My Reflection on the Importance of the Lord's Supper

Since it's Maundy Thursday and traditionally it's been used to reflect on the Lord's supper. The Lord's supper's account is found in Matthew 26:26-28, Mark 14:22-24, Luke 22:19-20 and it's summarized in 1 Corinthians 11:23-25. Jesus ordained the Lord's supper which is also called having communion. Communion means worshiping as a community. It's called communion bread and communion wine because the are all partook as a community. Just as the apostles all partook the bread and the wine together as a community so are Christians ordered to follow it up.

Acts 2:41-43 

Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.

After Peter's first sermon the Lord's supper was continued. This has nothing to do with maintaining or gaining salvation through the Lord's supper. Sacraments don't save the person but they're certainly part of the saved life and necessary for sanctification. Peter and his church staff carried out the sacrament of baptism after many gladly received his word. I couldn't imagine how tired Peter must have been at the end of the first worship service with 3,000 people who now received baptism. If you just received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior then the mandate is be baptized. Then they went to continue in the breaking of bread showing the Lord's supper.

Guidelines on how to celebrate the Lord's supper

What's also important is that Paul revealed important guidelines about the Christian and their participation in the Lord's supper:

1 Corinthians 11:23-30 

For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus the same night in which He was betrayed took bread: And when he had given thanks, He brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is My body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of Me. After the same manner also He took the cup, when He had supped, saying, this cup is the new testament in My blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of Me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come. Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.

The guidelines for the Lord's supper are obvious. It had to be done at night because Jesus did it at night. It's not the Lord's breakfast, the Lord's lunch, the Lord's snacks but the Lord's supper. The second guideline is that it has both the bread and the wine together. Unleavened bread was used because it was the Passover Week. The wine here is not alcoholic wine but fresh wine which is referred to as gleukos. In the olden times fresh grape juice was already considered wine but wasn't alcoholic wine. These were all meant to be symbolic. Jesus didn't mean it literally to eat His flesh and blood. Rather, they were representing His flesh and blood. When Jesus said He's the door He wasn't referring to Himself as a literal door or eat eating Jesus' flesh and blood didn't mean literally eating it. Also it didn't put a daily, weekly, monthly or yearly observance but rather it's as often as you can but I would prefer to have a monthly Lord's supper.

Some may raise the objection that drinking from one cup throughout the whole congregation can be unsanitary. In order to celebrate with both bread and wine means you have to get a little creative. Churches today use little cups that are filled with grape juice and the bread is already broken to begin with. As the church population increases these are a few creative ways to celebrate the Lord's supper without breaking its sanctity. 

So what does it mean to participate in the Lord's supper unworthily? This doesn't merely limit to not being saved. It's something that shouldn't be given to backsliders. Any local Christian church has the duty to say that you must leave a clean life in order to participate in the Lord's supper. The Christian life is called to be sanctified from sin. The problem lies with the fact that Christians may not live like the rest of the world but they can momentarily backslide. God has every right to chastise them one way or another should they participate in the ritual when they're not in the right state of living. Fortunately, God always finds a way to restore backsliders because Christians may still sin but they can never find pleasure in sinning. Hebrews 12:5-7 says that God will chastises those He loves. It's by God's grace that Christians participate in the Lord's supper worthily. 

The Roman Catholic mass vs. the Biblical Lord's supper

The problem behind the Roman Catholic way of doing the Lord's supper is not done in the biblical way. It's funny how Roman Catholics may insist that priests save souls through the sacraments but the Lord's supper is done all wrong. So why are they serving Lord's supper in the morning, noon, afternoon and evening and not just evening? This is also to target some evangelical churches that erroneously serve the Lord's supper on the wrong time of the day. They say that the priests save souls through the sacraments but here's something that I love to bring up. If they insist that you must literally eat the flesh and drink the blood of Jesus to have eternal life so where is the non-fermented wine that supposedly became the blood of Jesus? If transubstantiation were real then Roman Catholics chew themselves even further. The reason is because they are just eating the flesh but not drinking the blood if they don't partake in the wine. On the other hand, born again Christians are the ones who actually benefit from it because they partake in both the bread and the wine. So much for misquoting John 6:52-59. 

What does John 6:52-59 really mean? I thought of something that Dr. John F. MacArthur said in his book "The Jesus You Can't Ignore" from page 158:

The symbolic meaning of eating His flesh might have been somewhat transparent to anyone who remembered that the Messiah was the sacrificial lamb who would take away the sin of the world. But when He spoke of drinking His blood, He was using language guaranteed to offend His Jewish audience. The consumption of blood of any kind was deemed grossly unclean under Old Testament law, "You shall not eat the blood of any flesh, for the life of the flesh is its blood. Whoever eats it shall be cut off." (Leviticus 17:14). Kosher food preparation to this day involves carefully removing every trace of blood from meat. In that culture, the idea of consuming blood was considered repulsive to the extreme. 

The voices of the crowd had been stubbornly insistent on talking about literal food. The clearer Jesus made it that He was speaking figuratively about spiritual life and spiritual nourishment, the angrier the contrarians became, and the more offensive His words sounded - especially to the Jewish leaders who considered themselves guardians of public piety and ceremonial purity. But finally, even some of Jesus' own disciples began to whisper among themselves, "This is a hard saying; who can understand it?"

It's obvious that it's symbolical and not literal. You can't substitute the Creator of the Universe with bread and wine. Instead, all these were symbolic and the Lord's supper were meant for sanctification after salvation. Sanctification doesn't precede salvation but it certainly is the result of salvation. 

What participating in the Lord's supper means to be as a Christian

The Lord's supper is something that I couldn't and wouldn't take lightly. It's the real picture of Christ's forgiveness for the most unworthy of sinners. The blood was shed and the body was broken for those who least deserve it. When I think I struggle with my desire not to forgive makes me think only God's grace can make me forgive those people. I didn't deserve any forgiveness so who am I to say that so and so doesn't deserve my forgiveness? All I could say is Father forgive them for they know what they do.

It also reminds me that Jesus allowed Himself to be a victim of injustice so He could offer Himself for the sins of mankind. He drank the cup that would allow Himself to pay for the penalty of sins. Only an infinite Person can absorb the infinite wrath of God. Jesus being God the Son is the only one who could absorb the wrath of God the Father. It wasn't just God's wrath on His Son but also that He took that wrath out of sacrificial love. The Lord's supper will be a continuous reminder of the terrible price that Jesus paid on the cross in order to make salvation from sin possible.

The death of Jesus on the cross is so death and sin can be defeated. Hebrews 9:14 says that the blood of Jesus purges us from all dead works. That's why I would say if I participate as a miserable backslider then I am mocking the Lord's supper. I need to repent and live a clean life. It's a constant call to live a clean life and only by God's grace can I live a clean life (Titus 2:11-14). Outside God's grace I am just another person who will continue to succumb to the desires of the flesh. 

It also encourages me to live a clean life. It's not all about just as long as you confess on Saturday you can take communion on Sunday. Instead, it's all about asking for God's grace to live a clean life. It's all about true sanctification where people must live clean lives all year round and not merely rely on ritualism as a remedy for sin.