The sacrament of the Lord’s Supper is,
(1.) _An act of remembrance_. When our Lord gave the bread and wine to
his disciples, he said, “Do this in remembrance of me:” and when they are
given to us, we receive them in remembrance of Christ. We know in common
life what a value we put upon any token of affection, on a book, ring, or
picture, which has been given as a memorial by some dear departed friend.
It becomes sacred in proportion to our love for those who gave it, and
when that love is strong we care far more for it than for other things of
incomparably greater value. This act is a memorial or remembrance of
Christ; an outward sign to show how much we love him. He is in heaven at
the right hand of God, so that none can see him; but, while the world
rejects him, we remember him; and when we receive that bread and wine, we
set to our seal that he is our soul’s beloved, that we live on his grace,
and can never forget his mercy.
But we do not merely show our remembrance of his person and character;
the communion is especially a remembrance of his death. It was appointed
on the very night before his crucifixion, and the broken bread represents
his body crucified, while the wine is a figure of his blood so freely
shed for our sins. “As often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup,
ye do show the Lord’s _death_ until he come.”—Verse 26. Now, there never
was an act so full of love as that; the world’s whole history contains
nothing like it; the Son of God endured the curse of rebel man. Nor did
anything ever done so closely affect our deepest interests; our whole
hope of eternal life depends on what he then endured for us. Had he not
suffered in our stead, we had all surely perished; but now, because he
has borne that curse which we deserve, believing in him we are no less
surely safe. Never, therefore, must that death of Christ be forgotten or
disregarded by the Christian; it is our hope, our life, and only source
of peace; and that man must have known little of a Saviour’s grace who
does not desire to “bind it as a sign upon his hand,” and to let it be
“as frontlets between his eyes.” Now, when we take the bread and wine we
express before the world our thankful remembrance of his grace; we
declare before men the deep fidelity of our grateful love. We may show
our gratitude either by words or actions. This is an action to denote
the deep affection of those who live by faith, a visible utterance of
their unseen and unceasing gratitude.
(2.) It is _a means of spiritual food and sustenance_. The soul
requires to be fed as well as the body, and without food the one will die
quite as quickly as the other, for neither soul nor body has life in
itself. And as the body lives by outward food, so the believing soul
feeds on Christ. He is the living bread which came down from heaven, the
heavenly manna provided for his people throughout the wilderness. “I am
the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this
bread he shall live for ever.” Now, the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper
is a divinely appointed means whereby believers feed on Christ. We do
not mean that there is anything particular in the bread or in the wine,
anything remarkable or mysterious in the elements received which conveys
a blessing, for they are nothing more than plain simple bread and wine,
which nourish the body and that only. But when with the lips we receive
those elements in faith, the Holy Ghost within the heart is graciously
pleased to pour life into the soul. According to the language of the
28th Article, “The body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten, in the
supper, only after an heavenly and spiritual manner. And the mean
whereby the body of Christ is received and eaten in the Supper, is
faith.”
That there is no actual change in the bread and wine is perfectly plain
from the single fact, that they are always called “bread” and “wine” in
Scripture _after_ their consecration in the sacrament. In this and the
preceding chapter there are no less than four passages in which the food
which communicants receive, is called by the simple name of “bread.”
x. 17. “We are all partakers of that _bread_.”
xi. 26. “As often as ye eat this _bread_.”
27. “Whosoever shall eat this _bread_.”
28. “So let him eat of that _bread_.”
And so also with the wine. Our Lord said of it, _after_ the
consecration, (Matt. xxvi. 29,) “I will not drink any more of this _fruit
of the vine_ until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s
kingdom.” The bread, therefore, is still bread, and the wine still
wine—unchanged in all respects; the same in substance, and the same in
property, as before their consecration to the Lord’s service in the
sacrament. They are set apart for a holy use, and therefore should be
treated reverently, like the house of God itself. But they are no more
changed in nature than were the stones and woodwork of the building, when
it was solemnly consecrated to be a church for the Lord.
What, then, is the meaning of our Lord’s words, “This is my body,” and
“This is my blood?” That they did not mean that the bread and wine were
changed into body and blood is evident, for such an interpretation would
contradict the plain language of the Bible: and that they do mean, that
the bread and wine were signs, emblems, or figures of his body and blood,
is equally plain from the language of our Lord; for in ver. 25, we read,
“This cup is the New Testament in my blood.” Now these words must be
figurative, for none suppose that the cup was changed into the New
Testament; and their only possible meaning is, that the wine in the cup
was a figure or emblem of the blood of the covenant. So, also, must it
be with the bread. The words are quite as plain and positive in one case
as in the other. “This is my body,”—“This is the New Testament;” and as
they were spoken by the same person, on the same occasion, to the same
company, and with the same object, it is clear that they mean the same
thing, namely, that the bread is a figure of the body, as the wine is a
figure of the blood.
If a person were showing a gallery of pictures, he might say, “This is
St. Paul,” “This is St. Peter,” and “This is St. John;” and he would mean
thereby, that those pictures on the canvass were representations of the
persons whose names they bore. So, again, when our Lord said, “I am the
vine,” and “I am the door,” he did not mean that he was a real vine, or a
real door, but that the vine and door were figures and emblems of his
offices. So also in the Lord’s Supper, when he said, “This is my body,”
and “This is my blood,” he did not mean that the bread and wine were
changed into real flesh or real blood, but that they were signs and
emblems of his blessed work, of his body broken, and his blood so freely
shed for man.
