember what His Son did for us. How does He
want us to do so? Please read 1 Corinthians 11:23-29. The Father
doesn’t ask us to remember His Son’s birthday. He hasn’t
even revealed when He was born. He tells us to remember His death. He
didn’t erect a granite monument to memorialize Him. He gave two very
perishable items, unleavened bread and grape juice, as fitting memorials. But
Christians have kept alive the memory of our Lord’s sacrifice for two
millennia through this simple memorial, the Lord’s Supper.
Obviously,
then, this feast has great significance for Christians. What is the will of
the Lord concerning the Lord’s Supper?
Why Partake:
My
dad was a preacher. One week before he died, I saw him for the last time.
I
spent several hours with him in his hospital room, and he spoke of getting
out. He wanted to preach again. He even spoke to me about the first sermon he
wanted to preach after he was released. Those hopes were never realized, but
that conversation has a very special place in my heart. They were the last
words I ever heard my father speak.
On
the very night He was betrayed to be crucified, Jesus made a last request of
His disciples. He gave the bread to them and said:
"Take,
eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me. ’In the same
manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new
covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of
Me.’
How
could we even consider not honoring the dying request of our Lord and Savior?
But
this request was not just for the eleven present at the table with Him.
Paul
introduced these words by observing, “For I have received of the Lord
that which also I delivered unto you” (1 Corinthians 11:23). All disciples
are to eat the Lord’s Supper.
In
fact, the regular observance of the Lord’s Supper was among the very
first activities of the first century church. “And they continued
steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking
of bread, and in prayers.” (Acts 2:42). This “breaking of
bread” is among a list of spiritual activities and stands in contrast
to a later “breaking bread from house to house” (verse 46).
Later, the apostle Paul rebuked the church at Corinth, “Therefore when you come
together in one place, it is not to eat the Lord's Supper” (1
Corinthians 11:20). Thus, the meal they ate when they came “together as
a church” (verse 18) should have been the Lord’s Supper. He told
them to eat their own meals at home (verses 22, 34). We conclude that the
church, from its very beginning, came together steadfastly to eat the
Lord’s Supper.
Significance:
When
we eat the Lord’s Supper, we look back to remember what the Lord did
for us on the cross (1 Corinthians 11:24-25). Though the unleavened bread and
fruit of the vine have no special meaning to the lost, to Christians the
significance is profound. My dad used to tell the story of a young couple who
lived in an old house in the country and had a little, five year old son.
Daddy came home from work one day to find that the little fellow had gotten
into his tool box and had driven every one of his new nails into the wooden
door step. He was furious with his son. Soon the family moved onto a busy
street in town to be closer to Dad’s work and decided to put the old
place up for sale. One day the little boy, unused to city traffic, ran out
into the street, and was killed by a passing car. The couple were numb with
grief. In time, the man went out with a real estate agent to decide how much
to ask for the old place. As they walked up to the house, the owner gasped,
stepped back, and began to sob. The agent anxiously asked what was wrong, but
all the young man could do was point at the front step. Finally, he gained
his composure and told his companion, “All you see there is an old step
full of rusty, bent nails. But I see the dearest little boy in the world
carefully driving bright, shiny nails just like Daddy did.” He took the
step home and saved it in memory of that beloved son. When people of the
world sit in an assembly of the saints on the first day of the week, they see
us eat a little cracker and drink a little grape juice. But the redeemed see
in that bread and juice the dear Son of God who left the beauty and joy of
heaven to suffer, bleed, and die for our sins on the cruel cross of Calvary.
