The Lords Table- All You Ever Wanted to Know
I thought it appropriate to share some thoughts on the Lord's Table. Some may wonder "Why not simply quote a catechism or confession of faith?" While I love many of the church's historical documents, many are (particularly those that arise out of the European Protestant Reformation) comparative in their nature based on the struggle of that era. Much of the reformation documents lean heavily on a style of teaching that calls for corrective behaviors. Although there is nothing wrong with this, I believe foundational, instructional teaching is needed today.
I've spent time in prayer and study to develop the following. Footnotes are included at the bottom.
What are the names of the Lord’s Table?
Answer: The Lord’s Table in biblical language is called “the breaking of bread”(1), “The Lord’s Table”(2), “The Lord’s Supper”(3), “Communion”(4), and “Eucharist”(5). While there are a great many names that could be used, these are the names used within scripture to reference Jesus’ last meal with the disciples and his instructions therein. For the sake of consistency in this document, I use the wording “Lord’s Table” but all are appropriate and effective in diverse times and manners for the equipping, instructing, rebuking, and teaching of God’s people.
Who began the Lord’s Table?
Answer: Christ Jesus on the night he was betrayed(6), shared a meal with his disciples(7). During this meal, he revealed to them his inauguration(8) of the new covenant(9) which was foretold in the ministry and words of Jeremiah(10). This covenant, sealed and paid for via the blood of Jesus on the cross, guaranteed the inheritance of blessing which is eternal life(11) for all who place their faith in Christ Jesus.
What elements are needed for the Lord’s Table?
Answer: Jesus first celebrated this meal with two elements to be ingested and at least one element to be spoken. We are told that “While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.”(12) Here we see that Jesus took bread, and from that one bread broke it giving it to his disciples. In this fashion, we see that in the first celebration of the Lord’s supper a single loaf was common and distributed by the Lord Jesus to his disciples. The fruit of the grapevine is shared from a common cup as Christ Jesus took a single cup for his disciples to drink from(13). While much attention has been given throughout church history to the two physical elements to be ingested, we ought not forget that a contrite heart is a sacrifice to God(14). Bread and fruit of the vine together do not in themselves whenever taken constitute the Lord’s Table. Rather it is only when all these elements are brought together as God’s people gather is the Lord’s Table celebrated in spirit and in truth. These three; bread, fruit of the vine, and giving of thanks are to be done in remembrance(15) of him by Christ’s assembled followers.
Who is welcomed at the Lord’s Table?
Answer: Christ first invited his disciples to his table to eat and drink together(16). These were those of Jesus’ own invitation who had followed him(17), hungered with him(18), prayed with him(19), and now accompanied him towards his atoning death(20). Those who publicly professed faith in Christ declaring Jesus to be the Son of the living God(21). After Jesus’ crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, the disciples continued to teach(22) what Jesus had laid forth in the breaking of bread(23). Those who come to faith in Christ Jesus are invited to the Lord’s Table(24). Those who do not profess faith in Jesus ought to be encouraged to place their faith in Christ Jesus and abstain from eating or drinking the Lord’s Table until they do place their faith in Christ Jesus.
Who presides over the Lord’s Table?
Answer: We learn much in that the one who presides over this table is the Lord himself(25). The table is not owned by any one particular group of people(26), but rather is presided over by God the Father’s only begotten Son Jesus Christ(27). Any group or individual that claims authority, authorship, or exclusive exercise of the Lord’s Table should be summarily rebuked, instructed, and encouraged to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
What location is best for the Lord’s Table to be celebrated?
Answer: We learn much that Christ did not have this meal in the temple courts, but instead in an upper room(28). Christ did not institute this meal in the city gates thereby proclaiming this as a civic, national, or patriotic meal. Christ sought a place to eat this meal within the customs of the Passover(29). Because of Christ’s example, Christians throughout the ages have celebrated the Lord’s Supper through the breaking of bread(30) in many diverse places. There is no altar or special geography which is required for the celebration of the Lord’s supper.
What (if any) connections are there between the Lord’s Table and previous celebrations either during the times of Jesus or during the times of the Old Testament?
Answer: Within the Lord’s Supper there are a great many connections which are right and proper for believers to make and receive encouragement from. The Lord Jesus invited his disciples to partake in the bread and wine during the feast of unleavened bread(31). This timing ought to cause us to remember back to the Lord God’s deliverance of his Old Testament people the Ancient Israelites from the House of Bondage(32) in Egypt(33). The reality of Christ’s divinity ought to remind us of other meals in which God himself was present for a feast. One such feast that should be recalled to our minds was during the divine meal shared between Moses and a few leaders of Ancient Israel and the Lord God Almighty(34). The Covenant that Jesus mentioned during the first occasion of the Lord’s Supper ought to cause us to pause and consider the life and ministry of Jeremiah and the promise of God for a new Covenant(35).