It is not, therefore, from any mystical property in the bread and wine
themselves that we expect a blessing, but from the act of receiving them
in obedience and faith. In the way of his judgments, we then wait on
Christ, and trust to him to nourish our souls with grace. We do not
expect to feed in any literal, carnal, or material manner, but we do
expect, that while with the body we receive the bread in faith, our souls
will receive Christ; and when with the lips we drink the wine, the heart
will be made by the Holy Ghost partaker of his blood. Thus, to hungering
and thirsting souls, the communion becomes inestimably precious. When we
feel our weakness, we rejoice to come before him that we may be
strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; when we know,
that without Christ we must perish, we count it our highest joy to wait
on his love as he has told us, that the fainting soul may feed on him by
faith. And he does strengthen and refresh the souls of his people; he
meets and communes with them from the mercy-seat; he grants to each the
needful grace, and oftentimes sends them back rejoicing to their homes,
and saying, “It has been good for me that I have been there.”
(3.) There is a third point of view in which the Lord’s Supper is
presented in the passage, viz., _as a foretaste of the marriage supper of
the Lamb_. “For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do
shew the Lord’s death _till he come_.” The line of sacraments forms, as
it were, the long chain connecting the first and second advents, and each
celebration has a reference both to the present, past, and future; to the
present, for we cast the sins and burdens of the day before the footstool
of a present Advocate; to the past, for the heart is full with the
thankful recollection of his death; and to the future, for our present
delightful communion is a faint, but true image of the blessedness of
that glorious hour, when the whole company of God’s elect shall be
gathered in to the marriage supper of the Lamb. The sacraments are very
peaceful, but they are not to last for ever; they are to be observed for
a given time, till the Lord come. Then,
“Faith will be sweetly lost in sight,
And hope in full supreme delight
And everlasting love.”
We now bow down to hold communion with Christ, but then we shall behold
him as he is, in all his love and all his majesty; we now meet with God’s
people in the affectionate sympathy of a common faith, but then we shall
reign with the vast multitude of God’s chosen saints in the triumphant
fellowship of a common glory. And to those who long for the reality,
there is delightful encouragement in partaking of the figure. They then
lay hold on the chain that reaches heaven; they take to themselves God’s
emblems, and receive them in faith as pledges and tokens of the final
fulfilment of his promises.
There is, therefore, every inducement to partake of this delightful
sacrament; and whether we regard its high authority, viz., the Lord’s
express command, or its sacred nature, as a service of remembrance, a
means of spiritual nourishment, and a foretaste of the marriage supper of
the Lamb, we may well wonder how any true believer can forego the
enjoyment of such a privilege. But yet we must not suppose that the
simple act of coming to the Lord’s Supper can secure these blessings,
for, as we read in ver. 17, we may “come together, not for the better,
but for the worse.” Nay, more, it is expressly declared, in ver. 29, “He
that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to
himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.” These are solemn and most
important words; enough to startle inquirers, and to make all mere
professors tremble; nor can any man who fears God presume to read them
lightly. They suggest two most important subjects of inquiry,—What do
they mean? and, To whom do they apply?
III. WHAT DO THEY MEAN? OR, THE DANGER OF EATING AND DRINKING
UNWORTHILY.
In endeavouring to ascertain what the passage really means, our best
course will be to refer at once to the context; for, however valuable be
human explanations, there is no expositor of the Bible so good as the
Bible itself. The word rendered “damnation” in the text, is translated
“judgment” in the margin of our Bibles, and for the following reason.
There are two sorts of judgments mentioned in the Scripture,—the
chastisement of God’s children, and the final punishment of the wicked.
Of these, the chastisement is laid on those whom God loves; “Whom the
Lord loveth he chasteneth” (Heb. xii. 6); but the final punishment is on
the unbelieving. Chastisement is limited and proportioned to his
people’s strength, whereas the final punishment is an unmixed cup of
horror. Chastisement is for the improvement and sanctification of those
who are to reign with Christ; the final punishment is for the vindication
of God’s righteous law. And chastisement takes place here in the form of
sickness, suffering, and sorrow; whereas, the final punishment is in
eternal fire. Now, it must be allowed that the word “damnation” conveys
the idea of this most awful and final punishment, and many minds have
been thereby unduly alarmed upon the subject. But the context seems to
teach us that the leading idea in the apostle’s mind was chastisement for
he proceeds to say—“For this cause many are weak and sickly among you,
and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves we should not be judged.
But when we are judged we are chastened of the Lord that we should not be
condemned with the world.” It is plain that he here speaks of
chastisement. He says expressly, “we are chastened;” he describes it as
temporal affliction in this present life; and he teaches that it is sent
for the express purpose of saving us from final ruin, “that we should not
be condemned with the world.” {13}
This, then, we are bound to regard as the accurate and literal meaning of
the text; and, although there cannot be the slightest doubt that a man
may, by the repeated abuse of holy things, and by approaching the Lord’s
table in a worldly and carnal spirit, so sear and harden his conscience,
that he may be truly said to eat and drink his own damnation in the most
awful sense of the words, we venture to believe that such is not the
meaning of this present passage, but that it describes the chastening of
God’s children in this present life, not as the commencement of final
ruin, but as a correction sent in mercy to prevent their falling into the
irrecoverable condemnation of the wicked.
But whatever be the character of the judgments, the awakened conscience
must tremble at the thought of “eating and drinking unworthily.” To be
“guilty of the body and blood of the Lord,” is a sin so grievous, that if
there were no judgment of any kind connected with it, the broken heart
must shudder at the possibility of its heinous guilt. If there be any
love of Christ in our souls, we shall not require the fear of judgment to
awaken grief and horror at the most distant thoughts of such a sin.
Converted men think more of sins than punishments.
We must inquire, therefore,