Verses 23 to 26 of 1 Corinthians chapter 11 are some of the most famous
and most well-read words in scripture. Often as congregations of
Jesus-followers gather around the communion table, these words are read. These
are the words of Jesus given to his disciples at the “Last Supper” – the last
“Passover” feast that Jesus celebrated with his disciples before his
crucifixion. These monumental words are recorded by Paul first here – many
years before they were recorded in the Gospel narratives. So when Paul says
that he received these words “from the Lord”, he is emphasising their
importance and the need to pass them on through the generations. Whether Paul
received these words from Jesus on the Damascus Road, or through the oral
tradition of the early church, they were deemed to be God-instituted, and thus central
to the ongoing worship and life of the church. We could say that these words
are the church’s ‘heartbeat’. For these words focus us, not just on Jesus’
sacrifice on the cross, but also on how this act of grace and gift of salvation
is central to our lives.
Jesus took the simple and everyday
loaf of unleavened bread and gave it a whole new meaning. This bread, as it was
broken, would represent the broken body of Jesus as it was tortured and torn
asunder on the cross. This bread, as it was then distributed around, would lead
us to understand that Jesus’ body had been sacrificed for those present at such
an occasion (then, from then on, and of course now) … “This is my body
that is for you” (v.24). We are to partake of this symbol of broken
bread in remembrance of what Jesus has done for us. This sort of remembrance
though is not just an act of the memory, but also a matter of commitment – that
we will symbolise in our own very lives the act that we are remembering. Such a
“remembrance” takes us back into that original upper room as a participant,
then forward into all the environments that need to experience (and embrace)
such a dynamic as this. We are thereby endorsing that this sort of sacrifice is
the length that God will go to in seeking to bring about reconciliation with
his beloved humanity.
Jesus also took another simple and
everyday symbol – one of the cups of wine that would be distributed around the
“Passover” table – and gave this rich new meaning as well. In the life, death
and upcoming resurrection of Jesus, God was offering a new start … through a
“new covenant”. God had ‘covenants’ or ‘agreements’ with his people in Israel
before, where God would offer relationship, guidance and blessing, expecting trust
and faithfulness in return. However such ‘covenants’ were regularly broken by people
who chose to go their own way (leading to all sorts of wanderings, disasters
and exile). While God always invited his people back into relationship, there always
seemed to be a sense of inevitability about human failure. The prophet Jeremiah
longed for and anticipated a more enduring type of ‘covenant’ (31:31-34), where
we wouldn’t see God’s law as a kind of tick list of things to obey, but rather
as a spiritual ethic that we would hold deep and tight in our heart and be worn
(quite obviously) on our sleeve.
This “new covenant” ultimately arrived
in the form of Jesus. As we accept God’s great gift to us in Jesus, we become
part of this “new covenant”, where we live in a sense of freedom brought about
by God’s willingness to forgive us our sins. We talked last Sunday about
“declaring the praises” of God in the public arena. Here (perhaps along with
baptism) is the most central way we do this … “For as often as you eat this
bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death
until he comes”. This is our representation on earth of the way the Kingdom of
God operates i.e. the sacrificial outpouring of the heart of a compassionate
God. So even the very act of participation in ‘communion’ is not just
deeply personal, but absolutely missional – as this “remembrance” publicly
proclaims the glory of God.
Now of course these four verses are
often quoted outside of the context given to them by Paul. Paul didn’t just
recall and record these words in isolation, but in the context of a certain real
live situation. And of course this context gives us a greater idea of their
intended impact. Let’s read verses 17 to 22. Here we have Paul’s reaction to a
real life occurrence in the church at Corinth. The church there, as a usual
part of its life, gathers around a meal. This was sort of a ‘pot-luck’ dinner,
where people brought food to share according to their means. Yet, in this
particular case in Corinth, those who have arrived early or on time have
started eating and drinking, failing to wait for those who can only
come later. They possibly also ate all the best of the food, maybe even the
whole lot. You might say, ‘bad luck for the latecomers … they should have been
on time’, until you understand the background.
The ones who were early or on time would
have been the rich and well-off, the ones who would not have had to
receive permission to get off work to get there on time. The latecomers would
have been the hired workers or slaves who obviously did not have the level of
power or freedom as the others. These ones would have also been the much poorer
group, who would probably have relied on this church feast as their best or
maybe only decent feed for the week. The well-off would have been encouraged to
be generous in their provision for the poor, yet in the way it was working out,
they were eating and drinking most everything anyway. And they would have
incorporated the “Lord’s Supper” (‘communion’) into such a feast as this!!! Do
you see the hypocrisy?
The Corinthian church had privatised their
celebration – they were acting as (selfish) individuals rather than as a
(sacrificial) collective. They should have been actively challenging the
socio-economic divisions of the world around them … not reinforcing them!!
