I want to focus on a phrase that is rarely discussed. It was said by Jesus at the institution of the Lord’s Supper but is not recorded in any of the Gospels, only in —
(1Co 11:25-26 ESV) 25 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.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
Jesus’ language could be taken as imagining the possibility that the meal might be taken other than in remembrance of him. Which certainly suits Paul’s point, but hardly would seem appropriate at the original institution of the meal.
Jesus doesn’t say “every Sunday” or “the first day of every week” but “as often as you drink it.” And that raises a possibility worthy of some reflection.
The Lord’s Supper was likely instituted as part of a Passover meal (although this is contested by some). Jesus could be saying that his disciples should take the bread and cup of the Passover in his memory every time it’s celebrated — but the Passover is an annual event. That is clearly not his intent.
Or he might be saying that every time you gather to eat as fellow disciples, the bread course and the wine course — standard features of any First Century meal — should be taken in his memory, thereby proclaiming (preaching by action) his death.
Think about it. What would be more powerful? A weekly remembrance in a symbolic meal in a worship space reserved primarily for disciples? Or a remembrance every time we eat together?
But what about weekly communion? Don’t we know that the early church took weekly communions? Yes, but they appear to have done that during their weekly love feasts — when they were eating together as fellow disciples! It’s just possible that the expectation was that, just as the Lord’s Supper was instituted as part of a remembrance meal, it would be continued as part of a remembrance meal taken every time two or three are gathered to eat as disciples! And wouldn’t that be crazy cool?
If that’s true, Jesus instituted not only the bread and the cup but also the meal, and expected the bread and cup to be part of a meal. After all, Paul wrote,
(1Co 11:20 ESV) 20 When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat.
“Supper” translates deipnon, meaning “the main meal of the day, distinguished fr. ariston, a meal taken earlier in the day,” per BDAG (the premier koine Greek lexicon), that is, supper — which is when social meals were taken in Greek culture.
Thayer’s translates “supper, especially a formal meal usually held at evening.”
So how did the Lord’s Supper come to be a pinch of cracker and a sip of juice taken at brunch-time? It’s not even a snack, much less a meal, and far removed from a supper.
So how crazy is this: there a good CENI argument to be made that the Lord’s Supper, being a supper, must be taken on Saturday night — the evening of the first day by Jewish reckoning — and we have preachers damning Richland Hills Church of Christ for conducting a church service when they take communion on — get this — Saturday night!
The Holman Bible Dictionary brings in another key piece of the puzzle —
The origin of the love feast is probably to be found in the religious fellowship meals which were a common practice among first-century Jews. While the Passover meal is the most familiar of these, such meals were also celebrated to inaugurate the sabbath and festival days. On these occasions a family or a group of friends who had banded together for purposes of special devotion (know as chaburoth from the Hebrew word for “friends”) would gather weekly before sundown for a meal in the home or another suitable place. After hors d’oeuvres were served the company would move to the table for the meal proper. The host would pronounce a blessing (a thanksgiving to God), break the bread, and distribute it among the participants. the mealtime would be characterized by festive, joyous religious discussion. With nightfall, lamps were lit and a benediction recited acknowledging God as the Creator of light. When the meal was over, hands were washed, and a final benediction pronounced over the “cup of blessing” (compare 1 Corinthians 10:16 ) praising God for His provision and praying for the fulfillment of His purposes in the coming of His kingdom. The meal was concluded by the singing of a psalm. It was not uncommon for small groups of friends to gather weekly for such meals.
So was Jesus saying that as often as you eat a weekly fellowship meal — where a special blessing is said over the bread and the cup — it should be done in his memory? It’s awfully hard to say “no,” isn’t it?
The Holman Bible Dictionary continues —
It is possible to suggest that Jesus and His disciples formed just such a fellowship group and that the fellowship meals of the early church which came to be known as the agapai or love feasts are a continuation of the table of fellowship that characterized their life together and served as a concrete manifestation of the grace of the kingdom of God which Jesus proclaimed. Jesus’ last meal with His disciples may represent one specific example of such a fellowship meal causing some to trace the origins of the love feast directly to this event.
