Until He Comes: Looking to the Future At the Lord's Supper
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
Dr Jerry Sumney
My daughter just got back from a mission trip to border of Mexico. She returned with stories about broken axles of rental vans, being rear-ended in the church bus, being stopped by the border patrol, people being detained at the border, and going in a store where talk about drug gangs was overheard. All of this, and they went to build a house! But I heard nothing about the house or the family at 2 a.m. when I picked her up.
Memories are strange things.
We look back. We think of how things were: we think of good times or of what we might do differently. We think about how we have enjoyed people and times of the past. Usually, we recall the out of the ordinary. We laugh at ways we and others acted. Occasionally we think of how the past determines parts of the present (remembrances of D-Day, etc.) Less often we think of how something in the past has or might shape the future. Often we assign meanings to past events: how did someone show they love us or demonstrate a central feature of his/her character. Maybe think of what we accomplished by doing something.
We seem to know that memory shapes who we are. What we remember about the past does something to make us who we are in the present.
We come to the Lord’s Table to remember. Why? We come here to remember a difficult thing: a death. But a death that we are convinced affected us in some way. This morning we want to think about how that past event and our remembrance of it say something about the future.
Our reading from 1 Corinthians addresses a church where the Lord’s Supper was a whole meal. As they held the supper, they did it in accord with the social customs of the day. That meant that people of different social classes ate different food. At banquets of the time, wealthy people often brought an entourage that included people who owed them money or favors and some of their slaves. It was a sign of status to bring an entourage. Well, you could hardly expect the host to feed slaves the same food he provided those of his own social class, so the guests were divided according to social class. Those at the head table had really good food, those at the middle table cheaper food, and the slaves got yet cheaper food.
The Corinthian church had begun to separate themselves by social class at the Lord’s Supper. Paul says this arrangement is unacceptable at a church meal. Here all were to be one. The baptismal liturgy of Galatians 3 was also used in Corinth. That liturgy says that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, Slaves or free, male or female. All these marks of status and privilege are irrelevant in the church. They had all heard that money and social class were not to be important in the church; they were to grant no status. Yet, at the Supper it looked as though such things did matter. So instead of bringing them together, the Lord’s Supper was demonstrating and exaggerating their differences. Paul says this is unacceptable and so gives rules about how they should partake. At the most practical level, he says they must all eat and drink the same things at the same time. He bases his instructions on the words of institution and the meaning of the Lord’s Table.
In his instructions, we see that the Supper is a reminder of the past: “Do this in memory of me” and “This is my body given for you.” This Supper reminded them and reminds us that Christ died for us. It reminds us that in some way the death of Christ benefits us, makes us right with God. It points our minds back to that event that works for our good.
BUT this memory also points to the future. This past is to shape both the present and the future. Can see this in many ways—we will look at a couple this morning.
As Paul cites the tradition, Jesus says that the cup is the “New Covenant in my blood.” This interpretation understands the death of Jesus as a moment that initiates a new relationship between God and God’s people. It was fairly common in the ancient world for important agreements to be sealed with blood. Blood was a symbol of the commitment of each side to the agreement. The offering of blood shows that the parties are so committed they are willing to offer the essence of life as evidence of that commitment. The death of Jesus shows God’s commitment to being in this new relationship with us.
To speak of a New Covenant is also to speak about eschatology, that is, about the end times. This is not a comfortable topic for most of us. We are not really sure what to make of book of Revelation or of what we hear from preachers on TV. But the church loses too much if we jettison eschatology. It was a clear focus of the early church—and for good reasons.
The members of the early church saw themselves living in the “last days.” It does not matter how many last days there are; the point is that this is a time of new activity of God. This is the time God’s people have looked forward to for a long time. It is the time when God will make things right; when God’s people will live as they should; when God’s justice will reign. In these “last days” God will live in intimate relationship with God’s people. We will experience the presence of God in our midst.
