The Holy Spirit in the Word places the Lord’s Supper as the moral center, the object of the assembly. Let us remark some of the thoughts of the Spirit in connection with this ordinance.
1st. He links the affections with it in the strongest way. It was the same night on which Jesus was betrayed that He left this memorial of His sufferings and of His love. As the paschal lamb brought to mind the deliverance which the sacrifice offered in Egypt had procured for Israel, thus the Lord’s supper called to mind the sacrifice of Christ. He is in the glory, the Spirit is given; but they were to remember Him. His offered body was the object before their hearts in this memorial. Take notice of this word Remember. It is not a Christ as He now exists; it is not the realization of what He is: that is not a remembrance – His body is now glorified. It is a remembrance of what He was on the cross. It is a body slain, and blood shed; not a glorified body. It is remembered, though, by those who are united to Him in the glory into which He is entered. As risen and associated with Him in glory, they look back to that blessed work of love, and His love in it, which gave them a place there. They drink also of the cup in remembrance of Him. In a word, it is Christ looked at as dead: there is not such a Christ now.
It is the remembrance of Christ Himself. It is that which attaches to Himself; it is not only the value of His sacrifice, but attachment to Himself, the remembrance of Himself. The Apostle then shows us, if it is a dead Christ, who it is that died. Impossible to find two words, the bringing together of which has so important a meaning, the death of the Lord! How many things are comprised in that He who is called the Lord had died! What love! What purposes! What efficacy! What results! The Lord Himself gave Himself up for us. We celebrate His death.
At the same time, it is the end of God’s relations with the world on the ground of man’s responsibility, except the judgment. This death has broken every link – has proved the impossibility of any. We show forth this death until the rejected Lord shall return, to establish new bonds of association by receiving us to Himself to have part in them. It is this which we proclaim in the ordinance when we keep it. Besides this, it is in itself a declaration that the blood on which the new covenant is founded has been already shed; it was established in this blood.
I do not go beyond that which the passage presents; the object of the Spirit of God here, is to set before us, not the efficacy of the death of Christ, but that which attaches the heart to Him in remembering His death, and the meaning of the ordinance itself. It is a dead, betrayed Christ whom we remember. The offered body was, as it were, before their eyes at this supper. The shed blood of the Saviour claimed the affections of their heart for Him. They were guilty of despising these precious things, if they took part in the supper unworthily. The Lord Himself fixed our thoughts there in this ordinance, and in the most affecting way, at the very moment of His betrayal.
In this broken bread we own Thee,
Bruised for us and put to shame;
And this cup, O Lord, we thank Thee,
Speaks our pardon through Thy name.