Feasting at the Lord’s Banquet
1 Corinthians 11:17-34

Introduction

In three weeks, most of us will sit down to a meal on Thanksgiving Day.  We may eat many of the same foods we eat on other days.  Yet on that day, even the mash potatoes seem extra special.  There’s an aura around this holiday meal that infuses it with special sentiment.  The Thanksgiving meal carries with it many personal, family, and national memories that endow it with deeper meaning than regular meals.  And of course, what we find most special, are those that sit around the table and share the meal with us.

This morning, we are going to explore the deeper meaning of another important meal.  Indeed, it is the most important and most special meal we get to share…the Lord’s Supper.

Let us pray…            Scripture reading…

The reason the Thanksgiving meal is so special, is that each food item carries symbolic significance and many identity-shaping memories.  The turkey is a bird unique to North America, and we envision Pilgrims with funny hats and muskets hunting them for the meal.  We eat the corn and pumpkin pie, and remember how the Native Americans taught the first settlers to grow these new foods.  We remember how hard it was for the early settlers to establish a foot hold in this new land that lead to this great country.  So we remember how abundantly blessed we are as Americans.  This holiday truly is a time of giving much thanks to our gracious God.

There are many similarities between the Thanksgiving meal and the Lord’s Supper.  For example, we must recognize all the symbolism of the Lord’s Supper if we are to encounter fully its significance.  We must allow the Lord’s Supper to invoke our personal and collective memory of who we are as God’s people.  The Lord’s Supper is called the “Eucharist,” a word meaning “Thanksgiving.”  Indeed, the central attitude in our hearts as we partake of the Lord’s Supper should be one of overflowing thanksgiving!  And most important of all, what makes the Lord’s Supper so special is because of who we get to share the meal with, namely Jesus Christ and the family of God.

But even with all the similarities between the Thanksgiving meal and the Lord’s Supper, there is one eternally significant difference.  The food we eat at Thanksgiving can only nourish our bodies.  Christ has invested in the Lord’s Supper the power to nourish our soul, spirit, and faith.  But if it is to have that power, we must fully understand and embrace all that our Lord intended this meal to mean and to accomplish.

The apostle warned in our Bible passage that many among that congregation were weak and sick because they failed to “recognize the body of the Lord” as they partook of the bread and wine.  Likewise, we will not reap the full blessings and power of the Lord’s Supper if we do not recognize how Christ uniquely meets with us in this sacred feast.

So I thought it good that we took the time to explore in detail what our Reformed, Presbyterian heritage teaches about Holy Communion.  We are going to answer that question by going phrase by phrase through what is called the “Words of Institution.”  These are the words from I Corinthians that usually get quoted as one is presiding over this Sacrament.  We discover in these words, four core truths of the Lord’s Supper.  Namely, that it is Connectional, Sacramental, Covenantal, and Proclamational.


I.  Our first truth of the Lord’s Supper we are going to explore is that it is Connectional.  

Our Bible passage reveals this in verses 23 & 24: “The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it.”

The Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper did not begin with the Christian Church.  All through salvation history, God has used the signs and symbols of bread and wine to be avenues of His covenantal grace.  

When the people of Israel were being set free by God’s mighty hand from slavery in Egypt, God told the people to sacrifice an unblemished lamb, and paint some its blood on their doorframes so that when God’s angel of death came to kill all the firstborn of Egypt, it would “pass over” their houses.  God told them to remember and reenact this deliverance each year by celebrating the Passover Meal.  It was this meal that Christ was eating with His disciples when He spoke the words that we are studying this morning.  It was this Passover meal that Christ used to establish what we now call the “Lord’s Supper, or the Eucharist meal, or Holy Communion."

So, one powerful aspect of celebrating the Lord’s Table is that it has historical and connectional significance.  The Lord’s Supper ties together all God’s people, Jew and Gentile, throughout all salvation history.  This is why the Lord’s Supper must always be a communal act of worship, and never an individual act done in separation from the Body of Christ.

Now even though the Lord’s Supper arose out of the Passover meal, no where in studying the history of how the Christian church celebrated the Lord’s Supper do we find the Gentile congregations reenacting the Jewish Passover meal.  In the early Church, as we see in our Bible passage this morning, the Lord’s Supper was celebrated as part of a larger Agape meal.  As congregations grew, the meal was eventually dropped, and we discover early liturgies very much like the ones we still use.  

So while there is a richness that we Gentiles can discover by having Messianic Jews teach us the deeper meaning of the Passover Meal, and we want to do this often.  Our regular participation in the Lord’s Supper is not a reenactment of the Jewish Passover.  We do not have to copy all the elements of the Jewish Passover in order for it to be meaningful and effectual.  The Lord’s Supper is a new and uniquely Christian ceremony that focuses on the life and death of Christ as symbolized in the common bread and juice, and connects us in spiritual and eternal fellowship with all God’s people past, present and future.


