The Lord's Supper

The table the Lord set

Baptism, the washing that marks a person as Christ's, is given once. The Lord's Supper is the meal that the church, the gathering of those who belong to Jesus, shares again and again: bread and a cup, as the Lord commanded. Many call it Communion, or the Eucharist (thanksgiving). Baptism and the Supper are the holy rites Christ gave his church, the sacraments. Jesus gave this meal at the Passover, the feast that remembered Israel's rescue from Egypt, on the night before he died (Luke 22:14-20). Paul, an apostle sent out by Jesus, passed it on:

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, 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 11:23-24

Then he took the cup: "This cup is the new covenant in My blood" (1 Corinthians 11:25). The new covenant is God's promise, sealed in Christ's blood, to forgive his people and be their God. "For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes" (1 Corinthians 11:26). The Supper looks back to the cross and forward to his return.

Is not the cup of blessing that we bless a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?

1 Corinthians 10:16

Paul goes on: "Because there is one loaf, we who are many are one body" (1 Corinthians 10:17). The first church in Jerusalem devoted itself "to the breaking of bread and to prayer" (Acts 2:42). The Didache, a church manual from around AD 100, prays that as the broken bread, once scattered over the hills, became one, "so let Thy Church be gathered together from the ends of the earth into Thy kingdom" Didache 9.4. Around 150–155 Justin Martyr wrote that only those who believe and have been baptised share this food, and that "not as common bread and common drink do we receive these" First Apology 66.

How Christ is present

All the churches hold to Jesus' words, "Take and eat; this is My body" (Matthew 26:26), but they understand differently how Christ is present at his table.

The Catholic Church teaches that when the priest blesses the bread and wine with Christ's words (the consecration), their appearance remains but their whole substance becomes the body and blood of Christ, which it calls transubstantiation Council of Trent, Decree on the Eucharist. It teaches too that the Mass, its celebration of the Supper, is not a new sacrifice but makes present the one sacrifice Christ offered once for all on the cross Catechism of the Catholic Church.

The Orthodox churches of the East pray for the Holy Spirit, who is God with the Father and the Son, to come upon the gifts, and confess that by his coming the bread and wine truly become Christ's body and blood, but they do not define the change in philosophy's terms: they receive it as a mystery. John of Damascus, in the eighth century, told those who asked how it happens that it is enough to know that it is through the Holy Spirit An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith.

The Lutheran churches, who follow Martin Luther, take the words as they stand: the bread and wine remain, and Christ's true body and blood are truly present in, with and under them. Luther's Small Catechism calls the sacrament "the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, under the bread and wine" Small Catechism, Sacrament of the Altar; so too the Augsburg Confession, Article 10.

Zwingli, the reformer of Zurich, and many Baptists and evangelicals, who stress Scripture and telling the gospel, understand the Supper above all as a remembrance and proclamation of Christ's death, often called the memorial view. It takes "do this in remembrance of Me" (1 Corinthians 11:24) to heart, and holds that Christ is present by his Spirit among his gathered people.

Feeding on Christ by faith

The Reformed churches grew from the sixteenth-century Reformation, a movement to renew the church by Scripture, in the line of teachers such as John Calvin. Presbyterians are the best known; the Reformed churches of continental Europe are another branch, and among Baptists the Reformed Baptists confess the same faith. Their confessions, written statements of what a church believes, teach that at the Supper Christ truly gives himself and believers receive him by faith. The Westminster Confession (1646) says that worthy receivers "inwardly by faith, really and indeed, yet not carnally and corporally, but spiritually, receive and feed upon Christ crucified" 29.7. Carnally and corporally mean in a bodily way. Spiritually does not mean less real: it means by the Holy Spirit.

The Heidelberg Catechism (1563), a catechism that teaches by question and answer, gives the comfort of it:

With his crucified body and shed blood he himself feeds and nourishes my soul to everlasting life, as certainly as I receive from the hand of the minister, and taste with my mouth, the bread and cup of the Lord

Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 75

To eat Christ's body, it goes on, is to embrace his sufferings and death with a believing heart and to be united more and more to him by the Holy Spirit, who dwells both in Christ and in us, "although he is in heaven, and we on the earth" Q. 76, 79. Calvin taught the same: the Spirit truly unites us with Christ in heaven, joining what space keeps apart Short Treatise on the Holy Supper Institutes 4.17. Beside them the Thirty-nine Articles of the Anglican churches say that Christ's body is given, taken and eaten "only after an heavenly and spiritual manner", and that the means of receiving it is faith Article 28; the Second London Baptist Confession (1689) confesses it in Westminster's words 30.7. The Reformed course's The Supper: Christ's spiritual presence teaches this at length; see also Baptism and the Lord’s Supper and What are baptism and the Lord's Supper?

Coming to the table

Who comes to the table differs between churches: some invite the baptised, some their members, some all who believe in Christ. Follow your own church's way. Paul writes, "Each one must examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup" (1 Corinthians 11:28), and warns against eating "without recognizing the body" (1 Corinthians 11:29). To examine yourself is not to make yourself perfect first. The Heidelberg Catechism asks who are to come to the table, and answers:

Those who are displeased with themselves for their sins, yet trust that these are forgiven them, and that their remaining infirmity is covered by the passion and death of Christ; who also desire more and more to strengthen their faith and amend their life.

Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 81

Infirmity is weakness; passion here means Christ's suffering. The Supper is not a table for the perfect but for sinners who turn from their sins and trust Christ. How often it is held differs too. Calvin wished for it every Lord's Day, the Sunday on which Christ rose Calvin and Farel, Articles on the Organisation of the Church at Geneva; churches today hold it weekly, monthly or a few times a year.

This week

Read 1 Corinthians 11:17-34 before the next Supper. In Corinth some ate first while others went hungry, and the poor were shamed. Paul says, "when you come together to eat, wait for one another" (1 Corinthians 11:33).

Ask how your church keeps the Supper. Ask your pastor when it is held, whom your church invites, and what a newcomer should know.

At the table, do four things. Whether you receive the bread and cup or are still watching, remember the Lord's death, give thanks, trust him, and love those beside you, praying for them. The next lesson is on sharing the gospel.

Practice