When ought the Lord’s Table be celebrated?
Answer: The Lord gave instructions to his disciples(36) amidst a meal celebrating the established custom of Passover on the night he was betrayed. We are not told in the New Testament gospels or epistles to recreate the calendar of the Jews, and often the Apostles wrote with great inspiration from the Holy Spirit to avoid folly in making much of days, seasons, and festivals(37). Therefore, we can divorce the idea immediately that we must in some way overlap the Lord’s Table with any Jewish observances of time. Throughout the New Testament, the breaking of bread to celebrate the Lord’s life, death, and resurrection occurred at various times. The Word of God is marvelously devoid of any cultural norms in this regard but rather encourages charity, discernment, wisdom, and reverence rather than ritual observance. The Lord’s Table in this way is a blessing from God to partake in as the local body of believers is able. At the Lord’s Table, there is truly an opportunity for groups of believers to practice love, charity, sacrifice, deferment, humility, mercy, joy, patience, and peace. In much of European and North American church history, the Lord’s Table has been celebrated weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annually within the setting of Sunday worship. Since the Lord Jesus did not establish teaching on the timing of the frequency or calendar to partake of the Lord’s supper, each body of believers is left to wisdom and discernment to best guide their own gathering and remembrance of the Lord’s body and blood.
What benefit is the Lord’s Table for the believer?
Answer: In the partaking of the Lord’s Supper rightly believers are nourished spiritually(38), encouraged to love and perform good works(39), built up to carry their cross daily(40), humbled before God(41), and made into worshippers of the Lord(42).
Scriptural Footnotes
1) Acts 2:42, 20:7 - In both instances, believers are said to be meeting together and breaking bread.
2) 1 Corinthians 10:21 the Apostle Paul instructs the Corinthian church regarding “The Lord’s Table” τραπέζης κυρίου. Here the emphasis is on the table.
3) 1 Corinthians 11:20 the Apostle Paul instructs the Corinthian church regarding “The Lord’s Supper” κυριακὸν δεῖπνον. Here the emphasis is on the meal.
4) 1 Corinthians 10:16-17 the Apostle Paul instructs the Corinthian church regarding “Communion” or “Participation” in the body and blood of Jesus Christ. κοινωνία is used twice here with the emphasis being on the partaking.
5) In 3 gospel accounts of the Lord’s Supper the term for “giving thanks” is used as Jesus took the bread, broke it, and then spoke. You can read Matthew 26:26-27, Mark 14:22-23, Luke 22:17-19 and 1 Corinthians 11:23-24 for Paul’s recitation of the gospel instructions of Jesus. The term εὐχαριστήσας is used to reference Christ’s action of giving thanks during his last meal with the disciples.
6) Matthew 26:17, 27 - Jesus betrayal’s account is told in Matthew as being on the first day of the Passover. The meal of the Lord’s Table was first celebrated on the same night as Jesus earnest prayers in gethsemane
7) Matthew 26:26 - The details of this meal are accounted in Matthew 26, Mark 14, and Luke 22. The gospel of John records much of Jesus teaching between John 13-18, but does not include details regarding the Lord’s Table itself.
8) Hebrews 7:22 - Hebrews uses the word “guarantor”
9) Matthew 26:28 - Jesus uses covenant language as he takes the cup to give to his disciples.
10) Jeremiah 31:31-34 - This passage is in the midst of multiple declarations "the days are coming" by the Lord as recounted by Jeremiah. While much of the typical covenant ceremony rituals are missing from Jeremiah's prophecy, it is understandable as Jeremiah was relating God's word regarding a time yet to come and a ceremony yet to happen. That time and covenant ceremony was inaugurated by Christ during the last meal with the disciples.
11) Hebrews 9:15-16 - "15, For this reason, Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant."
12) Matthew 26:26 - Jesus here takes one loaf and breaks it to give to his disciples.
13) In the gospel accounts of Matthew 26, Mark 14, and Luke 22 we see the singular used for bread and for cup. In recounting the first instance of the Lord’s Table the gospel writers do not grammatically say “Jesus took the loaves of bread” or “Jesus took a few cups” or “Jesus took 12 individual pieces of bread and 12 individual cups”. We are told how Jesus spoke of the one loaf as his body and the one cup as his blood.
