JUNE 13:The Lord's Supper

Wiley Richards is a retired professor of theology and philosophy at The Baptist College of Florida in Graceville.

The meaning of the Lord’s Supper divides Christian denominations. Roman Catholics believe every priest has the authority to change the essence of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus. Lutherans generally hold to the doctrine that the body and blood of Jesus are in, around, and with the two ingredients as worshipers partake of them. Those in the Reformed tradition often assert that participating grants unique spiritual benefits. Baptists believe the Lord’s Supper is a memorial rite. We generally avoid the description of it as a communion, Eucharist, or sacrament, preferring the simple term, the Lord’s Supper. Less theological baggage is implied.

• Remembering that Jesus established the Supper in connection with the Jewish Passover, the Christian rite signifies security (Matt, 26:26). To observe the Passover, the Israelites set aside a sacrificial lamb on the tenth day of Nisan (Ex. 12:3), our Palm Sunday, and placed him on public display until the fourteenth day of Nisan to be slaughtered (12:14). They ate unleavened bread for seven days (12:15). After killing the lamb, they took a hyssop twig and sprinkled blood on the lintel and side posts of each house (12:22). When the destroyer was sent from God to destroy the first born of Egypt, he passed over those houses that had the visible blood. Similarly, we celebrate being passed over for our sins because we, too, are under the blood, the blood of the Lamb. He is our place of safe refuge.

• Also, the memorial supper provides a double witness that Christ is our substitute (vv. 27-29). He shed His blood and died on the cross for “the remission of sins.” In the words of Hebrews 10:4, the blood of bulls and goats could not possibly take away sins. Forgiveness can be provided only through “the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (v. 10). On the deepest level, we were responsible for His death in that He bore all our sins on the cross (1 Pet. 1:18-19).

However, Jesus looked through and beyond the cross to a new covenant. It is a new arrangement based on the forgiveness of sins. Unlike the old covenant written in stone tables, the new one is written on the fleshly tables of the heart (2 Cor. 3:3).

• Further, when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, we preach a sermon (1 Cor. 11:23-26). The word for “show” can be found in Acts 13:38 in which Paul “preached” Jesus to the people of Antioch in Pisidia (v. 14). A sermon is a proclamation of God’s truth in which a response is expected. Since the Lords’ Supper applies specifically to believers, they should be gripped once again with the unsearchable grace God manifested in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The cup and bread witness to the historical facts about the death of our Lord.

Under divine inspiration (v. 23), Paul included a significant phrase not recorded in the Gospel accounts of the supper: “in remembrance of me.” The words “this is my body” therefore are not to be taken literally any more than are His words, “I am the true vine” (John 15:1). Jesus sustains us by supplying spiritual food and drink.

• Finally, the Supper is a call for self-judgment (vv. 27-32). To participate “unworthily” does not address spiritual qualifications. On the basis of worth, no believer could ever partake of the Supper, except, of course, on the basis of Christ’s imputed righteousness. “Unworthily” addresses the manner in which the supper is conducted. Do people divide the church through personality clashes? Do they use the Supper to satisfy physical hunger pains? By protecting the fellowship, we proclaim the unity of the Body of Christ.