The Supper is Symbolic

So if anyone eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily, that person is guilty of sinning against the body and the blood of the Lord. That is why you should examine yourself before eating the bread and drinking from the cup.— 1 Corinthians 11:27-28

Matthew 26 contains one of the most well-known events in human history and certainly the most famous meal ever eaten, the Last Supper.

As the disciples sat together, Jesus said, " 'Take it and eat it, for this is my body' " (verse 26). He then gave thanks and offered them the cup and said, " 'Each of you drink from it, for this is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and his people. It is poured out as a sacrifice to forgive the sins of many' " (verses 27–28).

Jesus, as He often did, was speaking symbolically. To say He was speaking literally here does not fit with the word pictures He often used. After all, Jesus said He was the Bread of Life. And didn't He say that He was the Door?

So, do we insist that Christ is an actual loaf of bread or a door? Of course not. Nor should we insist that the bread and the contents of the cup are actually Christ's body and blood. There is no evidence of a supernatural process that transforms the cup's contents into Jesus' blood and the bread into His flesh.

Therefore, as we participate in Communion, we don't want to overly mystify what it represents. We don't want to think of the bread as flesh and the cup as containing blood.

On the other hand, we don't want to devalue Communion by thinking it means nothing. Clearly, the Scriptures warn us about taking part in Communion without recognizing its significance (see 1 Corinthians 11:23–30).

The bread and the cup are not holy elements in and of themselves. But they do represent something that is very holy. So it is with great respect and reverence that we come to the Communion table, recognizing it is a symbol of what Jesus Christ accomplished for us on the cross.

I Need Christ, My Bread!

Without bread, I become thin like a skeleton; and, in time, I will die. Without thought, my mind becomes dwarfed, yes, and it deteriorates until I become an idiot, with a soul that just has life, but little more. And without Christ, my spirit must become a vague, shadowy emptiness. It cannot live unless it feeds on that heavenly manna which came down from heaven. Now the Christian can say, "The life that I live is Christ;" because Christ is the food on which he feeds, and the sustenance of his newborn spirit.

Jesus Calls His Guests to Dine

Revelation 7:9-10, “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10  and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

The Lord’s Table is to be, a gathering of the guests of Jesus Christ.  We are called to bring before our mind when we meet what has been done to give us white robes.  It is not our righteousness.  It is not our own blood and labor that has redeemed us.  We gather to the Table of the Lamb.  We cry out “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

The invitation is to the guests of Jesus.  But we are not only the guests at this wedding feast.  We are the Bride dear ones.  We come to feast with our Bridegroom.  Do you have on your wedding garment? 

He is impeccable.  Christ is unstained, unspotted.  No heart of rebellion was in Him.  His body was broken for your rebellion.  You who once were rebels, come.  The King invites you – Come and dine! Come and take in the Body of Christ.  He is here with us even now.  Let us commune with Him at His Table.

The Bread

Have you come to feast on the unleavened bread of Christ’s righteousness today?  When Elijah was afraid, he ran for his life into the wilderness.  Perhaps that is where you are today.  We find that Elijah even wanted to die there.  He had just seen the greatest victory, yet he was crushed by despair.  Do you feel weak?  Come to the Table. You see the Angel of the Lord went out to the wilderness and cooked up a meal for him and “touched him and said, ‘Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.” 8 And he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God” (1 Kings 19:5b).

The food we need today is Christ.  Feel the compassion of Christ.  Arise and eat!

The Cup

Are you thirsty for Christ’s love?  Are you tired of the world’s dryness?

The Lamb cries out: “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price” (Isa 55:1).

Perhaps you’ve stumbled in your life and you think God loves you less.  You feel unworthy to come to His Table.  Sit where you are.  Christ girds His servant’s towel and in His infinite meekness He looks into your face with love and says:  Isa 44:3, “I will pour water on him who is thirsty, I will pour floods upon the dry ground:.” Are you thirsty?

Drink the cup and remember the blood of the Lamb of God that completely satisfied the justice of God.