Our
Catholic friends believe the bread, when blessed by the priest, literally
becomes the body of the Lord, and the fruit of the vine actually becomes His
blood. They call this “transubstantiation.” They believe Jesus is
sacrificed again each time the priest celebrates the mass. This claim is
based on the fact Jesus said of the bread, “this is My body”
(Matthew 26:26), and of the cup, “this is My blood” (verses
27-28). How could Jesus mean the bread and cup were literally His body and
blood, when He sat before them at the table even as He spoke? The Master also
claimed, “I am the door”
(John
10:9). Was the Lord made of wood? Did He swing on hinges? Of course not. In
all three instances he spoke by metaphor. The fruit of the vine is a fair
representation of His blood, and the unleavened bread symbolizes His body,
just as a door well illustrates the fact Jesus is our way to the Father. And
Christ suffered for us but once (Hebrews 9:24-28). This supper is not a
sacrament or mystery. It is a simple yet profound memorial of Jesus ’
death on the cross for our sins.
When
we observe the Lord’s Supper, we also look forward to the Lord’s
return. “For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you
proclaim the Lord's death till He comes” (1 Corinthians 11:26).
Furthermore,
as we partake of the Supper, we look outward. We “proclaim the
Lord’s death.” Our observance is a proclamation to others of our
faith that Christ died for our sins. This is the reason we eat the Supper
when the disciples are assembled. The first century disciples ate the Supper
when assembled (Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 11:17-34), and these examples have
spiritual significance. Only by taking with others do we
“proclaim” (New King James Version) the Lord’s death.
We
must also look inward as we eat and drink.
But
let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the
cup.
For
he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to
himself, not discerning the Lord's body (1 Corinthians 11:28-29).
The
phrase “unworthy manner” pertains to how we partake, not our
personal worthiness or unworthiness. As we eat, each should examine his own
heart, to be sure he is communing in a worthy manner. Otherwise, we eat and drink
condemnation to ourselves.
How:
All
worship acceptable to God has two characteristics, “in spirit and
truth”
(John
4:23-24). To worship in truth is to do what the Word of God teaches us to do
(John 17:17). To worship in spirit is to worship with the proper attitudes
(Romans 12:11).
To
commune in truth we must have the proper elements. There are only two
essential elements: the unleavened bread and the fruit of the vine.
Why
should we use unleavened bread? Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper as
He and His disciples were eating the Jewish Passover (Matthew 26:17,26). At
the Passover the bread was unleavened (Exodus 12:1-20). This has deep
spiritual significance, for leaven represents sin (1 Corinthians 5:6-8). Unleavened bread represents the
sinless Son of God “as of a lamb without blemish and without
spot” (1 Peter 1:19). To use leavened bread in the Lord’s Supper
would be to represent that Christ was a sinner!
The
Lord instructed His disciples to drink of the cup (Matthew 26:27) and then
referred to the cup as “this fruit of the vine” (verse 29). Jesus
placed no emphasis on the literal cup. Rather, this is a figure of speech
called “metonymy,” “a figure by which one name or noun is
used instead of another, to which it stands in a certain relation”
(Bullinger, 538), in this case metonymy of the container for the contents.
The Master employed the term “cup” to refer to its contents, the
fruit of the vine. He instructed the disciples to “divide” the
cup (Luke 22:17). Paul, writing from Ephesus
(1
Corinthians 16:8) and the brethren in Corinth
all blessed the same cup (1 Corinthians 10:16). We drink the cup (1 Corinthians
11:26-28). Obviously, these are not references to a literal container but to
the contents, the fruit of the vine (Matthew 26:29; Mark 14:25; Luke 22:18), a Hebraism for
grape juice or wine. Whereas the literal cup, the container, has no
significance, and the number used is irrelevant, the fruit of the vine
represents the blood of Christ that ratified the New Testament (Matthew
26:27-29; Mark 14:23-25; Luke 22:20; 1 Corinthians 10:16; 11:25). It is
essential that we drink the fruit of the vine in the Lord’s Supper, and
no other liquid can be substituted for it.
The
day on which we partake of the Supper is important. In Acts 20:7 we
read:
Now
on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break
bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his
message until midnight (Acts 20:7).