14) Psalm 51:17 - The inward disposition is emphasized in and over visual physical sacrifices by David in his repentance to God.
15) Luke 22:19 & 1 Corinthians 11:24-25. - Here the utterance “do this in remembrance of me” is recounted. Paul knew Luke very well and it should not shock us that Luke’s Gospel account is what Paul teaches to the Corinthian church regarding the Lord’s Table.
16) Matthew 28:17, 26 - The passage emphasizes the setting of the Lord's last meal as being within another meal, namely the Passover celebration of unleavened bread.
17) Matthew 4:18-20 - Jesus’ calling of the first disciples is recounted here. The first disciples called in Matthew’s account were Peter, Andrew, James, and John.
18) Mark 2:23 - The disciples and Jesus were going along on the Sabbath and the disciples plucked some grain to eat.
19) Luke 11:1-13 - Jesus taught the disciples how to pray. This passage is frequently titled “The Lord’s Prayer” as it was the Lord Jesus himself who was teaching. Thus the disciples learned many forms and lessons on how communication with the Living God was possible and achievable.
20) Luke 9:51 - Jesus set his face towards Jerusalem fully knowing what awaited him in that city that year. He had gone many times into Jerusalem, but this time would be the last time prior to his resurrection.
21) Matthew 16:16 - Peter confesses that Jesus is indeed the Son of the Living God.
22) 1 Corinthians 11:23 - the Apostle Paul here teaches based on what he had received from the Lord.
23) Acts 2:42 - The breaking of bread is an expression which hearkens back to the Lord’s table and the breaking of bread by Jesus. The simplicity of the statement “to break bread” ought not to make us think less of this event, but rather recognize the simplicity in our spiritual hunger God has provided a spiritual meal for spiritual nourishment all along the course of our earthly spiritual journey.
24) 1 Corinthians 11:33-34 The Apostle Paul in rebuking and correcting the Corinthian church still addresses the fellowship as “brothers”. Paul does not address these people as unbelievers, but rather as believers who are in error. The Lord’s table is for believers.
25) 1 Corinthians 11:23 - Paul’s basis for instruction to the Corinthians is not his own apostolic authority. Paul does NOT write “Corinthians, hear my instructions regarding this good and holy church practice”. Paul writes instructions based on what he has been instructed “from the Lord”.
26) 1 Corinthians 11:18-22 Paul’s rebuke to the Corinthians points to the division within their midst. The Lord’s table cannot be divided among factions. Once the Lord’s table is seized and taken as something other than a means of grace given by Jesus, it ceases to be the Lord’s table but rather is something worthy of rebuke, ridicule, and thereby should be a cause for repentance.
27) Mark 14:22 - It was Jesus who spoke while teaching, Jesus who broke the bread. Thereby the institution and celebration of the Lord’s Supper is inherently a feast of Jesus, ruled and authored by Jesus, provided for by Jesus, with thanksgiving to Jesus, in remembrance of Jesus, taken with faith in Jesus.
28) Luke 22:12 - The upper room is detailed and addressed as a proper noun. It is then later again referenced in Acts 1:12-14.
29) Matthew 26:17-20 - Jesus gave specific instructions as to the place for he and his disciples to celebrate the Passover which was the feast of unleavened bread together. This place was inside “the city” of Jerusalem.
30) Acts 20:7, 11 We have the phrase often “breaking bread” in relationship to the believers of Christ gathering together to encourage one another, offer prayers, worship, receiving instruction from an Apostle, deacon, or elder.
31) Matthew 26:17-30 - Here the significance of the Lord’s observation of the feast of unleavened bread should be remembered and not neglected. While some have the practice of holding to exclusive overlaps between OT text’s and NT sacraments, we have the opportunity to remember many touch points which have intersections in their meaning and understanding. In other words, we should not discount multiple points of connection between the OT and NT when the authors of the NT themselves make plain a relationship between an event or teaching in the NT from an event or teaching from the OT.
32) Exodus 20 - It is from bondage, death, slavery, and foreign authority that the Lord God redeemed the OT Israelites from Egypt. In Exodus 20 in the declaration of the Lord’s summary ten commandments, God relates himself to his people as a redeemer from bondage. Christ redeems his people from the bondage of sin. The overlapping connection is bondage and the redemption secured by the work of God on behalf of his beloved people, whether that’s OT ancient Israel or NT believers of Christ.
