A number of people today get confused
about what many churches call communion. They wonder why there is so much
difference in how different institutional churches do it. Some use bread, others use
wafers; some use wine, others use grape juice; some do it daily, others
do it weekly, yearly, etc. So with the Word and some research, I'd like to give my two cents.
What was the Lord's Supper in the early church could better be described
as the Lord's Snack in today's church. A friend of mine told me of a
lady he knows whose institutional church observes communion every Sunday
morning and she recently shared with him that her four year old
granddaughter was sitting with her in church and asked, "When are we
having snack?"
The Lord's supper, also known as communion, has changed
dramatically from that of the early church. In the early church the
Lord's Supper was a festive meal shared together. Instead of a solemn
mood, this meal was one of celebration and joy. It was essentially a
Christian banquet. On top of that, there was no clergyman to officiate
it. Can you believe that?
A study of the first century Church shows that one of the practices
they followed was that of having “Love Feasts.” These gatherings of the
believers served several purposes, chief among which was fellowship.
What a joy it is to eat good food with good friends, especially when you
are not in a hurry. These joyous mealtimes were also an occasion for
the believers to eat, drink, and thereby remember what Jesus
accomplished for them by his death and resurrection. Furthermore, the
Love Feasts served as a kind of welfare program for those Christians who
were poor. Those who could bring more food did so, and that helped
those who had none.
And that is the context of 1 Corinthians 11:17-34, a section that has
often been misunderstood. Remember that the first epistle to the
Corinthians is filled with reproof about their many spiritual
malpractices, and the last half of Chapter 11 focuses on their
distortion of “the Lord’s Supper.” Verses 20-22 specifically address
their selfishness, gluttony, and drunkenness at these gatherings. Verses
23-26 reiterate what Jesus said at his last supper with the disciples,
and it is well worth noting in verse 25 that the Greek text reads, “…do
this, whenever you drink, in remembrance of me.”
The “unworthy manner” in verse 27 refers back to the malpractices of
verses 20-22, and in verse 29, the “Body of the Lord” refers to the
Church, the believers. Almost unbelievably, verse 30 shows that the
gluttony and withholding from some of the weak and poor had become so
rampant that some of the believers actually died, apparently of
malnutrition. Paul exhorts the Corinthians to exercise internal
discipline in these matters, and closes the chapter by saying that if
people cannot behave properly at the Love Feasts, they should stay home.
In giving his instructions at the Lord’s Supper, did Jesus really
envision a daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly ceremony with wafers and
grape juice? I don’t think so. I'm sure that he was encouraging his
followers to remember him whenever they ate or drank. In that culture,
bread and wine were two primary staples, and thus he chose them as the
food and drink. For the record, it is certainly not a sin to participate
in a communion ceremony. In fact, it can be very meaningful, but
let’s think about how practical it is to remember the Lord (and what he
did, is doing, and will do for us) every time we eat or drink.
As one scholar so eloquently put it, "It is not in doubt that the Lord's
Supper began as a family meal or a meal of friends in a private house.
The Lord's supper moved from being a real meal to a symbolic meal...the
Lord's Supper moved from bare simplicity to elaborate splendor. The
celebration of the Lord's Supper moved from being a lay function to a
priestly function. In the New Testament itself, there was no indication
that it was the special privilege or duty of anyone to lead the
worshiping fellowship in the Lord's Supper" (Barclay, Lord's Supper,
99-102).
The early church celebrated communion as a meal with an attitude of joy
and celebration. In doing so, they proclaimed Jesus' great sacrifice,
His victory over death and His future return. Talk about a "This do in
remembrance of Me" moment. Wow!
I'd also like to state that I think it is quite possible that many of
us have been enjoying the Lord's Supper to some degree without even
knowing it, as we naturally have been drawn to share meals with those
with whom we feel our relationships are sacred and spiritual. This
occurs naturally when people are born again. As Paul wrote, "Now as to
the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to write to you,
for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another" (1 Thes. 4:9).
And John wrote, "We know that we have passed out of death into life,
because we love the brethren" (1 John 3:14).
Love is part of the salvation package. Yet how many sincere pastors
have discovered that many of the people in their church buildings have
no genuine interest in meeting with other Christians in small spiritual
groups, much less actually gathering in a home to share a meal together?
Such people will attend a Sunday-morning show and even shake a few
hands during the "fellowship minute." But they really don't love each
other. As soon as they've put in their time, the goats are running for
the parking lot.
Meanwhile, for the sheep, church often really begins after the
benediction. They stand around for a long time talking, or head out for
lunch where the real food is spiritual and the fellowship is filling.
And of course, they don't do it because they feel obligated, but because
they really want to. The early Christians did not gather for common
meals because they read something in the book of Acts about Christians
sharing common meals and wanted to "get back to the biblical pattern."
They did it because they wanted to do it! This principal is true for so
much of what is truly the work of God.
Food for thought, huh?
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