II.  Our second truth about the Lord’s Supper is that it is Sacramental.  

Our Bible passage this morning from 1 Corinthians begins in verse 23 saying: “For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you….”

What Paul is saying here is that he received the truth about the meaning and practice of the Lord’s Supper through direct revelation from Jesus Christ.  Ongoing engagement in the Lord’s Supper is so essential for God’s people throughout all the ages that Christ made sure the apostle Paul understood this.  It is because of this special emphasis placed upon this practice and the practice of Baptism, virtually every stream of Christianity believes that Christ established these two specific worship practices that we are commanded to carry on until He returns.

However, where there are major disagreements within Protestant churches over Baptism and Holy Communion is whether these two practices are “memorial” or “Sacramental.”  Are they just a symbolic ceremony, or does something supernatural happen through this practices.  The denominations who embrace memorialism, do not believe that there is any special grace extended through Baptism or Communion.  Rather, these two events are mostly just symbolic ceremonies through which we are reminded of their deeper spiritual meaning.  In fact, these denominations do not even call these two events Sacraments, but rather, they are called “ordinances.”

We however, as Presbyterians, we are a Sacramental church.  We believe that Christ Himself established Baptism and Holy Communion as special avenues of grace for our spiritual nourishment.  The main denominations that are Sacramental include Roman Catholic, Methodist, Eastern Orthodox, Lutheran, Anglican, and Presbyterian.  

Now there is huge difference between the Protestant Sacramental denominations and the Orthodox and Roman Catholics.  Catholicism teaches that one gets saved and stays saved through the grace of Christ that is channeled through actually seven Sacraments.  Presbyterians do not believe that Baptism or Communion extends salvation.  Salvation is only offered through a direct, personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  However, we do believe that we encounter Christ through the Holy Spirit in a special way through the two Sacraments.  We do believe that Christ uses these practices to nourish powerfully our faith and grace in a manner that is unique to these two practices.  

Another powerful aspect about the Lord’s Supper that flows from it being Sacramental is that it is participatory.  

In verse 24 we read: "This is my body, which is for you,” says Christ .  Christ said “this is my body.”  During the Reformation, there were intense and ultimately divisive arguments about just what exactly did Christ mean when He used the word “is.”  These theological arguments are what gave rise to the major differences between Catholicism, Eastern Orthodox, Lutheran, and Reformed churches.
 
The Roman Catholics, and to some degree the Eastern Orthodox churches, all believe that Christ’s statement of “is” should be taken very literally.  Catholicism embraces what is called “Transubstantiation,” which believes that in the Sacrament of Holy Communion, the bread and the wine actually become the body and blood of Christ who is then re-sacrificed in each Mass, which is why they believe the Mass has saving power.  

Luther, and therefore the Lutheran  churches, believe that while the bread and wine do not actually become the body and blood of Christ, somehow mysteriously, Christ is physically present “in, above, and under” the elements.  The fancy word for this is “consubstantiation.”

Calvin, and therefore the Reformed churches such as Presbyterian, believes that nothing supernaturally changes about the bread and wine.  However, Christ is present in the Sacrament through the Holy Spirit in a very unique and real way.  Christ is present in the Sacraments, not just in the same way that Christ is always present through the Holy Spirit.  But Christ has established the Lord’s Supper as a unique means of His grace so that when we participate in Holy Communion something truly supernatural happens.  

The Holy Spirit lifts us up into Christ’s presence in heaven, and also manifests Christ presence among us on Earth, in a powerful, real, unique way that strengthens and nourishes our faith.  Calvin used the analogy that just as physical food strengthens and nourishes our physical body, the Lord’s Supper has the power to do the same for our individual and communal body, soul, spirit, and faith.

Earlier in 1 Corinthians, as the apostle Paul was explaining the meaning of the Lord’s Supper, we discover a powerful revelation of this truth.  In 10:16, we read this, “Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ?  And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?”

The word “participation” here is “koinnia” in Greek.  It is the same word translated elsewhere as “fellowship.”  Paul is reveling that when we partake of the Lord’s Supper we are entering into an intimate fellowship, a spiritual participation, a joining in union with Christ, in Christ’s very life, death, resurrection, reign, and Second Coming!   This is why the Lord’s Supper is such a powerful avenue of grace and spiritually nourishment.  This is why Calvin wanted it celebrated every Sunday.  Our faith and overall spiritual health is made stronger the more we partake of Holy Communion.

This Sacramental nature of the Lord’s Supper is also confirmed in verses 24 & 25 where Christ commands us to: “Do this in remembrance of me.” 

