We can call it communion, the Lord’s supper, the Lord’s table, the Eucharist (from a Greek word meaning “thanksgiving”) or the Mass (from a Latin word meaning “dismissal”). Under whatever name, followers of Jesus have celebrated the ritual of the bread and the cup ever since the church was first founded. Exactly how this ritual should be understood has, sadly, been a longstanding source of arguments and strife. But Jesus didn’t say “understand this in remembrance of me,” he said “do this in remembrance of me” (1 Corinthians 11:24-25). And I really think that the critical point we need to understand is not about the elements of the ritual itself, but about ourselves as we participate in it. So, in this article, I’m going to try my best to tiptoe through a mine field without creating any unnecessary offense to anyone.
The ritual of communion was begun by Christ himself, just a few hours before he was betrayed:
And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “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 22:19-20; compare also Matthew 26:26-29 and Mark 14:22-25).
The new covenant that Jesus was declaring came from the Old Testament book of Jeremiah:
“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord.
“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more” (Jeremiah 31:31-34).
The old covenant began with each family sacrificing a lamb. Christ began the new covenant by sacrificing himself, as Hebrews 8:7-9:28 explains in detail.
Jesus established this ritual while he was eating the Passover with his disciples. For centuries prior to that time, the Jewish Passover had celebrated God’s rescue of Israel out of Egyptian slavery. But Christ revealed that the ceremony also looked forward to an even greater rescue that was about to occur: our deliverance from sin – both the consequences of sin, and its power to control and corrupt. And I can’t help noticing that the disciples were given this celebration of the new covenant before Jesus died, just as the Israelites in ancient times had been given the Passover meal before the angel of death struck down the Egyptian firstborn as God set the people free (Exodus 12:1-42).
There’s another point we probably shouldn’t miss. The verses immediately following the passage from Luke that I quoted above read:
“But the hand of him who is going to betray me is with mine on the table. The Son of Man will go as it has been decreed. But woe to that man who betrays him!” (Luke 22:21-22).
This can only mean that Judas was there, at the table, with the others. Even at that solemn moment, and knowing fully what was about to happen, Jesus was still reaching out, offering the hand of fellowship and peace to the man who was about to betray him.
After Jesus rose from the dead, and after the church was founded on the day of Pentecost, believers in Christ began celebrating the ritual of communion in obedience to his command. At the time of the Apostles, communion seems to have been an actual meal, and that practice actually created problems. In his first letter to the church in Corinth, the Apostle Paul wrote:
So then, when you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat, for when you are eating, some of you go ahead with your own private suppers. As a result, one person remains hungry and another gets drunk. Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God by humiliating those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? Certainly not in this matter! (1 Corinthians 11:20-22).
But he then corrected their mistakes by reminding them of what he had taught when he had been with them:
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.
So then, 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. Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. But if we were more discerning with regard to ourselves, we would not come under such judgment. Nevertheless, when we are judged in this way by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be finally condemned with the world (1 Corinthians 11:23-32).
Paul’s description of the first communion agrees with all three of the gospel accounts, but the specific wording is closest to Luke’s account (Luke 22:19-20). This is not surprising, since Paul and Luke traveled together. But Paul wrote this letter before any of the gospels had been written, so we should see in his words an indication of the way the first communion was remembered by those who had been there, and who had passed that memory on to him.
In his explanation, Paul says that when we celebrate this ritual we “proclaim the Lord’s death,” that is, we proclaim that the sacrifice has been made, and the new covenant is in effect. Just as circumcision was the sign of the old covenant, communion is the sign of the new one. It is the sign that our sins have been forgiven. But we do have to be careful on this point: my sins are not forgiven because I take communion; rather, I take communion because my sins have been forgiven. If they have not been forgiven, that is, if I do not trust Christ for my salvation, I have no right to participate in any celebration of the new covenant.
Covenants are made between two parties, so when I proclaim Christ’s death as the sacrifice to enact the new covenant, I also proclaim that I, myself, am under this covenant. The fullness of the new covenant, both the blessing and the responsibility, applies to me. Therefore, Paul continues, if I eat and drink the Lord’s supper in an “unworthy manner,” I’m sinning. Given the context here, unworthy means that I’m eating it selfishly, without recognizing that the brothers and sisters with whom I take communion are also part of Christ’s body. When the Corinthians were treating the communion like an ordinary meal, eating individually instead of together as a group, and when they selfishly refused to share with believers who were poor, they were bringing God’s judgment of discipline upon themselves.
Today, communion is frequently celebrated with just a bite of bread and a tiny bit of wine – or grape juice in many Protestant traditions. (This substitution is usually done out a desire to be supportive of people struggling with alcoholism. The Scripture literally says “cup,” not “wine,” although wine was undoubtedly what they actually drank in Jesus’ time.) For this reason, we’re not usually in danger of exactly copying the mistakes of the Corinthian church. But I can still make the mistake of treating communion as something I do, rather than something we celebrate together, as one body.
Paul warned the church that “those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves.” Now, there is a doctrine that some Christians believe, called transubstantiation, which says that the bread and wine are literally transformed into the flesh and blood of Christ. But that’s not what this particular verse is talking about. Remember the context; in this entire passage Paul is talking about believers taking communion in a way that was selfish, and that dishonored their poorer brothers and sisters.
Given that context, what this passage is saying is not that the the Corinthians were failing to recognize the body of Christ in the communion bread, but that they were failing to recognize the body of Christ in themselves and each other. That is why Paul tells them to examine themselves, and why they were were coming under God’s judgment. Nevertheless they were not condemned. Rather, God was judging them in order to discipline them, so that they would not have to be condemned.
This is also why it makes sense that many among the Corinthian believers had become weak and sick. Since they would not share with their brothers and sisters, they were put into a condition where they needed those same brothers and sisters to bring the communion elements to them. A number of them had even fallen asleep, which in this context certainly does not mean a glorious homecoming to Jesus, but rather a removal from the body they were despising and dishonoring. That should be a sobering thought for any believer.
Taking communion is an affirmation of the new covenant, but it is not merely a private act. The new covenant was not established between God and me, but between God and us. To affirm the covenant, to proclaim Christ’s death, is also to proclaim that we, ourselves, are his body. I can not honor Christ’s body in the communion at the same time I am showing contempt for his body in my brothers and sisters. To offend against the Lord’s body in one way is to offend against it altogether.
But notice that, while Paul writes to correct the attitude with which believes celebrate communion, he says nothing about the details of how the ritual should actually be done. How often it is celebrated, how the elements are distributed, what words are said, for these and other details there are multiple Christian traditions but no real Biblical basis for preferring one to another, as long as what is done is done in love and in unity, as one people of God:
There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all (Ephesians 4:4-6).
And if we don’t all agree on the deeper theological questions, including how literally to take Jesus’ statement that “this is my body,” that’s okay. Christ didn’t command us to all understand it the same way; he commanded us to do it. May we, in humility, obey.