I Corinthians 11:24: 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.
A study of the Lord’s Supper is a soul-stirring experience because of the depth of meaning that it portrays as well as the vital spiritual significance of participation. It was during the age-old celebration of the Passover on the eve of His death that Jesus instituted a new significant ordinance of fellowship that we observe to this day. It is the highest expression of Christian worship. What is its meaning? How do we participate? Why is this act different from any other act of service or witness? To discover the Biblical answer, we turn to:
- Historical Context: Written in approximately 55 A.D., 1 Corinthians 1:1 identifies the author of the Book of 1 Corinthians as the Apostle Paul. He started the church in Corinth. A few years after leaving the church, the Apostle Paul heard some disturbing reports about the Corinthian church. It was full of pride, the church was excusing sexual immorality, spiritual gifts were being used improperly, and there was rampant misunderstanding of key Christian doctrines. The Apostle Paul wrote 1 Corinthians in an attempt to restore the Corinthian church to its foundation – Jesus Christ. The Lord’s Supper, or communion, played a dynamic role in reversing the misbehavior of the Corinthians.
- Grammatical Usage: “Remembrance” in the Greek is “anamnesis” meaning, “an affectionate calling of the Person Himself to mind or spiritual reality.” The popular misinterpretation “in memory of” is not at all associated with the Greek. The Greek harkens back to the sacrifices under the law which was not simply an external bringing to remembrance, but an awakening of mind, or spirit, in the midst of an act of worship (Lev. 24:7; Num. 10:10; Pss. 38 & 70).
- Literal Application: And after He had given thanks, He broke it and said, ‘This is my body, the (broken, given, crucified) for you. Do this to recall Myself unto you.
- Contextual
Interpretation: The Passover was the most sacred feast of the Jewish
religious year. It commemorated the final plague on Egypt when the firstborn of the
Egyptians died and the Israelites were spared because the blood of a lamb was
sprinkled on their doorposts. The lamb then was roasted and eaten with
unleavened bread. God’s command was that throughout the generations to come the
feast would be celebrated. The story is recorded in Exodus 12.
During the celebration, Jesus and the disciples sang together one or more of the Hallel Psalms (Psalms 111 – 118). Jesus, taking a loaf of bread, gave thanks to God. As He broke it and gave it to them, He said, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you’” (Luke 22:19-21). He concluded the feast by singing a hymn (Matthew 26:30) and they went out into the night to the Mount of Olives. It was there that Jesus was betrayed, as predicted, by Judas. The following day He was crucified.
- Scriptural Comparison: The accounts of the Lord’s Supper are found in the Gospels in Matthew 26:26-29, Mark 14:17-25, Luke 22:7-22, and John 13:21-30. The Apostle Paul wrote concerning the Lord’s Supper in 1 Corinthians 11:23-29. The “Lord’s Supper” (1 Cor. 11:20) is also called “the Lord’s table” (10:21), “communion” “cup of blessing” (10:16), and “breaking of bread” (Acts 2:42). In the early Church it was called also “eucharist,” or giving of thanks (compare Matt. 26:27), and generally by the Latin Church “mass,” a name derived from the formula of dismission, Ite, missa est, i.e., “Go, it is discharged, give thanks” indicating an exchange.
It was designed:
1. To recognize and commemorate the death of Christ
- To signify, seal, and apply to believers all the benefits of the new covenant (which, defined, is the work of the Holy Spirit). In this ordinance Christ ratifies His promises to His people, and they on their part solemnly consecrate themselves to Him and to His entire service.
- To be a badge of the Christian profession
- To indicate and to promote the communion of believers with Christ
- To represent the mutual communion of believers with each other
The elements used to represent Christ’s body and blood are bread and wine. The kind of bread, whether leavened or unleavened, is not specified. Unleavened bread was at that moment on the paschal [Passover] table. Wine (unfermented), and no other liquid, is to be used (Matt. 26:26-29). Believers “feed” on Christ’s body and blood, (1) not with the mouth in any manner, but (2) by the soul alone, and (3) by faith, which is the mouth or hand of the soul. This they do (4) by the power of the Holy Ghost. This “feeding” on Christ, however, takes place not in the Lord’s Supper alone, but whenever faith in Him is exercised but specifically designated corporately during the ordinance.