Didn’t this gathering around food have a higher purpose than just satisfying appetite!?
Wasn’t the bringing of food and wine a means to an greater end!? If not, says
Paul, then you should have stayed home and eaten there (v.22a)! But there was a
bigger picture – the formation of a caring egalitarian community based on the
life of Jesus. The ‘pot-luck dinner’ combined with the “Lord’s Supper” should
have been a (very natural) means to this end! In the way the Corinthians were
behaving though, they were bringing humiliation to the poor (v.22b), and at the
same time showing contempt for this “remembrance” and the high aspirations of
the church.
No wonder Paul would then remind them
of the nature of Christ’s sacrifice. Let’s read on through to verse 32. The
behaviour referred to earlier was regarded by Paul as “unworthy” (v.27) –
“unworthy” of those who have been given the ‘gospel’, unsuitable for those who
should know better, and for those who should have God’s Spirit dwelling in such
a way as to make this behaviour unthinkable. With this level of abuse of the
meaning of the “Lord’s Supper”, no wonder Paul raises the possible implications
of this … being “answerable for the body and blood of the Lord (v.27b)”! Oh
dear!! This doesn’t sound good! This phrase suggests that Jesus would have died
in vain. This means wasting Christ’s sacrifice. This means effectively
rejecting God’s forgiveness that cost so much. This is because, as seen by the
Corinthian church’s behaviour, nothing in reality has changed for the better
(if anything “for the worse” – v.17b)! More harm is being done than good. God’s
character is being publicly besmirched.
So it’s time for members of the church
in Corinth to have a good hard look at themselves – refer verse 28. The
“examine yourselves” is often taken purely in a personal moral way, but we can
see in context that such an examination goes way further than that, and
certainly takes in a broad collective ethical consideration. FF Bruce says
that, “The context implies that [this] self-examination will be specially
directed to ascertaining whether or not [a person] is living and acting in love
and charity with his [or her] neighbours”. It is just so important for the
internal workings of a church to measure up to the sacrificial charter on which
we are based. Double-mindedness or a resistance to the full leading of God, leads
to an outcome (or “judgment” – the word Paul uses) that can be really dire. To
place human determined limits on our level of response to God can actually harm
our health.
So ‘examination’ is needed; so also is
“discerning the body” (v.29) – which would indicate “discerning the body of
Christ” i.e. “discerning (my contribution to) the health of the church’s
functioning. This again highlights the interconnectedness of those who form
Jesus’ body in the church. We ‘broken pieces of humanity’ are being reformed
into a new collective whole with Jesus at the head. We are thus needing to be
attentive to other members of this body (who we are now connected to) and to those
things that will aid them in their particular functioning (or, on the other
hand, might impede them). We might call all this a ‘complete spiritual
audit’. How can we work in harmony with, encourage, and aid the health
of … other parts of our body?
Now just before everyone decides not
to participate in communion and runs for the door, we should note that Paul
never meant that to happen. Verse 28 says, ”Examine yourselves, and … then
eat”. This teaching from Paul was not meant to exclude people from
participating in the “Lord’s Supper”, but rather motivate us toward a full
understanding and application of its very significant meaning. The light and
truth of the gospel message can only be declared with integrity and
effectiveness when God’s people get their act into gear! And this demonstration
of God’s glory depends equally on horizontal relationships as it does on the
vertical relationship. We are possibly not going to be able to resolve
all the things going on in our mind before the bread and the cup arrive, but
what we can resolve is – that we will look at certain areas carefully (with
God) in the days to come … and we take the bread and the cup in that mindset.
“So then [Paul says in verse 33], my
brothers and sisters, when you come together to eat, wait for one another”. Do
not rush ahead individualistically as ‘the world’ might, but wait until everyone
is present (acknowledging your connectedness in Jesus). This “waiting” can be
extended, I think, beyond dining arrangements to broader activities of church
life. And this, I think, is proven by Paul then going on to talk about the
sharing of spiritual gifts for the common good (12:1ff,7). But for now, how is
it that we need to “wait for one another”??? I think ‘patience’ with others
would fit here. I also think that this would include ‘care’ for the hurting.
And then as well there would be ‘concern’ and ‘support’ for the faltering. One commentator (Marion L Soards) explains
this collective “waiting” as follows: “to put both others and the whole church
before … individual desires”.
Having said all we have said, this is
a perfect opportunity, around the “Lord’s table”, to dedicate ones’ life afresh
to God, accepting all of what Jesus has done for us. This is a gift that needs
to be received, unwrapped, embraced, and taken on as our inheritance. In the
days ahead we can properly attune our lives to the teaching of Jesus and the
will of God for us (in the guiding company of God’s Spirit). With this as our mindset
and heartbeat, we have been welcomed to this table of God’s hospitality. This
is God’s love feast … there is forgiveness for all!
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