The
disciples came together on the first day of the week for the express purpose
of breaking bread. We have already seen this must be a reference to the
Lord’s Supper rather than a common meal (1 Corinthians 11:17-34). This
day indeed has great spiritual importance. It is the day on which Jesus rose
from the dead (Mark 16:9). The Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1) came fifty days
after the Sabbath of the Passover (Leviticus 23:15-16), thus it always fell
on the first day of the week. This was the day the Holy Spirit came upon the
apostles (Acts 2:1-4). Looking back on this day, the apostle Peter called it
“the beginning” (Acts 11:15). Jesus had promised His kingdom
would come with power (Mark 9:1) and that the power would come with the
baptism of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:6-8). Thus, on the Day of Pentecost, the
first day of the week, the kingdom of Christ began and thereafter was spoken
of as an historical reality (Colossians 1:13). On this day the Gospel of
salvation through the risen Lord was first preached (Acts 2:21,32,36,38,40),
the Lord Jesus Christ began His reign in heaven (Acts 2:29-36), sinners were
first saved in Christ (Acts 2:40), the church of Christ began (Acts 2:47),
and the New Testament, the law of Christ, was issued from Jerusalem (Hebrews
9:15-17; Luke 24:46-49).
The
Lord didn’t set aside any specific first day of the week such as
Easter.
Rather,
the disciples simply met on the first day of the week to break bread (Acts
20:7), and they did this steadfastly (Acts 2:42). Thus, as the first century
church under the direction of the inspired apostles of Christ is our pattern
to follow (1 Corin-thians 4:16;
11:1; Philippians 3:17; 4:9; 2 Thessalonians 3:7,9), our obligation is to
steadfastly come together on the first day of the week to eat the
Lord’s Supper.
In
the town where I grew up, a permanent sign on the highway coming into town
stated, “Rotary Club Meets Wednesday.” Now what Wednesday do you
think the Rotary Club met? The only divine information we have about when to
eat the Lord’s Supper simply states “the first day of the
week.” Now when do you think we should gather to eat the Lord’s
Supper?
Why
is it that, when denominations set aside the divine pattern, they eat the
Lord’s Supper quarterly, semi-annually, or even annually, but they take
up a collection every time they get together? (cf. 1 Corinthians 16:1-2) Do
you think money is more important to them than the death of the Son of God?
The
Lord set His table in His kingdom (Luke 22:29-30). Thus, the ones who are to
eat at His table are the citizens of His kingdom, Christians (Colossians
1:13-14). This Supper is “the communion (“koinonia”-
fellowship, sharing - KS) of the blood of Christ” ... and “the communion of the body of
Christ” (1 Corin-thians 10:16). The Lord hasn’t authorized us to
exclude any from His table. Rather, each person should decide for himself if
he is a Christian, and, if he is, he should partake.
In Spirit:
We
eat the Lord’s Supper in Spirit if we truly set our minds on what it
represents. When we eat, we should remember what the Lord did for us on Calvary (1 Corinthians 11:24-25). When someone
desecrates the flag of the United
States, he desecrates the nation that flag
symbolizes. The Lord’s Supper represents Jesus’ suffering in our
behalf (1 Corinthians 11:26), and when one partakes of the Lord’s
Supper without thinking of that suffering, he is guilty of desecrating the
body and blood of the Lord (verse 27), and he “eats and drinks judgment
to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body”
(verse
29).
I
heard the story of a little boy sitting next to his mother in church as the
preacher in his sermon described the Lord’s suffering on the cross. The
lad, listening to the horrible details of the suffering of the Son of God,
began to cry aloud. The embarrassed mother bent over to her son and
whispered, “Don’t take it so seriously.” Yes, take it so
seriously! Don’t eat and drink condemnation to yourself.
Conclusion:
By
this simple memorial with its perishable elements the Lord’s death for
our redemption and His return in glory are tied together, imprinted upon our
consciousness and proclaimed to the world throughout all time. Christians
should come together every first day of the week to eat the Supper in memory
of the Lord’s sacrifice. We should each examine his own heart and
remember Jesus’ suffering and death for us. We will thus glorify the
Lord and renew our dedication to Him.
Work Cited:
Bullinger,
E.W., Figures of Speech Used in the Bible.
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