Now, again, DO NOT TRY TO TURN THIS INTO LAW! First of all, we just don’t have enough information to say exactly what the practice was, although it certainly was not what modern churches do — weekly, quarterly, or whatever. We are a long way away from what the early church did under any rational theory.
Second, the love feast and Lord’s Supper are not laws but gifts — they are blessings to be received, not tests to be taken and passed. I mean, if God intended a precise observance, he’d have given us precise rules — and he didn’t. And that means something.
Indeed, just as is true of Jesus’ parables, there may be more than one “right” interpretation, and sometimes the point is to force us to think about things and so to understand better God and Jesus and the Kingdom and life among all those.
Personally, if I had my way (and I don’t), I’d encourage the church to take the Lord’s Supper on Sunday or Saturday night (I’m sure God isn’t worried about whether we follow the Jewish or Roman calendar) in small groups, meeting in homes, as part of a meal — at least some of the time. That would be very Acts 2.
I would be careful not to give the impression that I’d brilliantly discovered a new law that we must obey. I’ve not. Rather, I’ve become concerned that our weekly observance of the Lord’s “supper” doesn’t do what it was meant to do — probably because we don’t understand it right and don’t do it right. (Otherwise, we’re just fine.)
And someone else may come up with a better solution. I’d not disagree with a decision to do this as part of a congregation-wide covered dish meal. Maybe, you know, quarterly. (You’ll never persuade our female members to do this weekly.)
I’d be thrilled to experiment a little. Many churches have tried having members go to a table to take communion (still very individually) or to a station at the wall (even more individually). All sorts of things have been tried, usually with little real impact on community-spiritual formation — although perhaps very meaningful in other ways.
I really dislike the practice some try of holding the elements until everyone has received their portion, with all to take the elements simultaneously. The bread gets gooey and I get distracted waiting — and it does nothing real in terms of community. The fact is, community requires a setting where people can talk — such as a meal at a small group or a covered-dish meal. Until we let people talk to each other during the Lord’s Supper, the event is going to be highly individualized and do next to nothing to form true community.
The disciples talked with Jesus over their common meal — and we are blessed by their conversations even today. Why would it be so wrong?
So what do we preserve?
* Weekly communion
* Small groups with meals
* Covered dish meals
* A theology that makes the Lord’s Supper extremely important to each Christian
What should we change?
* Nearly everything else about how we do communion.
Creating new ways to appreciate the Lord’s Supper isn’t new outside of the churches of Christ and other very conservative faith heritages.. But, where following the “LAW” isn’t the main objective, many have been creative.. Many have been blessed by seeing Jesus in our everyday life, rather than just in “church.” Not sure the solemness of the CoC communion will ever be joyful “in church” but I could see small groups including communion in a more festive environment.. Some things BETTER change or many will be having to take communion at the Baptist church and Lord knows we can’t have that… That denominational cracker is un-authorized and heaven knows what’s in the “juice.” 🙂 Creating LAW for every single breath one takes is killing the CoC…
Price, Bingo.
“The fact is, community requires a setting where people can talk — such as a meal at a small group or a covered-dish meal. Until we let people talk to each other during the Lord’s Supper, the event is going to be highly individualized and do next to nothing to form true community.”
Thanks so much, Jay. The high value of this statement is that it reflects a long-needed change in perspective, not just a biblically-based change in procedure. Oh, the procedure needs to change, no doubt, and you have made a persuasive argument about that. But once we change our minds about the Lord’s Supper, exactly HOW we change our actions may take any number of forms. I think that it is important that we proceed in that order. Otherwise, we have silent people traipsing up to the table while everyone else sits silently in the pews and waits. I have already experienced this; it was not an improvement. This is what happens when you change the procedure and not the mindset.
Our church services are simply not designed for community, but for the instruction of many by one man. We should realize that in trying to turn a lecture hall format into an opportunity for community, we are driving square pegs into a round hole. Please note that every time this happens, it is the pegs which get sheared, crushed and distorted. The hole survives essentially intact, so nothing really changes. It’s time to start creating some square holes.
And amen! Charles
Jay said, “That is clearly not his intent.” as if it were easily proven. I say prove it.
Charles said, “Our church services are simply not designed for community, but for the instruction of many by one man.”
Sounds familiar to bible teachings don’t it? I don’t recall Jesus sitting on the side of a mountain saying “your turn Charles” .
