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| by Erik Wait |
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In the New Testament the sacrament of the Holy Meal in covenant worship is referred to as the Breaking of Bread, the Cup of Blessing, (Acts 2:42; 1 Corinthians 10:16) or the Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians 11:20). It may also be called “Holy Communion” to emphasize the fact that in partaking we are sharing (communing) in a meal with each other and with Christ (Luke 22:17; 1 Corinthians 9:13). It is also referred to as the “Thank You Meal” or Eucharist (from the Greek word eucharisto which means “to give thanks”) emphasizing the moment when Jesus took the bread, gave thanks and then broke it. (Luke 22:17,19) The final name, which is rarely used by Protestants, is The Mass from the Latin ite-missa est which means “Go – you are sent out.” This title carries with it the idea that those whoa have been fed are commissioned to go out into the world with the Gospel. [1]
The primary focus in debates over the sacrament has been on the metaphysical nature of the bread and wine, how Christians eat Christ’ body and drink His blood in the elements. [2] What has often been lacking in such debates is the ecclesiastical-social aspect of how the sacrament binds the partakers together with one another and Jesus Christ - not only in the elements but also in the ritual of the distribution of the bread and wine. I am convinced that it is in not only what we partake of that constitutes the sacrament but also how we do so determines whether or not we are rightly declaring and remembering the death of Christ.
Eating and Drinking The Lord’s Flesh and Blood With Jesus
Having been called to worship, confessed our sin and consecrated by His Word the Lord then desires for us to meet with Him at His Table, to dine with Him at His New Covenant Passover meal as Jesus said to His disciples, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer…” (Luke 22:15) Subsequently, after His death, burial, resurrection and ascension He says to the church, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.” (Revelation 3:20)
In this meal we not only sup with Jesus but mystically and sacramentally partake of Jesus Himself, His flesh and blood, in the bread and wine:
“‘I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.’ Then the Jews began to argue with one another, saying, ‘How can this man give us His flesh to eat?’ So Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him….It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.’” (John 6:51-56, 63)
The manna that Israel received in the desert was but a type of Jesus Christ. The true bread from Heaven has now come in the flesh and we “eat” His flesh and “drink” His blood. This is not corporeal eating, as if we were committing cannibalism, rather we feast on Him spiritually by faith. The Jews likewise spiritually partook of the flesh and blood of Christ before His incarnation for as Paul tells the Gentile believers at the Church in Corinth:
“For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea; and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and all ate the same spiritual food; and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ.” (1 Corinthians 10:1-4)
When Paul says that they all ate “the same spiritual food” he is not saying that they ate the same food as each other (though that is true too) but rather that they ate the same “spiritual food” and partook of the same “spiritual drink” as New Covenant believers for the rock that supplied the water “was Christ.”
The Essential Unity Of The One Loaf
In partaking of the one loaf and one cup we commune not only with Christ but also with each other, our Christian forefathers and future generations. (1 Corinthians 10:1-4) We do this as co-members of the bride of Christ for in her unity with Him we become fellow members of the body of Christ such that we are also part of one another. (1 Corinthians 12:12-14) In this union, Jesus Christ the husband and His bride, the Church, spiritually become “one flesh” (Ephesians 5:25-30; cf. Genesis 2:24; Matthew 19:5; Ephesians 6:16). This is not a metaphysical transformation such that there is no distinction between the husband and the bride, but rather it is one of covenantal unity. This is why to persecute or divide the church is to persecute or divide the body of Christ. (Acts 9:4; 1Corinthians 1:13)
The Lord’s Supper is not an incidental element of Covenant Renewal Worship, to be observed when the fancy strikes us. Rather, it is an essential part of the gathering of the saints and without it corporate worship is incomplete. If the body of Christ gathers on the Lord’s Day for sacrificial prayers, singing, confession, the reading and hearing of the Scriptures and then commissioned with the benediction without being fed and united to each other through the sacrament, then not only is the order of worship incomplete but an essential part of the sacrificial worship has been cut out. Therefore there ought never to be a gathering of the saints on the Lord’s Day in which they fail to declare His death through the eaten Word (1 Corinthians 11:26). Rather, we ought to follow the apostolic example by worshipping in prayer, the exposition of the written Word and partaking of the Lord’s Supper as Scripture tell us, “They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” (Acts 2:42)