The death and resurrection of Jesus is an eschatological event in this sense. It opens a new reality and begins a new covenant. As the church read Jeremiah, the era of the existence of the church is the new time he spoke of when he said that God’s law will be written on the hearts of God’s people. Now they can begin to live as God wants them to live. The resurrection vindicates the death and ministry of Jesus as revelatory of God’s will and character. The resurrection demonstrates that God has begun this “last days” activity in the ministry and death of Jesus.
The “last days” can be thousands or millions of years, it does not matter. What matters is that God now has an intimate relationship with us and lives among us. Now through Christ the Spirit dwells in God’s people. This is the sign that the church lives in and participates in the blessings of the last days.
When Jesus says the cup is the new covenant, this is what it means. The new covenant is beginning. God’s people have a new relationship with God. And it means the beginning of the defeat of evil. The death and resurrection of Jesus are the proof that God will not allow righteousness to be permanently overcome by evil. The forces of evil crucify the righteous Jesus, but God vindicates the righteous one through the resurrection. Though it looked like a crushing defeat, God makes it a victory in the end.
This way of understanding the death and resurrection of Christ is not just a Pauline thing. We also find it in the accounts of the institution of the Lord’s Supper in the Gospels. Matthew (26:26-29) and Luke (22:17-20) both have Jesus say his blood initiates a new covenant. And all three Synoptic Gospels (Mark 14:22-25) have Jesus say he would not drink the cup with them again until the new time in God’s kingdom.
These words of Jesus point the church to the future. As we partake of the Supper, these words remind us that we live in the new time and they call us to reach toward God’s future. As we gather at this table we may ask if we really live in that future? The answer is: Well… yes and no. The eschatology of the New Testament is that the last days have begun. The new covenant has been initiated. God has begun to live intimately with God’s people. Our experience of salvation has begun. We have the church as a community of God’s people that demonstrates what God wants for the world.
But as we live in the already AND we also live in the not yet. We do not have all God intends. Just look at the world: it is not loving, people do not live holy lives, God’s justice has not been established. So the full blessings of the end time are not with us, even if the new covenant has been established.
At the Lord’s Table, we do not just look to the past and think about how it changes the present. At this Table, we “proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”
This memory is a proclamation of a past event that points us to a future. We proclaim that the death and resurrection of Christ are guarantees of the victory of the will of God for us and for the world. This Table reminds us of what God has already done for us, but it also beckons us to live into God’s future. So this remembrance includes an exhortation. It is not an exhortation to bring the kingdom of God into being, we cannot do that—only God can. It is an exhortation to live out who we are as an end time people. This reminder of the gift of Christ is to cause us to live according to the values of God’s kingdom, values that the life of Christ demonstrates.
We can hear that exhortation and not become discouraged because we come to the Table to remember that God intends, indeed promises, to do yet more than what we see now. We have only the partial fulfillment, but the death and resurrection of Christ are the demonstration that God has the power and the will to make all things right. God has the power and the will to respond to the injustices of the world and in our lives. God has the power and the will to fully bring us into God’s presence and give us life in God’s love.
So this Table reminds us of God’s promises about the future. We live in the in-between, between the start of God’s dealing with all evil in the world (Christ’s death and resurrection) and the final defeat of all that diminishes life. Our lives are usually good enough that we are not anxious for the end to come. But this supper is a promise in bad times that the hurt done to us does not have the final word. Separation and death do not win; they are overcome—when he comes.
The Lord’s Supper, then, is a reminder of a past event that grants blessings in the present and the future. Our coming around the table as one people, as equals is a foreshadowing of the messianic banquet, where all have the full blessings of God. Some ancient Jews envisioned the messianic time as an era in which no one lacked the things that make life good and meaningful; where we live in God’s presence and with God’s blessings. These small morsels on our communion table point us to that time. They remind us of the feast where all have all of God’s blessings and the fullness of God’s presence. This Table is only a glimpse, but it is a reminder of God’s promise. Fullness of life is assured us as we remember the extent of God’s love and power seen in the death and resurrection of Christ.
Let us remember and look with confidence to God’s future for us.
