How to Look at the Lord’s Supper

[This is a ten-minute meditation for a Lord’s Supper service at my church, Grace Evangelical Free Church of La Mirada. We’re an EFCA congregation that observes the Lord’s Supper monthly in our morning service and also regularly in an evening service.]

I sometimes give little guided talks in art museums on “How to Look at Art.” It’s just seven or eight tips that help people with art appreciation: “Here’s a painting in front of me; what am I supposed to do to get into it more?” As we gather for the Lord’s Supper, I thought it would be helpful if I did something like that here. So here are a few observations, all taken directly from Scripture, on “How to Look at the Lord’s Supper.” The Bible points us in several directions that we are supposed to look, or devote our attention.

1. Look Back (to the Cross of Christ)

When Jesus shared the Last Supper with his disciples in that upper room, he put in place a regular ritual of remembering. Listen to Luke 22:17: “He took a cup, and when he had given thanks he said, “Take this, and divide it among yourselves.” and verse 19ff, “He took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” So the supper is a memorial meal, and whenever disciples eat it they do it in remembrance of Jesus Christ.

But it’s not a general way of sharing a meal and remembering the good old days, or remembering everything about the whole life of Jesus. They’re not recalling, for example, all the different times they shared a meal with Jesus. No, “in remembrance of me” means “in remembrance of my death on the cross.” Jesus was specifically pointing out that he died for them: He tore the bread apart and then called it his body given, or surrendered, or given up for them. The cup was not just a filled-up cup but a poured-out cup which he called “the new covenant in my blood.” When he put this meal in place, Jesus was very clearly focused on teaching us that he died for us; that in his blood we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (Eph 1). He repeated himself; he recognized his last meal with them as a dramatic teachable moment; he used visual aids; he told them, and us, to keep rehearsing it regularly.

That’s why, when Paul wrote to the church in Corinth about 25 years later, they were still reenacting this meal, and he taught them, “as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” (I Cor 11:26) Christians never get over the cross. Jesus never meant for us to, and so at the Lord’s Supper, we look back, to the cross of Christ.

2. Look Ahead (to the Return of Christ)

You may have noticed that when Paul said this meal “proclaims the Lord’s death,” he added, “until he comes.” (I Cor 11:26) That means “from now on,” marking it as a permanent feature of church life until the church receives Christ in his second coming, personally, physically, gloriously, finally. Jesus said he shared that last supper with his followers and affirmed “I tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” And again, “For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes,” or as he says it slightly differently in Matthew 26:29, “until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.” So this meal is a prophetic memorial, or a memorial prophecy, in which we look ahead to the return of Christ. It is the crucified one who is coming back, alive and glorified, in the same body that was broken for us.

Notice how the symbols of broken bread and a poured-out cup work as good reminders of the death of Jesus, but also, by talking about them as a feast that we share together with him, they functions as good reminders and down-payments on the feast of our eternal reunion with him. We will dine together, master and disciples, in the kingdom of the Father.

3. Look Around (at the Church of Christ)

One of the wonderful aspects of the way we keep the Lord’s Supper here at Grace is the way we have several stations across the front, and then we all line up and file down to receive the bread and cup. It’s not the most efficient possible arrangement, but it might be the most community-making. We bump into each other, smile but don’t laugh out loud and greet each other but don’t make small talk. And we see each other. We look right at each other, without gawking or staring, but seeing the church gathered here. That’s also on purpose, we are supposed to see the Lord’s church in the Lord’s supper.

The Corinthians got this wrong and needed to be corrected. Apparently they had a big meal event that led to cliques and factions within the church: “When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat.  For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk.” The rich ate rich food and the poor ate not much, and it sounds like there may have been shoving.

Writing to them, Paul argued that the bread and the cup were supposed to show them who they really are supposed to be: “I speak as to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. 16 The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.” (1 Cor 10) Did you catch that? One loaf, one body, one church. There were lots of grains of wheat that went into the loaf, but they belong in the one, unified bread.

