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Frank Allnutt
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September 30, AD 2011 Communion What Else Is In That "Cup"? I remember what it was like when I was a child back in the mid-1940s, sitting with my family in a tent church where my uncle was the pastor of the small Disciples of Christ congregation. It was Communion Sunday. Time came for the Lord’s Supper, and trays filled with “cups” of Welch’s Grape Juice (I still think they resemble mini shot glasses) were passed from one person to another down the rows of people sitting in folding chairs, until a tray was handed to me. I reached for one of the “cups” of grape juice. But my mother cut me off by taking the tray from me and whispering, “You have to be baptized first.” I was a little miffed over being denied Communion. In retrospect, I still had the freedom to reflect, meditate, and pray over what Jesus told His disciples at that last supper. The truth is, though, I had no idea what Jesus had been talking about, and so gave it no thought. All I knew was that I had been deprived of an opportunity to drink “wine” like a grown-up. When I reached the age of eight, I was baptized. Finally, I could participate in Communion. The novelty of participating in an adult activity soon wore off. Over the years, Communion, to me, was a time to partake and pray. I ate the bread and drank the grape juice. I gave thanks. I made requests. I confessed my sins. But little did I reflect on what Jesus said at the last supper. And so, it went on like that for decades. One day, a mysterious curiosity about the Lord’s supper came over me. What did Jesus mean by the “new covenant in My blood?” And what was Paul getting at when he told the Colossians to examine themselves to be sure they were “judging the body rightly”? My curiosity led me to the Bible In Luke chapter 22, I read that when Jesus and His disciples had their last supper, He took some bread and said, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup [of wine] which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood” (Luke 22:19-20). But the passage never explained what Jesus meant by “the new covenant in My blood.” I also looked up Paul’s “judge the body rightly” statement. But, as before, it wasn’t explained. Maybe the meanings were there, but I didn’t see them. It took some time, poring through Scriptures, but eventually I began to see the picture. I discovered that the new covenant encompasses the totality of the Bible’s New Testament (“testament” here is synonymous with “covenant”). Actually it’s what the whole Bible is ultimately about. God made the New Covenant with His chosen ones (the House of Israel). And that was long before Jesus came onto the world scene. The New Covenant Here are some key passages in Scripture:
An “Everlasting Covenant”
A New Heart
Examine yourself and... The Apostle Paul gave this instruction regarding partaking of the wine and bread:
Now I want to focus on Paul’s instruction to also examine yourself and do not partake of the wine and the bread in an “unworthy manner”—that is, not to “judge the body rightly.” Certainly, we are to rightly judge or properly acknowledge the physical crucified body of Jesus. But we should also judge the spiritual body of Christ rightly—other Christians—our true “neighbors” and “brothers” who “know the Lord”:
In this way, our hearts are “knit together in love” (Colossians 2:2). There’s an important implication here: The hearts of several Christians can only be “knit together in love” if each of those individual’s hearts is “knit together [soul with spirit] in love.” Such a love-knitted heart is a clean, pure, and sincere whole heart that responds to the needs of others. A heart that is not love-knitted, soul with spirit, is functionally divided because of “judgment to himself” for the sin of apathy toward others who suffer. Thus a worthy heart is a love-united whole heart and an unworthy heart is a sin-divided heart. From Paul’s teaching, then, we conclude that, while God unconditionally loves all of His children, participation in the Lord’s supper is reserved for the Whole-Hearted Christian; the Half-Hearted should abstain. “For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself, if he does not judge the body rightly. For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep” (1 Corinthians 11:29, 30). The next time you are present at the Lord’s supper, I pray you will whole-heartedly partake in a worthy manner, from judging the body rightly, with your heart and theirs knit together in love for the strengthening and well-being of the body of Christ, to His glory. ______________ Learn more: “The Miraculous Heart Transplant” The Christian's New Heart books and DVDs ______________ To Forward this Article
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