Was struck by a thought during a church service recently. We read the familiar passage from 1 Corinthians 11 that talks about the Lord’s Supper:
“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.” In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” (1 Corinthians 11:23–26)
I was struck by the importance of the Lord’s Supper. Maybe that doesn’t seem like a profound thought to you, but it really hit me. I don’t know how much information Paul received directly from the Lord, but the account of the Last Supper was apparently part of it. And Paul understood that our responsibility was to repeat that act as part of our proclamation of faith.
In churches of Christ, we’ve often referred to the Lord’s Supper as the center of our worship time. We haven’t always practiced that, but we’ve preached it. Rightly so.
For many years, I have bemoaned the casual way in which we partake of the Supper. It’s design is as a fellowship meal modeled after the Jewish Passover. Of course, the church left the meal part of the Eucharistic Supper many centuries ago. Today, we are so careful to differentiate our “meal” from the Catholic Mass that almost universally we hear prayers blessing this bread, which “represents his body” and the cup “which represents his blood” when Jesus said, “This is my body….This is my blood”. If we stuck to the words of Scripture the awesomeness of the Supper itself might be impressed on our minds more fully.
Thanks for a good post!