Thoughts on the Lord's Table (Part 1 of 5)

Remember Me

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself (1 Corinthians 11:23-29).

When we come around the Communion Table, we are to do one simple thing: remember Christ. But the Lord did not tell us to remember His birth, or His many miracles, or even His teaching. We are to remember His Body and His Blood. We marvel and rejoice at the simplicity, or the singular focus, of our faith. We should not allow other things to cloud our thinking at the Lord’s Table. This is not a time for casual thoughts or worldly considerations. Anything distracting us from remembering the Lord must be zealously put away from our minds. The Lord Himself instituted this Table and told us what to do when we gather together to remember Him. We are to focus on His death and the meaning of His sacrifice for our sins. The Table of the Lord is a way of cutting through every nonessential and coming to the very heart of our salvation. Everything else fades away into insignificance at the Table of the Lord.

We are not told to remember our sins at the Table of the Lord. Of course, there is a time for the confession of sins. We are told to examine ourselves before we eat and drink at His Table. We do not take this casually. But the main point here is not to recount our shortcomings and feel guilty and unworthy. I have known people who do not partake of the Table of the Lord because some memory has stirred and they felt unworthy. Of course we are all unworthy, at least in our natural state. But He has made us worthy and He invites us to come to His Table to remember Him. The Table of the Lord is the place to claim our forgiveness and justification through faith in His blood. The knowledge that our sins are forgiven will lead to a cleansed conscience before God. The Table of the Lord is meant to bolster our confidence before God, not to send us back into bondage to shame. When we examine ourselves at the Lord’s Table, it is not to find faults in ourselves, which is always relatively easy to do, but to find faith in our hearts. Partaking of the Lord’s Table without faith is not only a pointless ritual, but it may result in our judgment! The Lord is sensitive about how we partake of His Table.

Memory can be our enemy. We all have things we would like to forget, but we can't seem to shake the recollection. On the other hand, we have things we ought to remember that we forget. This is surely part of the fallen nature within us that we must learn to rule over in Christ. The Communion Table teaches us to rule over memory: to forget what is behind us while not forgetting the Lord and all of His benefits. If you have an undisciplined and wandering mind, the Table of the Lord can help you begin to exercise focus and control over your thoughts – taking every thought captive and making it obedient to Christ. Think about the meaning of this meal. Don't let this become a thoughtless and meaningless ritual. That is religion, not faith in Christ. Don't let the grace of a blessed and holy moment at the Lord’s Table pass you by.

Memory can also be a friend and ally in the fight of faith. If you are downcast and discouraged, you can remember all of the wonderful works of God. If the memory of sins creeps back in you can remember that He bore your sins in His body on the Tree. If you are afraid, and it seems that the darkness of this present, evil World is impenetrable, you can remember that our Lord rose again and defeated Death, the last and greatest enemy. And He has also defeated all of the spiritual forces of darkness, those principalities and powers far above us in the heavenly realms, triumphing over them in His Cross. If the wickedness of Man seems formidable and intimidating, you can remember that our Lord ascended into Heaven at the right hand of the Father to reign in the midst of His enemies, until they are all made His footstool. And if you are afraid of the future and you have lost hope, you can remember that He is coming again. We remember Him at His Table till He comes.

Do you see the power of this Table as we remember Him? There is power at the Lord’s Table: power to do away with guilt and shame, to dismiss doubt and fear, to undergird faith, and to fuel our hope for the future. There is an opportunity here to gird up the loins of our minds and to exercise dominion over the mind of the Flesh. The power of the Lord’s Table is activated through our faith. May the Table of the Lord never become a mere formality to us! Woe to those to whom the Table of the Lord has become nothing more than a perfunctory ordinance that we must do just to fulfill our duty of weekly worship! Surely those who think of the Lord’s Table only as a duty to be crossed off a list will receive no benefit from it. The Lord’s Table is a grace to be received with joy and thanksgiving.

When you remember a person, and not just a thing or even an event, someone like a dear friend or close relative, that memory rekindles love and affection. This is really the heart of our purpose at the Lord’s Table. Just as we remember our friends and loved ones on a regular basis, because they are in our hearts, we are to remember the Lord at His Table on a regular basis. As we remember Him our hearts are filled with love for the Lord Himself. If you remember Him, you will love Him, because He loved us first and gave Himself for us. And that love that He has for His Church is as real today as the Bread and Wine on the Table. In this loving memory is the very substance of eternal life.