Laying the table

How we can prepare to take communion

The Last Supper painted by Spanish artist Joan de Joanes around 1562.

On the night Jesus was betrayed, he ate a meal with his disciples. For the twelve, the supper was to mark the annual festival of Passover. In their minds they were commemorating the rescue of God’s people from slavery in Egypt all those years ago. But for Jesus, this dinner was more than that. Not only did it look back, it also pointed forward to the fateful events that were about to unfold.

We know this because of what happened during the supper. Jesus picked up the unleavened bread. He then gave thanks for it before passing the loaf around his disciples. And, as he did so, Jesus said these perplexing words:

‭Take it; this is my body.

He then took a cup of wine and again, after giving thanks, passed it to his disciples. Once they had taken a drink, Jesus said:

‭This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. ‭Truly I tell you, I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.

In the dramatic events of the coming few days, the disciples would no doubt look back on Jesus’ words with new eyes. Indeed, those syllables would become ones that they would regularly repeat for the rest of their lives. For not only would the early church reenact the Last Supper to remind themselves of the events of that first Easter, the celebration of that meal would also play a central role in the norishment of their faith.

The Lord's table

Today, churches continues to celebrate the Lord’s supper. They celebrate it at different times. Some do it every week, others every month, others even less frequently than that. But, however often a church shares communion, there's a good chance that they will be having it today or tomorrow. And, if you are a Christian, you will probably be planning to take part too.

Yet, whether this will be your first, your 100th, or your 1000th time taking communion, it can be difficult to know exactly how to approach it. Should we come to communion with hearts full of sorrow, hearts full of joy, or hearts full of something in between?

With this in mind, I thought I would share with you some guidance which Stephen Charnock gave to his congregation on how they should approach the Lord’s Supper.

It has been helpful for me as I approach this Easter period. I pray that it might also be of help to you.

The believer's heart

In his sermon entitled ‘The End of the Lord’s Supper’, Charnock urged his flock to come to the communion meal with a number of complimentary attitudes.

1. Reverentially

The first attitude a believer should have is reverence. Charnock said

God’s hatred of sin is as high as his love to Christ; he hates sin as much as he loves his Son. He would never else have dealt so hardly with his Son for sin, whom he loved so dearly.

At the cross we see

an infinite gracious God rending the soul of a beloved Son, letting his enemies loose against him, standing by without any manifest relentings, and adding to that torture his own frowns . . . can we remember this without reverential adorations of the dreadful justice of God?

2. Holily

So the first attitude is reverence. But, secondly, a Christian should come to the communion table with a sense of God's holiness. Charnock explained to his people that

A broken Christ must not be remembered without a broken heart . . . we should endeavour to be as much affected as if we had heard every piercing groan in the garden, and numbered every drop of that bloody sweat which trickled down upon him, and been present when the soldiers did so cruelly handle him and pierce him.

The pastor went on,

It is a sad thing to be Christians at a supper, heathens in our shops, and devils in our closets. To come with a heart resolved to go on [unrepentant], is to be worse than Judas, who was struck with remorse at the beginning of Christ’s sufferings, when he saw him condemned . . . The passover must be eaten with unleavened bread; no leaven of sin must be mixed with our services, no leaven of hypocrisy with our lives. We must eat his flesh and drink his blood, that we may live to the praise of his grace; shew it forth in the supper, that we may shew it forth in our lives. The thoughts of Christ’s death should be an antidote against the poison of sin.

3. Believingly

So, firstly, we come with reverence. Secondly, we come with a sense of God’s holiness. And, thirdly, God's people should come to the Lord’s supper believingly. They should look upon it

by faith, as the [praiseworthy] cause of our good. If we cannot believe when we see the price laid down for us and the ransom paid, when shall we believe?

As Charnock goes onto encourage,

Plead this death against sin and Satan. Show it against every charge. We are like to meet with many rubs, sharp and weighty accusations, too true for us to repel without the vigorous force of this death. Whatsoever accusation Satan can present against you is answered here. Have we sinned? Christ hath suffered for sin; have we sinned many sins? Christ hath shed much blood, not only a drop; have we sinned great sins? the death of Christ for sin was the death of the Son of God. Can the sins of men be stronger to condemn than the blood of God is to save? We have deserved hell, but Christ hath suffered it. The wrath of God, which is the spirit and quintessence of hell, lighted upon him. Christ’s death will answer all the subtle charges of the devil, appease the terrors of a raging conscience, silence the curses of the law, and quench the flames of hell.

4. Humbly

Fourthly, Charnock urged his local church to take communion humbly. In particular, he asked them consider what they should have suffered, but for Christ. He said,

Those strokes laid upon Christ were due to us; on us should those vials of wrath have been poured. We should have been the mark of all the arrows of God’s vengeance. The tragedy acted on Christ should have been acted on us. Had that justice which was due to us seized us, we should have been held prisoners for ever. What power could have rescued us from Almightiness? Those terrors were marching against us. Christ then changed states with us, took our sins to answer for them, and gave us his righteousness to meet the justice of God withal. He suffered the pains of hell, the wrath of God, and purchased heaven for us, which he might have kept without emptying himself, and sent us down to hell. The sufferings were endured by him, but the right to them was ours.

5. Thankfully

Reverentially, holily, believingly and humbly - they’re the first four ways we should come to the Lord’s table. And, finally, we should come thankfully. Speaking of the appreciation we should feel as we come to the Lord’s table, Charnock said

Such mercies as the death of Christ require high and raised thanksgivings. It is the greatest disingenuity not to pay thankfulness for a free mercy. The supper is a feast upon a sacrifice, as feasts followed the Jewish sacrifices. Christ was offered to God as a sacrifice, and returned to us as a banquet. He was ground by the wrath of God to be bread fit for us to feed on.

As the seventeenth-century pastor concluded,

The gain we have by it should excite us to it. Death was bitter to him, but comfortable to us. His punishment was our discharge; and he died for us that we might live with him. What gain we have by his resurrection and ascension is originally from his death. It is ‘by the blood of the Lamb’ that the devil is ‘overcome,’ Rev. 12:11. By his blood are the promises sealed; by his blood all the treasures of grace, mercy, peace, happiness, riches of glory are gathered together for us.

I pray that Charnock’s words might help you to be all the more excited at the thought of celebrating the Lord’s Supper tomorrow.

Happy Easter!