This union of the “one loaf” is to include every baptized member of the body of Christ. To withdraw oneself from the communion table or to keep a fellow Christian from the table without due process of church discipline (Matthew 18:15-18; 1Corinthians 5:7-13; Titus 3:10) is to excommunicate (ex-communion-icate) a member of the body of Christ. This body includes our baptized children, our senile elderly and all others who lack the ability to cogitate and articulate a sophisticated doctrine of the Lord’s Supper. The command from our Lord is to “take and eat” not “take and theorize.” (Matthew 26:26)
Remembering Our Lord and Savior
A covenant is a relationship between at least two parties in which each member is obligated to uphold their duties of fealty and love. In the case of Biblical covenants between God and man, the covenant is “a personal-structural bond which joins the three persons of God [Father, Son and Holy Spirit] in a community of life, and in which man was created to participate.” [3]
For celebrants to “remember” the covenant through a Feast Day, such as Passover or Communion, is to in some way reenact the original creative or redemptive event that the Feast Day points to. In doing each generation is enabled to participate in the past event, much the way men dressed as soldiers can participate in the Battle at Gettysburg in a Civil War reenactment. While the reenacted battle is not real (deaths are merely simulated) one can get a sense of what it must have been like when the historical event occurred as Peter Leithart states:
“Past events are not only ‘remembered’ mentally but are ‘re-enacted’ in holidays and celebrations so tat people who were not alive at the time of the remembered events get a feeling of belonging.” [4]
The reenactment of the original event has certain points of continuity and discontinuity. If there were complete continuity the reenactment would not be a “remembering” but an actual repetition of the event. But if there were no continuity between the original event and the reenactment then there would absolutely no correlation between them. For example, the fourth commandment calls God’s people to reenact the creation week by working (recreating from God’s works) and then ceasing and resting from their labor on the seventh day:
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” (Exodus 20:8-11)
The “Day Age” and “Framework” interpretations of the creation week totally remove every point of continuity between the original event and the reenactment of the event. Only the “literal” six-day view of the creation week maintains some point of continuity between the original creative event and the memorized or reenactment of the event. The pattern of working six days and ceasing on the day of rest mirrors the original creation week.
Just as God’s people were to reenact His work of creation, so too they were to reenact or “remember” their covenant with Him and His work of redemption by observing the signs and memorials of the covenant. The sign of the covenant may be expressed in various ways and with persons in diverse stations in life. Throughout redemptive history the two primary covenant signs have been cleansing rites (circumcision, washings/baptism) and feast days (Passover, the Lord’s Supper). The feast day was initiated on the eve of the redemptive event in which the Lord commissioned a sacrificial meal that was to be repeated by the following generations. (Exodus chapters 12-13) In participating in the Feast Day the participants were reenacting by faith the original historical redemptive event. This is what it means to “remember” or “memorialize” the covenant that Jesus established on the eve of His crucifixion:
“And when He had taken some bread and 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 19:22)
To “remember” Jesus’ crucifixion then is not a mere cognitive act but a physical reenactment of “the night in which He was betrayed” (1 Corinthians 11:23). This is just as it was when Old Covenant Israel reenacted the night of Passover in which the Angel of Death passed over God’s people because of the sacrifice and sign of the blood of the lamb.
The Lord Remembers His Covenant
In reenacting the covenant through the memorial signs and feast days all parties involved remember their covenant vows and obligations. Not only are God’s people to do this but the Lord too is reminded of His covenant promises. For example, the first covenant memorial was designed to remind the Lord of His promise to Noah and his descendents:
“When the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” (Genesis 9:16)
Though the world would soon be again filled with violent sinners, each time the Lord sees the covenant sign in the sky He is reminded of His promise and for the sake of His elect He withholds a worldwide judgment until the end of time. In the same way, the sign of lamb’s blood that was placed on the doorway on the day of deliverance was annually memorialized so that He would see the blood, “pass over” her sins and withhold judgment. Likewise, when Jesus instituted the New Covenant Feast as a memorial, the meal is not only to remind us to remember Him but it also reminds the Father to “pass over” our sin because of the shed blood of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. (John 1:29) [5]
The Test Of The Meal
Throughout Biblical history we see a close relationship between food and God’s covenant with man. (Genesis 2:16-17) We also see that food plays a key role in proving one’s faith and faithfulness to the covenant.