33) Exodus 12 - The ancient Israelites were instructed by the Lord to observe Passover during its first inauguration. By careful and faithful obedience to God’s Word the Ancient Israelites were spared from the angel of death which brought ruin to everyone who was not covered by a home with blood.
34) Exodus 24:1-11 - Here we see a careful feast celebrated in the midst of the covenant ceremony. This is a passage that is too often neglected when discussing the Lord’s Table. We see the people of God covered with sacrificed blood and the altar from the OT covered with sacrificed blood. This is a definitive covenant ceremony that parallels many of the aspects of covenants between rulers and people in the ancient Near East. This shouldn’t discourage us, as often this formula was also present in formalizing covenants between Noah and the Lord (Genesis 9), Abraham and the Lord (Genesis 17), and David and the Lord (2 Samuel 7). We see that rather than animal sacrifice it is Christ’s own blood that covers God’s people. Yes in a way that is akin to the Passover, but also in a way that is akin to the sealing acceptance of the people to enter into a relationship with God. In partaking the body and blood of Jesus in faith we take on his covenant blessings secured by the new covenant and thereby have the privilege of eating with God in peace rather than under a curse.
35) Jeremiah 31:31-34 - This is most often interpreted as a promise for the New Testament people of God, it is differentiated from the previous OT Covenants.
36) Matthew 26:17-30, Mark 14:12-25, Luke 22:7-23, John 13:1-20
37) Romans 14:5-6 - Paul writes regarding days and times set apart as special, Galatians 4:10-11 Paul writes that the observation of the Galatian calendar is causing Paul to doubt his own effectiveness in ministering to the Galatians! Colossians 2:16-17 Paul teaches the heart of the matter of celebratory events is Christ.
38) John 6:22-59 - Jesus teaches in this passage that he is the bread of life. Jesus himself draws the comparison from the days of Moses when the crowd questions him and seeks a sign. The crowd brings up how their ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, but Jesus corrects their interpretation by pointing out it was God who provided the nourishment and food, and it is out of this reference that Jesus teaches in v35 “I am the bread of life”. Rather than back off of his analogy, Jesus doubles down as the crowd grumbles in v48 “I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh”. Just as we must eat or we physically die of starvation, so too believers are nourished spiritually through this meal of the Lord himself.
39) Hebrews 10:24-25 - This passage is most in our day used as a proof text for frequent attendance to church gatherings. However, at those gatherings for the NT church, there would have been the regular breaking of bread - celebrating the Lord’s Table. It is in these gatherings that believers would be challenged by the writer of Hebrews to consider IE take time to think through how to stir each other up towards love and good works. Thus the Lord’s Table is in itself a cause to remember Christ’s love and his good works, which ought to stir us to our very core if his Spirit is found in us! A child cannot help but get excited when they begin hearing a favorite story told to them. Their excitement comes from within where their fondness for the story has taken residence in association with the story. For believers, our motivation to love and good works come from within where the Holy Spirit has taken up residence as we celebrate the Lord’s Table.
40) Luke 22:19 Jesus’ command to partake in the meal in remembrance of him ought to cause us to remember many things, but foremost among those deeds of Jesus ought to be how he submitted to the will of his Father and set his face towards Jerusalem to accomplish redemption on the Cross. As we suffer and bear many trials and burdens, those which we bear that are a blessing from God to suffer in his name for his sake require strengthening. In our flesh, we cannot bear the great testing of our faith, but through looking to Jesus, remembering and feasting upon him we are empowered through the Holy Spirit to serve God’s purposes. This doesn’t mean that every earthly trial is resolved in a way we think is best, but rather that as we carry our crosses we faithfully represent and follow the way of Jesus in submitting to the Father even through much suffering and unhappy earthly situations.
41) Luke 22:19 Jesus’ command to remember also ought to cause us to remember the great drops of blood that Christ expelled in his prayer in the garden of Gethsemane. Yet though Jesus’ desire was for the cup to pass him by (Mark 14:35-36) he still humbled himself before God and submitted to the will of the Father. If Christ, the one “of him, and through him, and to him, are all things” (Romans 11:36) was willing to humble himself and subject himself to the will of the Father Almighty, what example is set before us as merely created beings! If Christ humbled himself, so too we ought to before God Almighty.
42) Matthew 26:30 and Mark 14:26 both account that Jesus and the disciples sung a hymn after their celebrating the Lord’s Table. The disciples explicitly engage in worship in the midst of the Lord’s Table. The Table grows our understanding, and appreciation of Christ, which then leads us to extol Jesus all the more.
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