The Table of the Lord

Childhood memories:

- solemnity; line of sober faced deacons at front of church

- organist (my sister) served separately

- tension of passing the trays - don’t drop it!

- sensory impressions - taste, sound of cups being placed in racks

- impatience for the service to be over

All over the world, this service is being observed, in different ways, and with different customs. But what does it mean? What is it all about?

The Lord’s Supper is a ritual that Jesus instituted and commanded us to observe. It is a ritual in which Jesus wants us to do four things:

1. He wants us to look back:

Jesus based the Lord’s Supper on the Jewish Passover meal. The Passover was for the Jews a time of looking back on their deliverance from Egypt. As they ate the lamb, they remembered the Passover Lamb which was slain and its blood sprinkled on the doorposts so that they would be protected from the judgment of God. It was a feast of remembrance; a time of remembering God’s deliverance.

In the same way, the Lord’s Table is a feast of remembrance. It is a time for us to look back and remember Christ’s death on the cross. As we eat the bread, we are remembering his broken body. As we drink the cup, we are remembering his shed blood.

In the events of this past week, with the tragic death of Princess Diana, people have been remembering her life, her radiant beauty, her good deeds, her work for humanitarian causes. Nobody wants to be reminded of the way she died. We shrink from the images of that crushed and mangled Mercedes being hauled from the mouth of that tunnel.

And yet, at the Lord’s Table, Jesus told us not to remember his life. Not his teachings, not his miracles. He told us to remember his death, and specifically, the way that he died. Why?

Because it is not the life of our Lord or his teachings or his miracles that saves sinners, but his death.

Because when Jesus died, he died as our substitute. Romans 5:8 says “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

He was just like the Passover Lamb, who had to die so that the Israelites could live.

When Jesus died as our substitute, he experienced the consequences of sin—separation from God—so that we wouldn’t have to. Remember on the cross he cried out “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me”. He was separated from God on our behalf.

1 Peter 3:8 tells us that “Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring us to God.” He was our substitute; our Passover Lamb—the Lamb of God.

But there’s more… The Bible says that Christ’s death atones for our sin. The word “atone” means to cover. Christ’s death covers our sin in the sight of a holy God so that when God looks upon us, he doesn’t see the guilt of our sin, he sees the shed blood of His righteous son, who paid the penalty for sin on our behalf.

In that way, Christ’s death justifies us in the sight of God. Romans 3:24 says that “we are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ.” Rather than being guilty, God now declares us to be righteous, because we stand under the shed blood of Jesus. That’s what being justified means.

But there’s still more… Christ’s death reconciles us to God. Colossians 1:20 says “God was pleased… to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” Romans 5:10 says “when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son.”

Whereas once we were the enemies of God because of our sin, now we are his friends. And he brought about that reconciliation through the death of His Son.

So this is why we look back on Christ’s death with gratitude and joy and reverence. Because it brought us into right relationship with God.

2. But as we celebrate the Lord’s Table, we not only look back; we also look forward.

Jesus was looking forward at the Last Supper with his disciples. He said to them: “I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes…” Paul told us that “whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”

So as we gather around the Lord’s Table, we are not only looking back; we are looking forward to the time when He comes back—to the time when he gathers us unto himself—to the coming of the kingdom of God.

The return of Jesus Christ is the blessed hope of the church and of us as individuals. We need to remember that Jesus not only died for us, but he rose again and ascended to heaven and one day, He’s going to return and take us to heaven to be with him.

So when we partake of the Lord’s Supper, we look back on the significance of his death, but we also should look forward with eager expectation to that great day when we’ll be with Him.

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We’ve seen that the first thing we need to do at the Lord’s Table is to look back. To remember the significance of the Lord’s death for us. And then we need to look forward, to the day when we shall see him in glory.

3. There’s a third thing we need to do when we gather around the Lord’s Table. We need to look within.

The Bible says “whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself.”

Notice that the Bible does not say that we have to be worthy to partake of the Lord’s Supper; it says that we should partake in a worthy manner—in other words, our attitudes ought to be right in partaking of it. That was the problem that Paul had to address in the church at Corinth. They were participating in the Lord’s Supper with wrong attitudes; sinful attitudes.

The story is told of a Communion service that was being held in a church in Scotland. The pastor noticed that one of the women in the congregation did not accept the bread or the cup as it was passed to her. She refused to participate, but instead sat there weeping quietly.

The pastor, sensing her anguish and brokenness, left the table and carried the bread and cup to where she was sitting. He knelt down beside her and said gently “Take it, dear lady; this bread and cup is for sinners.”

That woman had the right attitude—she was acutely aware of her sin and her own unworthiness before the Lord.

But how many of us harden our hearts before God? We justify our sinful attitudes and actions and go ahead and participate unworthily.

Then there are other Christians who consistently refuse to participate in the Lord’s Supper, thinking that their refusal will somehow keep them from getting into further trouble with God. Both these options demonstrate an unworthy attitude.

Instead we are to examine ourselves. And if there is sin in our life, we are to confess it to God. And if we have sinned against a fellow brother or sister, we are to confess it to that person.

This is something that we do not often do. Frankly, I believe that we do not give enough time in the service for this to happen. And we have become so uptight and concerned about appearances that we lack the humility to get up in a public setting and go to another brother or sister and ask for forgiveness.

But this is one of the purposes of the Lord’s Table—to help us stay close to God and to keep us from developing rifts between each other as fellow believers.

We’re part of a family, and sometimes family members have disagreements. Sometimes we get on each other’s nerves. Sometimes there are misunderstandings and hurts that develop between us. The Lord’s Table is the time to deal with those things, not to paper over them in the interests of decorum. And that leads us to…

4. A fourth thing we need to do at the Lord’s Table. We need to look around us.

In his first letter to the church at Corinth, Paul rebuked the Corinthians because in their observance of the Lord’s Supper, they were being callous and uncaring toward each other.

They had divided into factions, or church cliques, and there were hard feelings among them. Paul said “I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you. And your observance of the Lord’s Table shows that.”

1 Corinthians 11:20 When you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat, for as you eat, each of you goes ahead without waiting for anybody else. One remains hungry, another gets drunk.

The rich members looked down their noses at the poor, and the poor members resented the rich. That is why Paul had to tell them in v. 33…

My brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for each other. You need to look around and appreciate the fact that as Christians, you are all part of one body. And if one member is hurting, you’re all hurting.

Likewise today, we need to look around us. We need to wait on each other. We need to be sensitive to the hurts and the needs and the problems of our fellow believers. We have no right to come in here and partake of the Lord’s Supper and then go our separate ways without concern for how our fellow believers are doing.

That’s one of the reasons why we take up our Fellowship Fund offering on Communion Sundays. To remind us that we have an obligation to each other.

So we need to look back, look forward, look within, and look around.

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In order to help us do that, we are going to have a time of reflection and silent prayer. And if during this time, you feel the Holy Spirit talking to you, and you sense that you need to go to someone else in the body and make things right, then do so.

You have permission. This is the time to make things right. This is the time for understanding. This is the time for forgiveness.

Remember that Jesus said “If you’re bringing your gift to the altar and there you remember that your brother has something against you; leave your gift. First go and be reconciled to your brother.”

The Lord is here. The Holy Spirit is here. Let’s be sensitive to his presence.