The Feast of Faith - The Meaning of Communion (Part Two)
We recently looked at the spiritual reality of eating and drinking in Communion. The visible, tangible elements of bread and wine are, in these special circumstances, when received by faith, a means by which Christ offers himself to us. We have true spiritual communion in his body and blood. The practice of the Lord’s Table is an Apostolic Tradition, a ritual action given by Christ to his Church through the Apostles to mark us as his own and communicate certain benefits to us in our union with him. Let’s take a closer look at 1 Corinthians 11:14-34.
The Supper Spoiled - 11:17-22
While Paul praises the Corinthians for keeping the Traditions (11:2), he now reproves them for their practice of the Supper.
11:17 - I do not commend you
Shocking words! Why?
While in 10:14-22, it is clear that the Corinthians had forgotten the spiritual, vertical dimension of the Supper, our union with God in Christ, it is clear from 11:17-22 that they’d also forgotten the equally spiritual, horizontal dimension of the Supper, our union with one another in Christ.
Both go back to what Paul has written about the Bread and the Cup: there is ONE loaf and ONE cup, and so there is ONE BODY and ONE SAVIOR. Some Corinthians broke Christ's unity by splitting their table time with him and demons. Others denied the oneness of the sign of the Bread by fragmenting the Church, treating some members as less than or greater than others.
The Corinthian Divisions and Greco-Roman Dining
The Greco-Roman world had dining arrangements that gave positions of prominence - including better food and wine! - to the most honored guests. The wealthy and socially powerful Corinthian Christians maintained these ‘rich first’ approaches to the Lord’s Supper, and that created division in the body - v.18-19. Paul notes that this entailed putting self above others (v.20-22) in denying the meaning of the Lord’s Table.
The Supper celebrated the sacrificial love and self-giving of the Savior for redemption, while the Corinthian practice selfishly sought to satisfy their hunger pangs while pushing the weak aside. The outcome was drunkenness on the one hand and privation on the other. Paul concludes, ‘It is NOT the Lord’s Supper that you eat’ when such selfishness and division are maintained.
This is what lies behind worthy eating and drinking (v.27). Paul warns against unworthy participation in the Supper. The word used is best translated ‘unworthily’ and refers to the actions rather than the person. It is not that the person is unworthy of the Supper (no one is ‘worthy’ of such gifts!), but rather that their selfish actions are unworthy of the Supper that proclaims Christ’s death. How can we possibly turn something meant to proclaim the greatest sacrifice ever made into something by which I push aside the needy to satisfy myself? No wonder Paul reproved them so fiercely! “What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you? I will not!” (v.22).
The Supper Renewed - 11:23-34
Words of Institution - 11:23-25
These words of Jesus are the essence of the tradition: apostolic actions rooted in the words of Jesus, ‘received’ and ‘passed on’ (“I delivered to you what I also received…”, or “I traditioned to you…”
This reminds us that the Christian Supper is an extension of Christ's meal with his disciples, a Passover meal. That’s evident in the phrase “The Cup of Blessing,” a direct reference to one of the ceremonial cups and language of Passover.
But this meal also moves us across time and space through the covenant bond language of the past, present, and future action.
“As often as you eat and drink, you proclaim”: present
“The Lord’s death”: past
“Until he comes”: future
The One who was and is and is to come is the focus and gift of this meal in which he offers himself to us. This meal of union with Christ and his people strengthens the bonds of our union with Christ, with each other, and with the Apostles and all believers over the centuries (see also John 17:20-21).
What this Meal Does Do - 11:26
It is a Proclamation of Christ’s Death
It is a Remembrance of Christ’s Death
It is a Communion in Christ’s Body and Blood
It is a Meal of Blessing and Judgment for Christ’s People
Those who participate unworthily- without discerning Christ’s Body - are bringing God’s judgment on themselves by denying in their practice of the Supper the very truth the Supper affirms.
Although ignorant and wicked men receive the outward elements in this sacrament, yet they receive not the thing signified thereby; but by their unworthy coming thereunto are guilty of the body and blood of the Lord, to their own damnation. Wherefore all ignorant and ungodly persons, as they are unfit to enjoy communion with him, so are they unworthy of the Lord's table, and can not, without great sin against Christ, while they remain such, partake of these holy mysteries, or be admitted thereunto. WCF 29.8
Who Should Participate - 11:27-34
Those who examine themselves
Examine oneself for what? The answer, says Paul, is “discerning the body of Christ.” The Body of Christ is Physical (and localized in heaven), Mystical (the Church in heaven and on earth, both visible and invisible), and Sacramental (offered to us through the work of the Spirit and received by faith: “Take and eat, this is my body…”). Participation in the sacramental requires and presupposes faith in the person of Christ and commitment to the Church of Christ. We are to see the Body of Christ not simply offered to us spiritually AT the Table but with us AROUND the Table. We become unworthy participants if we fail to discern this reality and treat brothers and sisters with contempt.
This is why an age-appropriate confession of Faith is essential to communion participation. We must profess faith in the crucified, risen, and ascended Christ and receive one another in the Body of Christ. Baptized covenant children who profess faith should be admitted to the Table by the elders who govern and guard the ministry of sacraments.
Baptism usually precedes communion, as one washes before one eats. Israel was first baptized and then ate and drank in their journey with Christ (1 Corinthians 10:1-4).
It is not a full meal—“eat at home” (v.34). The purpose of the Table is a ritual act in which spiritual communion occurs, a proclamation of Christ’s death is made in action/sign, and God’s blessing and judgment are invoked.
Some further notes
How such communion is received remains a ‘mystery.’ The Greek word for mystery is translated by the Latin ‘sacramentum,’ from which we get our word ‘sacrament.’ A sacrament is a holy mystery, a sign of God’s grace, and a seal of his promise to us in Christ.
Sacraments are entrusted to the Apostles and thus to the Church (11:2, 23). Sacraments are not stewarded by individuals acting independently. They are signs that indicate who is a member of Christ’s body; they are signs to those members of Christ’s mercy; they are means of God’s grace to those who receive them by faith.
Parents don’t commune or ex-commune their children
Parents don’t baptize their own children either
Ministers of the Gospel are ‘stewards of the mysteries (sacraments): 1 Corinthians 4:1
Only Ministers Speak the Words of Institution in Christ’s stead and Name to consecrate the bread and wine
All Members share in the distribution of the elements; we all “pass the cup” to one another and share the bread with one another. In so doing, we turn to one another in forgiveness and faith, just as we turn to Christ in faith for forgiveness.
In the supper, the terrible moment of our break with God recorded in the words “took and ate” in Genesis 3 is undone by the beautiful moment when Jesus said to us, “Take and eat.”
Redeemed, we can come to the table and acclaim the Savior with great joy and praise him, singing, “Blessed be the Lord who brings forth bread from the earth and gives wine to make the heart of man glad.”