Preparing for the Lord's Supper

“Do I really know what I’m doing when I take the Lord’s Supper?” Have you asked yourself this question? I think it’s a good question to ask ourselves, and I believe a reason for why there is explanation every time we celebrate communion. In other words, we are forced to consider whether our participation in the sacrament is done with proper understanding of its significance along with our own personal reverence and zeal. In my younger days, I observed the Lord’s Supper as a memorial. This progressed into considering the sacrament to be more, namely something personal between just me and Christ. But yet what Scripture presents us with is rather something corporate, familial in nature. We can see the continuity in that just as the Passover meal was familial, in the Lord’s Supper we are specially joined with each other as we are joined with Christ.

We must take special note that the Word and sacrament are intrinsically linked. It is not simply that the sacrament needs the Word of God to bear meaning, but that the Word, when faithfully observed in the lives of the communicants, necessarily leads to the sacrament—the Lord’s Supper points us to our union with Christ, and it is our union with Christ that necessarily leads us to the table. The events of the Lord’s Supper of course are not magical, but they are far greater in that they are supernatural as the Holy Spirit works in and through the partaking of the elements. The Holy Spirit brings the riches of grace as a gift of covenantal relationship and participation, like seeds being planted to bear the fruit of our union with Christ.

This sacrament emphatically proclaims the cosmic realities of our past, present, and future as those marked with the covenant: Christ dwells in us and we can actively partake of all of him to satisfy the needs our brokenness shows us and the desires for which our hearts yearn on account of his real presence with us at the table. This is huge for me because it shows me that when I partake of the Lord’s Supper it is truly soul food. Having been raised in the country, I know that wherever you are if you are eating soul food then it makes you feel like you are truly home and there is no other place you want to be. When we realize that Christ is truly present with us, and has union with us, then we are truly at home and there is no other place we want to be than participating in that sacrament.

So, as we keep the question of whether we really understand what’s going on at communion, a lot boils down to our own posture in respect to an active acknowledgement of union with Christ being proclaimed and, thereby, received in those common elements. The Lord’s Supper is truly a symbol of the sacrifice of Christ being an acceptable offering to God. But we might find ourselves sometimes taking the posture of simply being star struck with that sacrifice of Christ—and we truly must stand in awe—that we fall back on the tendency to observe this sacrament as a memorial instead of recognizing that we are the intentional recipient of the benefits of that sacrifice haven been crucified with Christ. Thus, this sacrament should renew a sense of ownership of these benefits and an obligation to take the Lord’s Supper with the active recognition through ongoing repentance and thanksgiving that it is Christ’s body given for us and blood poured out for us—when God accepts Christ, he accepts us. This should create a hunger in us for the bread and wine! When we have proper theology of the Lord’s Supper it should lead us to a sense of obligation to proclaim the benefits of the Lord’s Supper to our covenant children, and the rest of our covenant family, through approaching the table from a posture of humility and zeal. We should want our children to long for their own participation in this family meal by taking note of how we ourselves observe our union with Christ at the communion table—discipleship by example.

When we participate in the Lord’s Supper and remember Christ’s death, we must also recognize that the resurrection is, at least, implied at the table. In the words of institution we say that as often as we eat the bread and drink the cup we are proclaiming the Lord’s death until he comes again. It is not that we have only been crucified with Christ, but we have also been raised with him and have been promised the hope of heaven through the one who presently sits on the throne and will come again in glory. The tomb is empty and so we can eternally partake of the cup of blessing! As the hymnist writes, “No condemnation now I dread. Jesus, and all in him, is mine. Alive in him, my living head, and clothed in righteousness divine. Bold I approach the eternal throne and claim the crown through Christ, my own.”

What about as we leave the table? As we partake of the sacrament in remembrance of Christ, we must not forget how remembrance is directly tied to action in God’s own instructions for his people throughout the history of Israel and reiterated in the Gospels prior to the institution of the Lord’s Supper. This means taking a posture of action as we depart from the Lord’s Supper to have our union with Christ written on our hearts in such a way that we would live it out and make it our own. If the mere eating of the bread and drinking from the cup equaled belief in Christ, then the Lord’s Supper suddenly loses any real significance in the lives of the people of God. Belief in the biblical sense is concerned with flesh and blood realities. Just as the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper are the “visible words” of our union with Christ, this meal calls us to lead lives that are likewise visible representations of our union with him.

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