“The Lord’s Supper”
[1 Corinthians 11:23-26]
April 18, 2019, Second Reformed
Church
We turn to a familiar
passage this Maundy Thursday – the institution of the Lord’s Supper – words
that we hear every Sunday in this church.
Let’s consider for a few moments what the Lord’s Supper is.
First, the Lord’s Supper
is the fulfillment of the Passover meal.
We read in the Gospel of
Mark:
“And on the first day of
Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, his disciples said to
him, ‘Where will you have us go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?’ And
he sent two of his disciples and said to them, ‘Go into the city, and a man
carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him, and wherever he enters, say
to the master of the house, “The Teacher says, Where is my guest room, where I
may eat the Passover with my disciples?” And he will show you a large upper
room furnished and ready; there prepare for us.’ And the disciples set out and
went to the city and found it just as he had told them, and they prepared the
Passover” (Mark 14:12-16, ESV).
It was that Thursday night before
Easter – the day before the crucifixion – that Jesus and His disciples gather
in the upper room to celebrate the Passover with Him. It was the first day of Unleavened Bread –
the first day of the Passover – in remembrance of the Exodus from Egypt when Israel
prepared bread quickly for her escape – without leaven to make it rise – that
they gathered together – after Jesus gives the disciples instructions not
unlike the instructions that He gave them prior to the Triumphal Entry.
Then Jesus turns to the elements of
the Passover – the lamb, the cup of wine, and the matzo. Jesus does not say anything about the lamb at
this point, but the bread He calls His body and the cup He calls the new
covenant in His blood. And so, Jesus
tells them that, as they celebrate in the future, they do so seeing the
elements of remembrance of their deliverance from Egypt as the elements of
their deliverance by Jesus in the new covenant.
Whereas they understood the bread and the cup as looking back to the
time when they had to move quickly in the escape won by God from the Egyptians,
now they would receive the bread and the cup remembering that the body and
blood of Jesus join us together in the new covenant and delivers us in another
way.
Second, the Passover represents the
reality of our move from darkness into light.
Moses spoke to Israel about the Passover:
“You shall observe this rite as a statute
for you and for your sons forever. And when you come to the land that the LORD
will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this service. And when your children say to you, ‘What do
you mean by this service?’ you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the LORD's
Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when
he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.’ And the people bowed their
heads and worshiped” (Exodus 12:24-27, ESV).
Notice, God instructs Israel through
Moses that this will be an eternal rite – an eternal sacrament – for all of
Israel. And that when the children – who
did not suffer in Egypt or go through the wilderness, but were born in the
Promised Land, ask what the sacrament means – forever and ever – Israel shall
answer, “It is the sacrifice of the LORD's Passover, for he passed over the
houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but
spared our houses.”
The Lord did not just pass over the
houses of those who left Egypt, or the parents of the children born in the
Promised Land, but of everyone of Israel for whom the deliverance is given.
How are we to understand this
deliverance applied to those over three thousand years ago and as a member of the
Israel of God today?
Paul writes, “And so, from the day
we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled
with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord,
fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the
knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious
might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father,
who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He
has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom
of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians
1:9-14, ESV).
In a parallel way to God delivering
Israel from slavery in Egypt into the Promised Land – which is received by all
true Israel, so God has delivered all those who will ever believe in Jesus from
slavery to sin in the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His Beloved Son,
in Whom we are redeemed to God and forgiven for all of our sins by God.
Third, Jesus is the Passover Lamb.
In the history of the Exodus, we
read:
“Then Moses called all the elders of
Israel and said to them, ‘Go and select lambs for yourselves according to your
clans, and kill the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the
blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the
blood that is in the basin. None of you shall go out of the door of his house
until the morning. For the LORD will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and
when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the LORD will
pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to
strike you’” (Exodus 12:21-23, ESV).
Paul tells us, “Cleanse out the old leaven
that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover
lamb, has been sacrificed” (I Corinthians 5:7, ESV).
Using the Passover imagery of unleavened
bread and the Passover lamb, Paul tells us that Jesus is, Himself, the Passover
Lamb, Who was slaughtered to saved us and deliver us from our slavery to sin, and
from being condemned to eternal suffering, even as His blood covers us, as the
lamb’s blood covered the lintels and doorposts of Israel in Egypt.
The author of Hebrews also explains, “But
you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly
Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly
of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and
to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a
new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the
blood of Abel” (Hebrews 12:22-24, ESV).
So, Jesus takes the place of the Passover
Lamb in being sacrificed for us and it is through the sprinkled blood – now not
just over the door, but over us – that we are cleansed and delivered.
And we quickly consider the question,
then, if we are eating the bread and drinking the cup, are we eating and
drinking Jesus? A number of traditions
say “yes” based on Jesus saying, “This is my body.”
Here’s the problem – and the reason we
answer “no” – Jesus has a completely human body. In order for Jesus’ body to be literally
eaten for two thousand years, His body could not be that of a real human being,
His body would have to be superhuman or divinized, which would mean we do not
have a human representative before God on our behalf. And we must have a real human being
representing us before God, because only a real human being can take the place
of a real human being as Jesus did for us in keeping the Law and paying our
debt for sin.
What, then, do we understand about the
Lord’s Supper?
Paul explains to the Corinthians, “For I
received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the
night when 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.’
In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the
new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of
me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the
Lord's death until he comes.”
Paul tells us that as we
receive the Lord’s Supper, three things occur:
We remember. We remember that God sent His Son to become a
human to live a perfect life under the Law of God and then die taking on the
sins of everyone who will ever believe in Him.
We remember that something historical happened. And it is that historical event, concerning a
historical Person, through Whom we receive salvation.
We commune. We commune with Jesus spiritually as those
who have become members of the new covenant through Jesus. He lived for us and lives in us and sends
(with God the Father) God the Holy Spirit to live in us and guide us and change
us, transforming us into to Image of Jesus that we will perfectly bear when we
are glorified and received into the Kingdom.
Therefore, we hope. We hope as we receive the elements –
proclaiming the Gospel – this historical thing that God the Son did, Incarnate
in the person of Jesus, through Whom we now live and hope for the coming Kingdom
– the banishment of sin and death and the devil, and the reconciliation of the
Creation and each one who ever believes, that we will assuredly enter a Kingdom
far greater than the Garden of Eden because sin is excluded. We will walk with God in the world and have
joy inexpressible.
And so, the Lord’s Supper
is not an “add-on” to the worship service, but the fulfillment of the Passover,
a visual representation of the Gospel – our moving from slavery in the kingdom
of sin to the Kingdom of God’s Beloved Son, and the understanding of Jesus as
our Passover Lamb.
Let us remember, and
commune, and have hope with all assurance through this sacrament that Christ
has died, Christ has risen, and Christ will come again.
Let us pray:
Almighty God, help us to
receive the elements of the Lord’s Supper.
Keep us from considering it a snack or an “add-on” to worship. Help us to see the importance of its place by
the Word and in our worship. Grant us
fuller assurance of salvation as we receive the bread and the cup. For it is in Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.
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