Looking at the Lord's Supper

30th August 2021

Looking Around

At our leaders meeting, one of our leaders reminded us that the call to discipleship is a call to community. A call into loving community with God and a call into loving community with one another.

And we see this in the Lord’s Supper.

As we saw last week, the Lord’s Supper invites us to look back to the death of Jesus that secured our salvation. And it also invites us to look around to the brothers and sisters in Christ who share the same meal with us.

We do not come to the Lord’s Supper alone. That might seem very obvious, however when we take the Lord’s Supper, it is very easy for our thoughts to be focused on ourselves. My sin. My forgiveness. My relationship with Jesus. And we can forget that the Lord’s Supper is an ordinance of the church to be celebrated when we are together.

So the Lord’s Supper causes us to look around.

It causes us to look around to our brothers and sisters in Christ who share the same meal as us, who have experienced the same grace and forgiveness, and who are fellow members of Christ’s body. When Paul speaks of the Lord’s Supper in Scripture, he speaks of it as something that we do when we gather. For example, in 1 Corinthians 11, the phrase ‘when you come together’ is repeated 5 times in this short chapter on the Lord’s Supper. Indeed, it shows that the physical act of gathering is essential to the practice of the Lord’s Supper.

And it isn’t just essential from a practical point of view, it is essential theologically too. In 1 Corinthians 10:17, Paul writes,

“Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.” (1 Corinthians 10:17)

The Lord’s Supper is a sign and declaration of our unity. That was the criticism that Paul levelled at the Corinthians. They physically gathered but the way they took the Lord’s Supper did not declare their unity. In fact, it displayed their division. They did not wait for each other; some had while others went hungry; and it was all about satisfying themselves without care for their brothers and sisters. Despite being together, their hearts were not united and so Paul warns them about taking the Lord’s Supper in such an unworthy manner (v27). To take the Lord’s Supper with division in our hearts, with a grudge against a brother or sister unresolved, or with a self-centred attitude means the Lord’s Supper is not the declaration of unity that it was intended to be.

Rather, God gave the Lord's Supper to us to remind us of our unity together. Bobby Jamieson puts it this way,

“The Lord’s Supper gathers up the many who partake of the same elements together, in the same place, and makes them one. So if baptism binds the one to the many, the Lord’s Supper makes the many one.”

When we seek unity among brothers and sisters at the Lord’s Supper, the Holy Spirit is able to unite our hearts together and make us one. When we look around as we partake of the Lord’s Supper, we are reminded of our union together with Jesus Christ. We are reminded of our shared love for God, our shared commitment to His mission, our shared forgiveness and justification, and our shared eternity with Jesus.

Perhaps when we gather to take the Lord’s Supper, you may wish to take time to look around you, to thank God not only for your salvation but for ours, to thank God for those we have been placed into community with, to let go of any sin or grudge that we have against a brother or sister, and to pray that God would grant us all one heart and one mind. It is a great joy to remember that Christ’s sacrifice on the cross has made us one with Him. He is the head of the church and we are its members. All of us dependent on Christ, our head. And all of us placed into loving union with one another.

When we take the Lord’s Supper, we are reminded of this great truth and we allow the grace of God to grant us greater unity and love for our church family.

Next - Looking Up