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The Lord's Supper

By Phillip Ross

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Paul was not against eating and drinking. He was not opposed to feasting or wine. Rather, he was interested in the sanctification of the Lord's Supper -- separating the Lord's Supper from common eating. The Lord's Supper had a special purpose and was to be differentiated from other eating and drinking. And secondly, it was a church ordinance not a household ordinance. It was officiated by the elders of the church, not simply the head of the household. It was a communal meal that was centered around the church community, not merely the household community.

To miss the church-centered aspects of the Lord's Supper is equivalent to despising the church of God because it failed to provide proper honor to the structures of authority established by Jesus Christ. Part of true worship involves caring for God's people, and when the needs of poor and hungry worshipers were ignored the poor and hungry were shamed by their lack in the face of the abundance of God's provision in the midst of the community. Poor people often feel out of place in a wealthy congregation, and the Corinthian church was wealthy.

God is not against wealth, but insists that wealth be used according to His dictates. God cares for His people. He provides for them by insisting that His people provide for their own, for God's people. God's church is not a place for the wealthy to hobnob. Rather, it is a place for service, for everyone's service, including -- and perhaps even, especially -- the wealthy.

What have we learned in this section of First Corinthians? First, Paul was not always encouraging, but would chastise people when they needed it.

Second, that God uses people who think differently to sharpen each other; "Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another" (Proverbs 27:17). Thus, theological discussion is not about winning arguments, but about learning God's truth. And when we are committed to God's truth, we are free to learn in every circumstance. The wisest Christian is never so wise that he cannot learn something from the dullest Christian. Paul's teaching about factions in the churches is about the distance between wise Christians and dull Christians, and growing together in corporate unity through personal sanctification.

Thirdly, that true worship is not about the worshipers who gather together, but about the God who gathers them.

And fourthly, we are all in continual need of God's grace and mercy because we continually get things wrong on our way towards perfect sanctification -- and more so because we do not reach perfect sanctification in this life.

What exactly did Paul receive from the Lord? What did he deliver to the Corinthians? Paul has been addressing this concern throughout this letter, and in particular here in the eleventh chapter. Paul received from the Lord and delivered unto the saints the "way" of Christ. He reinforced this idea in 1 Corinthians 12:31, where he speaks of the greatest gift that Christ has given to His people. "But earnestly desire the higher gifts. I will show you a still more excellent way." The spiritual gifts listed in chapter twelve are secondary to the way described in chapter thirteen. The gifts listed in chapter twelve serve to introduce what has become known as the Great Love Chapter, 1 Corinthians 13.

We will speak more about this when we come to it. But note that Paul is setting up that discussion here. And it is significant that part and parcel of that set up is the institution of the Lord's Supper.

Paul received from the Lord the "way" of Christ. Isaiah prophesied about this. John the Baptist, hearkening back to Isaiah, when he cried "in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.'" (Matthew 3:3). Paul spoke of the Way when he witnessed to Felix in Rome: "Neither can they prove to you what they now bring up against me. But this I confess to you, that according to the Way, which they call a sect, I worship the God of our fathers, believing everything laid down by the Law and written in the Prophets, having a hope in God, which these men themselves accept, that there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust" (Acts 24:13-15).

What Paul calls the Way, they called a sect. The Way of Christ refers to the entire cultural structure of Christianity in its wholeness, its totality. The Way of Christ is a way of life, a lifestyle. Paul received from Christ a vision of Christian society or culture and it was that vision, that cultural practice, that way of life, that Paul was passing on to the Corinthians. It was more than a mere vision. It was an institution, a cultural apparatus, a way of being human in the light of Christ.

The capstone of that Way is Communion or the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper represents and communicates the entire cultural structure of Christianity in its wholeness. At the center of that cultural apparatus is a story, the story of Jesus Christ, the story of His betrayal, death and resurrection. But that story must be seen in its context, the context of Christ's birth as the long-awaited Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament. Thus, the entire edifice of Scripture -- all of its various stories and histories -- are implicated as Paul referred to the night when Jesus was betrayed. Understanding Christ's betrayal and death requires understanding the Bible, God's story -- His-story -- from Creation to Redemption.

And at the center of God's redemption is the body and blood of Jesus Christ. On that night Jesus "took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, 'This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me'" (1 Corinthians 11:24-25). Luke also recorded the story, "And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, 'This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me'" (Luke 22:19). The Lord's Supper is, among other things, a mnemonic device to aid the memory. It helps us remember the Way of Christ. And yet the Lord's Supper is more than simply words, more than a mnemonic device. It also elicits action -- eating and drinking, taking in sustenance to sustain life. So, the Supper calls us to action and not merely the remembering of old stories. It calls us to our place in God's Story of redemption, and to our various duties and responsibilities, joys and freedoms in Christ.

The bread is broken and given to us to remind us that Christ was given and broken for us, for our sins, not His own. People sometimes mistakenly say that they "take" communion, but such language is not biblical and conveys the wrong perspective regarding the Lord's Supper. To take something implies that we are the central actors, that the initiative and impetus are ours to take. Thus, it gives the wrong understanding of communion. We do not take it. Rather, it is given to us. It is a gift. Just as we do not take salvation from Christ, we do not take Communion. We receive everything as gifts from God. Everything.

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