Paul includes a statement not found in the Gospels: “Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep.” (1 Corinthians 11:27-30). We may ask what it means to partake of the bread and the cup “in an unworthy manner.” It means to disregard the true meaning of the bread and cup, forgetting the tremendous price our Savior paid for our salvation. This explains why one would come to the Lord’s Supper with unconfessed sin. In keeping with Paul’s instruction, each should examine himself before eating of the bread and drinking of the cup. The result of participation in the Communion without a proper spiritual recognition of its great significance and consequent spiritual preparation, in terms of objective introspection, repentance, request for forgiveness and a new yielding to the Holy Spirit is great. The Greek conditional tense indicates that consequences are not automatic, but highly probable. It also indicates that known, unconfessed sin harbored during the act of Communion, invites the wrath of God immediately or in time. This is very different from the wrath of God intended for the unsaved as they have an “appointed time” (1 Thes. 5:9) to experience God’s wrath. The difference is one of chastening vs. punishment (v. 32). God does not punish the devil’s children (Jn 8:44) before the time, but He does chastise His own (Heb. 12:5-8).
V. 30 is clear as
to the forms of chastening: weak, sick and death. Why should ill health, debilitation and even
physical death be the punishment for the misuse of the Lord ’s table? Because the Christian is the temple of the
Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19, 20; 3:16).
Thus, the sinning Christian forces the Holy Spirit into a compromising
position. He cannot leave (contrary to
the Armenian position) since by Him we are sealed until the resurrection (Eph.
1:13, 14; 4:30). Thus if we defile the
temple (our bodies) God will destroy the temple (1 Cor. 3: 16, 17). It is the sin unto physical death visited
upon the backslidden and persistently
rebellious Christian (Cf. Acts 5:1-11; 1 Cor. 5:1-5; 1 Jn 5:16). The unrepentant saint who sits at the Lord’s
table is particularly sinful because of the spiritual significance and mystical
exchange taking place in the participatory act itself. A backslidden Christian can usher, pass the
offering plate, sing a solo or even preach a sermon without incurring God’s
judgment, but the Communion service is the very heart of Christianity where the
Spirit is in the midst amidst the Biblical warnings of unworthy
participation. In truth, while the
Communion table is a dangerous place for the careless Christian, it is indeed
the safest place for the Christian who observes the ordinance according to
Paul’s admonition.
Another statement Paul made that is not included in the gospel accounts is “For
whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death
until He comes” (1 Corinthians 11:26).
This places a time limit on the ceremony—until our Lord’s return. From these
brief accounts we learn how Jesus used two of the frailest of elements as
symbols of His body and blood and initiated them to be a monument to His death.
It was not a monument of carved marble or molded brass, but of bread and wine.
He declared that the bread spoke of His body which would be broken. There was
not a broken bone, but His body was so badly broken that it was hardly
recognizable (Psalm 22:12-17; Isaiah 53:4-7). The wine spoke of His
blood, indicating the terrible death He would soon experience. He, the perfect
Son of God, became the fulfillment of the countless Old Testament prophecies
concerning a Redeemer (Genesis 3:15; Psalm 22; Isaiah 53). When He
said, “Do this in remembrance of me,” He indicated this was an ordinance that
must be continued in the future. It indicated also that the Passover, which
required the death of a lamb and looked forward to the coming of the Lamb of
God who would take away the sin of the world, was fulfilled in the Lord’s Supper.
The New Covenant took its place when Christ, the Passover Lamb (1 Corinthians 5:7), was sacrificed (Hebrews 8:8-13). The sacrificial system was
no longer needed (Hebrews 9:25-28). The
Lord’s Supper / Christian Communion addresses what Christ did for us and a celebration
of what we receive as a result of His sacrifice.
- Conclusion: Many of the problems and questions the Corinthian church was dealing with are still present in the church today. Churches still struggle with divisions, with immorality, and with spiritual gifts. The book of 1 Corinthians very well could have been written to the present-day church. Despite all the rebukes and corrections, 1 Corinthians brings our focus back to where it should be. Genuine Christian love is the answer to many problems (1 Corinthians chapter 13). A proper understanding of the resurrection of Christ, and thereby a proper understand of our own resurrection – is the cure for what divides and defeats us (1 Corinthians chapter 15). The supernatural check in all of this is the abiding Holy Spirit manifested corporately within the Communion.