This is where the churches who see the Lord’s Supper as only memorial derive their theology from.  But here’s the error in that interpretation.  Our Western civilization understands the act of remembering as primarily an individual act of mental recall.  One writer put it this way.  If we are asked to remember our high school graduation, we think in our heads about the event.  But for the ancient Jews and the early Church, remembrance was a corporate act in which the event remembered was reacted and experienced anew through ritual ceremony.  

To remember our graduation in this way, we would rent a cap and gown, play Pomp & Circumstance” on a Cd, and then host a reception with our friends and family.  The word “remembrance” in our Bible passage in Greek is “anamnesis.”  It means to remember through reenacting and reliving an event in such a way as to reclaim its power and significance. This is what we are to do when we partake of Holy Communion.  We do this is a way that reenacts the life, death, resurrection, reign, and return of Christ so as to reclaim each time anew its significance and power.


III. Our third major truth about the Lord’s Supper is that it is Covenantal.  

We discovered this in verse 25: “In the same way, after supper Christ took the cup, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood’”

Our triune God has always defined His relationship with humanity through the terms and conditions of a covenant.  A covenant is a sacred contract that is backed by the very character and power of God.  God has made many sub-contracts or secondary covenants with different humans and even with all humanity through the ages.  We learned of one last week called the Noahic covenant.  

But God has one over-arching covenant that all the other covenants fall under, and that is the Covenant of Grace.  This Covenant states that God’s path of forgiveness, reconciliation, adoption as God’s child, and eternal life is always granted one way and one way only, by faith through grace.  This Covenant of Grace was administered through animal sacrifice in what we call the Old Testament, or Old Covenant, times as these sacrifices pointed to the cross.  And since the cross, this covenant is administered through what Christ calls the New Covenant.

The fundamental difference between the Old and New Covenants, is that with the New one, we not only have the commands to love God and others.  We now have the power to do so through the Holy Spirit dwelling in us.

Every time God made a covenant with humanity, He would accompany it with some kind of outward, physical symbol, so that we earth-bound, forgetful humans, would have some kind of sign to remember God’s covenant blessings and expectations.  To Noah, he gave the rainbow.  To the Israelites, he gave the Passover meal and circumcision.  And to the Christian Church, God gave us Baptism, to replace circumcision, and the Lord’s Supper, to replace the Passover Meal.

The Reformed tradition uses the terms, “sign and symbol.”  As a sign, the Sacraments are an “outward sign of an inward, spiritual reality.”  Calling them also a symbol includes all that we just explored as their Sacramental nature.  So the Lord’s Supper is a physical sign and a channeling symbol for to remember, reclaim, and recommit to the Covenant of grace that God has established with us.  It is a time to remember, celebrate, reclaim, and give thanks for God calling us out the darkness into His marvelous light through Christ’s sinless life as a human, His sacrificial death on a cruel cross, His current intercession on our behalf before the Father, and His soon return to consummate God’s eternal kingdom.


IV.  Our fourth major truth about the Lord’s Supper is that it is Proclamational.  

In verse 26, we read this: “For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.”

The way Calvin and the Reformed tradition stated this was by calling the Sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion “the Word of God enacted.”  This is also why in the Reformed tradition, the Sacraments must always follow the preaching of the Word.  The Sacraments are like mini-dramas that both teach and channel the promises of God’s Word.  And so there is an evangelistic component to the Lord’s Table in that it acts out the gospel of Jesus Christ.  It empowers God’s people to go out from the time of communal worship to live and proclaim the gospel to the world.  In the early Church, and in many faith traditions still, whenever the Lord’s Supper is celebrated, a special offering is taken for the poor as well.

The Lord’s Supper not only proclaims our Lord’s life, death, and resurrection, but it does so “until he comes!”  This Sacrament is also eschatological, that is it reminds us that not only are we blessed with Christ’s presence and power right now in the midst of all our sorrow and struggles, but also that there is indeed a day coming soon when our Lord will return to put an end to all evil and injustice once and for all!  

The Lord’s Supper is indeed a rich, spiritual banquet where we get to feast with the Lord but also spiritually on the Lord.  It is Connectional, Sacramental, Covenantal, and Proclamational.

We are commanded to examine ourselves when we participate in the Lord’s Supper.  To examine means to look closely at.  When we partake of Communion, we are to look five different directions.  Because it is Connectional, we look around and remember that the Lord’s Supper connects us to all God’s people.  Because it is Sacramental, we look up and remember our intimate union with Christ.  Because it is Covenantal, we look inward and confess all the ways we break the Father’s heart.  Because it is Proclamational, we look forward and remember that our Lord is coming back soon, and we look outward to be empowered once again to leave this Table to live and proclaim the gospel to a dark and hurting world.