4. Look Within (at Your Life in Christ)

Again, because the Corinthian church needed serious and detailed intervention, we benefit from having Paul’s instruction to take the meal seriously, to take it soberly, and to come to it with an awareness of who we are and how we are. Paul says “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.” This does direct our attention toward ourselves, even toward our own hearts. “Let a person examine himself,” Paul says. Let me point out two thinks about this self-examination. First, Paul says not to take the bread and cup in an unworthy manner,” or “unworthily.” I hope it’s very obvious that this does not mean that sinners are excluded. I think if we do an audit, we are about to share the Lord’s Supper with a 100% rate of sinners as participants. So “examine yourself” and “don’t take it unworthily” can’t mean scrutinize your heart and work yourself up to worthiness real quick before I call people up here to partake. No, the invitation to examine yourself here must mean to acknowledge the price Jesus paid, approach this as a moment of fellowship between a sinner and a savior, and draw strength from what he provides us all in this community of disciples. Second, Paul says “Let a person examine himself and so eat and drink.” It is not a warning about when you might want to hang back and excuse yourself from this remembrance, this anticipation, this togetherness; it’s a call to come and get it, worthily.

5. Look Up (to the ascended Christ)

We look back along the timeline to the death of Jesus, and we look forward along the timeline to the return of Jesus, but that doesn’t mean that we are currently stuck at a point in the timeline that is some kind of Jesus-free zone. No, he is here. To be precise, he is risen, and ascended, and enthroned at the right hand of the Father. So we look to him by looking up. Hebrews 12:2 says we are “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” Colossians 3 tells us to “seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.”

You might crane your neck toward the ceiling and ask, “where is the right hand of God?” Good question. The answer is, wherever it wants to be. This is a big picture kind of point, but picture the story of the book of Acts: Jesus ascends into heaven, and then continues to be a character in the rest of the book of Acts. How? From above. He manifests himself from heaven in a vision to Steven; he knocks Paul down as a bright light in the sky over the Damascus Road; he directs his church along its path, from above. And likewise, he is with us now as we take the Lord’s Supper, and we have real personal communion with the living Lord Jesus Christ, who is present here with us from above, at right hand of the Father and through the ministry of the Holy Spirit who is as close as our breath.

6. Look Down (at the Bread and Cup)

Finally, we look down at what we call the elements. Christ ordained these created goods as the materials of the memorial meal, the tokens of his presence. They’re real and physical and right here, and we display them and reflect on them. So look at them. But of course there are some traditions and some churches who, while they agree with everything else I’ve just said, have also decided to really really look at these elements very directly indeed, and have made big decisions about what they are and what they turn into and whether they are still bread and cup or whether these elements are transubstantiated into something else instead. It is possible, in other words, to look at them too hard and too long and with too much focus and independent interest. That is not our theology of the Lord’s Supper, because we do not believe it is the Bible’s theology of the Lord’s Supper. We attend to what the elements of this ordinance are, but we don’t stare and stare.

In fact, as the Protestant Reformers (especially Calvin) pointed out wonderfully and commonsensically, one of the most important things about the Lord’s Supper is that it’s not a spectator sport. It’s not for looking at! We don’t come to this table and watch the minister hold up the bread and say, “See that?” The point is not to look at it, but to eat it. To look at it without eating and drinking would be very strange behavior. It would be exactly like hearing about Jesus and admiring him, but not trusting him, communing with him, knowing him, being rescued by him, becoming his disciple, committing yourself to his care, and drawing your spiritual life and health entirely from him. Christians don’t settle for being in the Jesus fan club or simply admiring him; we receive him. We don’t just think about Christ, we draw life from him. And that regular, Christ-ordained, biblical, communal, memorial, prophetic, life-transforming, fellowship with Jesus Christ himself is what his supper is.

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Will the servers please come forward?

There will be five stations at the front of the room with the bread and the cup. We have a gluten free option over here to your left. When you are ready, you can come forward to any of these stations and as you take the bread, the server will say, “Christ’s body was given for you” and as you dip it in the cup, the server will say, “Christ’s blood was shed for you.” If you have younger children who are not yet ready to receive the Lord’s Supper, they are welcome to come forward with you, and if you’d like to ask the servers to pray for them they would be glad to do so.

This is an observance for all those who have put their faith in Christ alone and are not living in known and unrepentant sin. For any who have trusted Christ but are clinging to known sin, this is a great opportunity to urge them to turn from that sin and to come forward with a repentant heart.

23 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, 24 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.” 25 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.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

[extemporary prayer]

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[This is a killer outline, and I thought of it all by myself, which is to say that it seems very obvious to me. So I am not surprised to find that other people have thought of it too. Erik Raymond did it at TGC; Greg Laurie has a short version of it; Mark Redfern has “four direction;” and I even found a bookmark for kids (but w/out Bible verses). And without doing the “looky here” setup, D.A. Carson’s longish piece on 1 Cor 11 covers most of the same material and does it right.]