Meditations for the Lord's Supper |
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Sacraments are symbols - 5 July 2010
Sacraments are sometimes described as “symbols.” That’s a biblical way of thinking, provided of course that we understand biblically what a “symbol” is. We need to avoid the mistake of thinking that sacramental symbols are dispensable things, unconnected with what they symbolise. For God has chosen to “use sacraments as a means to communicate what they symbolize” (Leonard J. Vander Zee, Christ, Baptism and the Lords Supper, p. 33). That’s why Jesus can say of the bread, “This is my body” – not because there’s magic in the Hovis Sliced Wholemeal, but because as we eat of the bread he feeds us on his flesh by faith.
Perhaps we might say that a sacrament is a symbol in something like the way that a wedding ring is a symbol. The ring is related to the reality of the marital devotion it symbolises. You couldn’t thrown away your wedding ring without upsetting your spouse, because the ring and the love are intimately connected. Of course it’s possible, in theory, to give or receive a wedding ring without loving your spouse, but that’s not how we define its significance. The ring symbolises love because your spouse uses the ring to communicate love. Through the gift of a ring your spouse says, “I love you.”
Sacraments are means of grace - 21 June 2010
Sacraments are sometimes described as “means of grace.” That’s a biblical way of thinking, provided of course that we understand biblically what “grace” is. We need to avoid the mistake of thinking of grace in Roman Catholic terms, as some sort of “stuff” that is “dispensed” to us, a “kind of substance that could be poured into the soul.” In biblical terms, “grace is the saving action of the triune God centered in the life, death and resurrection of Christ, which brings us into new relationship which God apart from any merit of our own” (Leonard J. Vander Zee, Christ, Baptism and the Lords Supper, p. 33). If grace is understood in these terms, sacraments are indeed means of grace.
Of course, we derive no benefit from God’s grace without faith, and so as Calvin says the sacraments “avail and profit nothing unless received by faith” (Institutes, IV.xiv.17). Yet faith is itself a gift of God, which is strengthened through (among other things) the sacraments themselves. As Calvin puts it, “sacraments … sustain, nourish, confirm, and increase our faith” (Institutes, IV.xiv.7). Even the faith that God requires is itself his gift to us.
The great reversal - 8 September 2009
The Lord’s Supper is all about reversals:
Jesus was sent out of the city; we draw near to God.
Jesus was lifted up on a tree; we sit down around a table.
Jesus was thirsty; we eat and drink.
Jesus was cursed; we are blessed.
Just a handful - 21 July 2009
Matthew 18:20
Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.
Consider the infinite grace and kindness of Christ, that he joins his people at such humble meetings. Not only where thousands celebrate, but where two or three are gathered – there the Lord is found.
Broken and poured - 4 June 2009
1 Corinthians 10:17
Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.
Jesus’ body was broken so that his Body, the church, could be made whole.
John 19:34
One of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water.
Jesus’ blood was poured out in death so that by faith we could drink this wine and be strengthened in life.
Security - 28 May 2009
1 Kings 4:25
And Judah and Israel lived in safety, from Dan even to Beersheba, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, all the days of Solomon.
The vine and the fig tree here speak of the security and peace enjoyed by Judah and Israel during the reign of Solomon. Such produce of the land fulfilled the expectations of e.g. Deuteronomy 8:8 (cf. also 1 Kings 4:20), besides testifying in a very practical way to the fact that they had rest from war. After all, cultivating vines is pretty labour-intensive, and the plants tend to suffer if you’re always dashing off to deal with invading armies.
Thus wine speaks of safety, security, peace.
Eating Jesus? - 24 May 2009
John 6:53-54
So Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.’
Over the centuries, many Christians have got quite confused about what it means to ‘feed’ on Jesus’ flesh and ‘drink’ his blood.
Some have wrongly imagined that, if we are to ‘feed’ on Jesus, he must be somehow physically located in the bread. This is wrong – Jesus is physically located in heaven, not on earth.
Others, perhaps reacting against the first misunderstanding, have rejected the idea that we really feed on Jesus at all. The Lord’s Supper is just a helpful memory aid, they say, nothing more. But this hardly does justice to Jesus’ words in John 6.
Here’s what actually happens. Jesus is physically located in heaven. He’s not physically ‘in’ the bread. So we’re not in any way ‘eating’ Jesus physically.
But this doesn’t mean that Jesus is absent. Jesus is present with us now, because we are present with him in heaven, by faith. When we ‘lift up our hearts’ at the start of our service, we ascent to heaven by faith, to be seated with Jesus.
By faith, therefore, we feed on Jesus life-giving body in heaven, at the same time that we feed by sight on this bread now on earth. The two acts of eating are ‘parallel’: our physical feeding-by-sight on this bread on earth is the divinely-appointed means by which we feed-by-faith on the body of Christ in heaven.
Our feeding on Christ is not visible, but it is nonetheless real. Feeding on Christ by faith means reckoning this to be true.
Stop feeling sorry for yourself - 17 May 2009
Mark 2:16-17
And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, ‘Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?’ And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.’
Once upon a time there was a great King, who lived in a magnificent palace surrounded by a beautiful garden. And the king had a gardener. The king gave the gardener everything he needed and more besides, but the gardener was lazy and wicked. He didn’t care for the King’s garden, but stole its produce and mocked the King behind his back.
The King knew about all this, of course, and one day confronted the gardener with a long list of his offences. Horrified and ashamed at his own wickedness, the gardener turned to leave, but the King called him back.
Instead of suing the gardener to regain his stolen property, the King forgave him. More than that, the King invited him to take up residence with him in the palace, and to join him at his own table.
The gardener was overwhelmed at the King’s generosity. Occasionally he looked back at his former sins, and felt guilty for what he’d done. He sometimes didn’t feel that he belonged in the King’s house at all – he certainly didn’t deserve a place at his table!
But the gardener knew that the King wouldn’t want him to think in this way. After all, the King had decided to forgive him! However intensely the gardener felt his unworthiness, he knew that the King loved him more. ‘These wonderful meals are a celebration of my King’s abundant kindness,’ he said to himself, ‘not an opportunity for me to feel sorry for myself!’
So the King and the gardener rejoiced as they ate and drank together.
One bread - 14 May 2009
Ephesians 4:4-6
There is one body and one Spirit – just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call – one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
The oneness of Christ’s body, the church, is represented here by the oneness of the bread (1 Cor 10:17). Similarly, just as Christ’s body was broken, so also this bread is broken.
Christ’s body was broken; the bread is broken; the church is united.
Forgiveness - 12 May 2009
Jeremiah 31:33-34
This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD … I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
The forgiveness of sins is surely one of the greatest blessings of the New Covenant. Jesus said, ‘This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood’ (Luke 22:20). As you drink, remember and rejoice that your sins have been forgiven through Christ.
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