What do we “proclaim” in the Lord’s Supper? Calvin and the Lord’s Supper (part 7)

Paul explained to the Corinthians that, “as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Cor 11:26).  This famous statement is really a famous understatement.  “Proclaiming the Lord’s death” means so much to us who have died with Christ and now live with him in his resurrection life! (cp. Rom 6:1-11).  Yet, John Calvin highlights two areas that are communicated in the Lord’s Supper as we celebrate this sacred feast (The Institutes, Book IV, chapter 17, sections 37-38).

Firstly, the Lord’s Supper is a “confession.”  This does not mean that in the Supper we are confessing our sins or our sinfulness–though this is no doubt true!  Rather, he means by this that in this ordinance,

“with a single voice [we] confess openly before men that for us the whole assurance of life and salvation rests upon the Lord’s death, that we may glorify him by our confession, and by our example exhort others to give glory to him.”

Thus, in addition to the Supper being an assurance for us that we are truly connected to the “one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim 2:5), it is also a sign to others, a billboard that broadcasts to others, “We are sinners, but God has provided a Savior!”  Others can observe us participate in this Supper and be made aware that a Savior has been given and that we are connected to him by faith.  This indeed is our “whole assurance of life and salvation,” just as Calvin says.

He closes this section by saying that, “the confession of our mouth [should] declare what our faith recognizes in the Sacrament: that the death of Christ is our life.”  Because the Supper is so cross-centered and not merely Christocentric, the message communicated is more specific than, “Christ is God.”  It hints at the depths of our gospel: the broken body of Jesus, the shed blood of our Lord, the need to partake of him by our faith, the self-offering of Christ, the love-offering of the Father, the distributing of the benefits of his sacrifice–all of this gets communicated even if in metaphor and shadow in the Lord’s Supper. 

Secondly, there is the proclamation in the Lord’s Supper of the fact that we as the body of Christ are united in Christ.  It “more forecefully than any other means [can] quicken and inspire us both to purity and holiness of life, and to love, peace, and concord.”  Just as in this Supper we are reminded of our union with Christ, so we are freshly made aware of our union to one another.  Calvin expresses the implication of this truth in this way:

“We shall benefit very much from the Sacrament if this thought is impressed and engraved upon our minds, that none of the brethren can be injured, despised, rejected, abused, or in any way offended by us, without at the same time, injuring, despising, and abusing Christ by the wrongs we do; that we cannot disagree with our brethren without at the same time disagreeing with Christ; that we cannot love Christ without loving him in the brethren; that we ought to take the same care of our brethren’s bodies as we take of our own; for they are members of our body; and that, as no part of our body is touched by any feeling of pain which is not spread among all the rest, so we ought not to allow a brother to be affected by any evil, without being touched with compassion for him.”

This thought summarizes a great amount of New Testament teaching, capturing the essence of being “the body of Christ” (Eph 4:11-16), and united in love (Eph 4:3-6), and that what do to the least we do to Christ (Matt 25:40).  What is helpful in what Calvin says is that the Lord’s Supper proclaims this truth to us again.  It is not a practice for us to observe in solitude, isolated from the visible and tangible “body of Christ” around us.  Instead it is to be a proclamation of a reality that is always greater than our experience, always transcending our current status, always in process and developing–and yet one that stands as absolute fact:

“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” (Eph 4:4-6).

This is what Paul is saying in 1 Cor 10:17: “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.”  Our corporate eating of the bread is a proclamation of our unity as the body of Christ.

This Sunday our church will celebrate the Lord’s Supper.  And as we do, we will be proclaiming to others our assurance that in the death of Christ is all our hope and life, and that we celebrate this ordinance as one body united in Christ eating the same bread.  It is a proclamation that we offer joyfully “until he comes” (1 Cor 11:26).

Amen.

DJB