I like the way we do “church” we use Sunday morning as a time of worship, not a time of discussion, we have a thing called “bible study” on Wednesday nights for just that purpose.
Sunday night is more of a celebration , less formal. and that is the way we like it.
I am sure you have seen the sign “DON’T MESS WITH TEXAS” 🙂
Laymond … it’s fine that you like it that way. No problem with that. But there is also nothing wrong with different formats. The question is what encourages worship.
There is nothing wrong is worship gatherings do not include “teaching”. And it is well established that relatively little learning occurs from lectures! Mainly because most lecturers are so poor at it.
“Our church services are simply not designed for community, but for the instruction of many by one man.”
I agree. One big mouth and hundreds of little ears. All facing the back of the head in front of them. Trying to see the guys up on the stage.
Barna and Viola were right.
Like Charles said, its square pegs and round holes….
Amen. I’ve used the illustration of a family gathered around the table, each with head bowed, only speaking to one another through gestures and nods. Can you imagine what we would say about such a family? Would we see it as healthy?
Sunday morning IS the time for talking and exchange, if we’re a family. If it’s a business meeting or a school, well, that’s an entirely different matter.
Let’s make it the Lord’s Table again, not the Lord’s funeral.
So Tim, was Paul wrong when he said the following ?
1Co 11: 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
When we lose a family member can’t we be both glad for God’s gain, and mourn for our loss .
Habit is a powerful thing. I wonder, if we had no tradition at all as to how a regular gathering of the saints should transpire, how many of us would create one that looks like the one we have now?
“A group of us will all meet together at the same time every week. The more, the better. In fact, a thousand of us in the same place will be far better than just ten of us. Now, everyone can talk together for 10-15 minutes, but then we will seat ourselves in theater rows all facing a single podium. We have to stop talking to each other for the next hour or so. A man will get up and tell us to sing four or five songs and we will sing them. Then, trays with crackers and little jiggers of juice will be passed around. Every one of us will take a fingernail sized bite of cracker and a sip of juice, and try to silently visualize a life-sized crucifix until they are finished passing the trays. The bloodier the cruicifix, the better. Next, somebody will pass the hat and collect money to help pay for the building. This will all take about 25 minutes. Then we will listen to a lecture about the Bible for another 30 minutes or so. The first man will get up again and have us sing a couple more songs and we will then be allowed to talk again, while we all head for our cars to leave. Whole thing shouldn’t take more than an hour and a half.”
If we planned a family get-together and somebody suggested a schedule like this, wonder who would vote for it?
I do appreciate Laymond’s candor and simplicity here. “I like the way we do church.” And there is nothing wrong with that statement, nor with enjoying the practice he has developed. It would be hypocritical of me to bind the way I would do a meeting on Laymond, no matter how beneficial I think the change would be.
The only thing wrong would be to keep other people in his group doing it the way he likes it, just because no one should “mess with it”. This happens in too many other places, and sadly it has often demonstrated that our affection for one another is not always as powerful as our affection for “how we like to do church”.
I wrote,
Laymond responds,
Well, consider —
(Gal 4:9-11 ESV) 9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? 10 You observe days and months and seasons and years! 11 I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.
Commentators are unanimous that v 10 is a reference to Jewish holy days and festivals, such as Passover. If Jesus expected Passover to continue annually after his death within his church, Paul didn’t get the memo.
Moreover, Jesus anticipates taking this meal again with his disciples in the kingdom — at the Eschaton — and while there will be a wedding feast when Jesus returns, there will be no Passover, because Jesus will have already come and there will be no need to remember the Exodus.
Hence, the Passover ended with the coming of the Kingdom. We now have our own exodus story to be told to our children, and it’s all about Jesus. It would take a while to cover, but the NT is filled with allusions to the Exodus. The NT authors saw Christianity as being very parallel to the Exodus and used its imagery routinely. But this was not to continue the Exodus but to replace it with a better, truer, more permanent escape from slavery and a better, truer, more permanent inheritance.
Same point.
Commentators are unanimous that v 10 is a reference to Jewish holy days and festivals, such as Passover. If Jesus expected Passover to continue annually after his death within his church, Paul didn’t get the memo.