The first food test was in the Creation Covenant in which Adam was free to eat from every tree in the Garden of Eden (including from the Tree of Life) but was forbidden to eat form the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. (Genesis 2:16-17) If Adam believed the Word of God and acted in faith he would have obeyed, eaten from the Tree of Life and lived forever. Adam and his wife Eve failed the test in believing the word of the serpent rather than the Word of God and the consequence was His death and a curse on creation with the result that he would from then on only eat by the sweat of his brow. (Genesis 3:17-19)
In a similar fashion, the second Adam Jesus Christ was tested with food by the serpent in the desert to turn a stone into bread. Jesus in response to the word of the serpent replied, “It is written, `Man shall not live on bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4) Where the first Adam failed the second succeeded in resisting the temptations of the serpent and passed the food test.
The Church is likewise given a food test - to remember the day of her redemption by obeying the Word of God and maintaining the unity of the “one loaf” that the bread signifies. In doing so Christians are called to, “Taste and see that the LORD is good” (Psalm 34:8). Some members of the Church of Corinth failed this test and consequently they suffered and died as a judgment because they were repeating the sins of their forefathers in the desert. (1 Corinthians 10:1-12; 11:18-13)
The Cup Of Blessing
The wine of the New Covenant meal is a “cup of blessing” 1 Corinthians 10:16) for His people and a “cup of cursing” for His enemies as the Psalmist declares, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; My cup overflows.” (Psalm 23:5).
While water is necessary for life, wine is the beverage for celebrating and a promised blessing from the Lord:
“The LORD of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain; A banquet of aged wine, choice pieces with marrow, and refined, aged wine.” (Isaiah 25:6)
Jesus Himself came eating, drinking (Matthew 11:29; Luke 7:34) and blessed a wedding party with fine wine. (John 2) While Christians ought not to carelessly partake of the Lord’s Table or have dual allegiances with other gods and partake of their table as an act of worship (1 Corinthians 10:20), the Lord’s Supper is not something that ought to be squeamishly avoided or fenced off from Christians who have not been judicially excommunicated. Far too many churches treat Communion as an overly solemn event for naval gazing as the preacher exhorts the saints to become bent inward to determine whether or not they are “worthy” enough to partake. Consequently, rather than the Lord’s Supper being a celebratory time of remembering and declaring the saving work of Christ, though the congregation has already passed the time of confessing their sin and received the promise of the forgiveness of sin in the order of worship, the minister who again points the congregation to their sin beats rather than feeds the sheep, calling them to focus on their sin rather than the cup of blessing from the Lord. This manner of observing the Cup Of Blessing contradicts the nature of the sacrament and its place in the order of worship.
The Eschatological Cup
The Lord’s Supper not only points us to a redemptive historical event in the past as a memorial of His death but it also points us to the present reality but also to the future as Peter Leithart states:
“Jesus used the image of the feast more than any other to describe the reality of the kingdom. He promised the disciples they would sit on the thrones and have table fellowship in the kingdom (Luke 22:28-30), told the centurion that many would come form the east and west to recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom (Matthew 8:5-13), and told the parable of a king inviting reluctant guests t a banquet (Matthew 22:1-14).” [6]
When Jesus reinterpreted the bread and wine from the Passover to refer to the New Covenant He spoke of the bread and wine in relation to the feasting that will take place at the culmination of His kingdom, “But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father's kingdom.” (Matthew 26:29)
When we partake of the bread and the wine we not only proclaim the past event of His death but also the fact that He will come again as the Church, “proclaims His death until He comes” (1 Corinthians 11:26) Therefore the bread and the wine are a foretaste of a future celebration. |
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| End Notes |
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[1] Tom Wright, The Meal Jesus Gave Us: Understanding Holy Communion (Westminster John Knox Press, 1999), pgs. 35-37
[2] See my article “The Covenantal Presence of Christ at Communion”: http://www.erikwait.com/index.cgi?location=2&action=display_one&story_id=325 See also Keith Mathison, Given For You: Calvin’s Doctrine Of The Lord’s Supper (P&R Publishing, 2002)
[3] James B. Jordan, The Law of the Covenant (Institute for Biblical Economics, 1984), pg. 4.
[4] Peter Leithart, Blessed Are the Hungry: Meditations on the Lord's Supper (Canon Press, 2000), pg. 29
[5] Peter Leithart, Blessed Are the Hungry: Meditations on the Lord’s Supper (Canon Press, 2000), pgs. 31-32.
[6] Peter Leithart, Blessed Are the Hungry: Meditations on the Lord’s Supper (Canon Press, 2000), pgs. 167 |
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