I wonder what Paul would think about Christmas, Easter, or Thanksgiving. Well not really.
Don’t accuse me of demanding all Christians observe Passover, but it is not because of what Paul said. I actually don’t see any harm in Christian Jews observing Passover if they wish, and I don’t see harm in us Gentile Christians respecting their wishes. But Passover had nothing to do with Gentile Christians. If we were not under the law, we could not return to it.
Laymond, Paul wasn’t wrong. Why would Christians be sad when they declare Jesus’ death? Read Revelation 5 to get a good idea of what it looks like to proclaim Jesus death.
We didn’t get the funeral atmosphere from the New Testament.
Laymond writes,
Is it church congregations which celebrate Christmas, Easter, or Thanksgiving or is it families in their homes and with friends? I’m glad to notice that it’s families with friends who choose to celebrate these annual celebrations. If a congregation has a celebration, it’s in ADDITION to what the families do, and only instead of for those few who lack a loving family other than their church family.
I wish we all were enjoying perfect health. I’m glad that Jay can continue despite health problems!
Tim, Revelation 5 would be really some church service alright. I doubt it could be held on earth.
One “name” for the communion (fellowship) meal is Eucharist, from the Greek EUCHARISTEO, which means “to give thanks.” This is the word used by Matthew, Mark, and Luke to describe Jesus giving thanks for the cup and the bread. Paul also used it of that in 1 Cor 11 and also to speak of his thanksgiving for the churches he served.
Presumably most of us in our family meals give thanks. What would happen if every meal became a eucharistic meal with joyful memory of Jesus, thanksgiving for him, and conversation centered around making Jesus a part of our lives in every dimension? And then take this same approach in our meetings together as his disciples in larger than family gatherings, including the Lord’s Day assembling?:
If I read Jay correctly, something like this is what he envisions. And the probable reason we do not do it is because of the hardness of the dead hand of our tradition.
Jerry, I do believe you “hit the nail on the head” I have for a long time believed Jesus was saying, when you eat and give thanks for that which sustain the body, also remember that which sustains the spirit. Not just on Sunday morning but every time we eat or maybe even drink. We should know that we would not live without the food God supplies for our body, and we should know our spirit will not live without the food God supplied for our spirit, and soul. We should know to give thanks to God for both.
When we bow to pray before eating our meals, that is an opportunity to give thanks for things of the past and for those in the future including the meal and Jesus.
We have so much to be thankful for and ask forgiveness for anything we don’t understand to do as God would want us to as God can see our willingness to obey anything we have missed.
No telling how much we have missed or are doing wrong out of our ignorance or upbringing.
The main thing I’m sure of us is that we are not doing everything correctly and must have the forgiveness. The ones that believe they have it all just right have an error in simply believing and saying that statement.
Rerminds me of the bunch of religious “experts” Jesus told get away from me, I never knew you.
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If Jesus expected Passover to continue annually after his death within his church, Paul didn’t get the memo.
Paul did get a memo, to keep the Passover. The Passover Feast was extremely important to Jesus, everything about it points to Him, the Passover Lamb of God. Luke 22:15 It has been My deep desire to eat this Passover meal with you before My suffering begins.
1 Corinthians 5:8 Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
1 Corinthians 5:8 So let us eat our Passover meal, but not with the bread that has the old yeast, the yeast of sin and wrongdoing. But let us eat the bread that has no yeast. This is the bread of goodness and truth.
1 Corinthians 5:8 Let us celebrate our Passover, then, not with bread having the old yeast of sin and wickedness, but with the bread that has no yeast, the bread of purity and truth.
1 Corinthians 5:8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
1 Corinthians 5:8 So let us celebrate the festival, not with the old bread of wickedness and evil, but with the new bread of sincerity and truth.
1 Corinthians 5:8 So let us celebrate the Seder not with leftover hametz, the hametz of wickedness and evil, but with the matzah of purity and truth.
Paul was here merely against seeking Justification(atonement) via religious observances rather then genuine faith in Christ’s finished work on the Cross.
To put into it that they were seeking justification via religious observance is not what Paul said, Paul never said they were doing that by celebrating the Passover. Paul was favorable toward people within the church to celebrate the Passover Festival with genuine hearts in Christ.