#52. The Lord's Supper - What Have We Seen?

Amidst us our Belovèd stands, 
And bids us view His piercèd hands; 
Points to the wounded feet and side,
Blest emblems of the Crucified.

What food luxurious loads the board, 
When at His table sits the Lord! 
The wine how rich, the bread how sweet, 
When Jesus deigns the guests to meet!

If now, with eyes defiled and dim, 
We see the signs, but see not Him; 
O may His love the scales displace, 
And bid us see Him face to face!

Our former transports we recount, 
When with Him in the holy mount, 
These cause our souls to thirst anew, 
His marred but lovely face to view.

Thou glorious Bridegroom of our hearts, 
Thy present smile a heav’n imparts! 
Oh lift the veil, if veil there be, 
Let every saint Thy beauties see!

C. H. Spurgeon


We come to the final devotion in this series. When we began, it was not clear how we would be able to match the previous topics we have covered by developing 52 reasons to take the Lord's Supper and to do so frequently. In practice, though, we have had to prune some entries as time has progressed in order to arrive at only 52 meditations! This is probably not an outcome that would have surprised Charles Spurgeon, judging from the words of the hymn he wrote on the subject (see above).

As with all the other means of grace, we have seen that the Lord supplied this one for the good of His children, with their best interests at heart. He knows us through and through, and He knows what is good for us, and the Lord's Supper is designed with that in view. Since we are slow of heart to believe, though, the Lord also commands us to participate in each of the means of grace, and in each case He also worked in His people in New Testament times so that they give us an example of diligent use of all the means, the Lord's Supper being no exception.

We considered the Lord's Supper as a sign and as a seal, a remembrance of Christ and a very real communion with Him. We then reflected on the meal as a sermon, and over the weeks we came to realize that it proclaims a very full message if we have ears to hear it. Here are some of the things that it declares:

• The death of Christ;
• His broken body;
• His poured-out blood;
• Our access to God;
• Christ as the Source and Sustenance of our life;
• The sinlessness of Christ;
• The sinfulness of sin;
• Fallen mankind's war with God;
• The Justice of God;
• Peace with God through the blood of the cross;
• The love of Jesus for His people;
• The love of Jesus for His Father;
• The humility and obedience of Jesus;
• The priesthood of Christ in the order of Melchizedek;
• The love of God for His children;
• The amazing grace of God;
• The mercy of God;
• The patience of God;
• The faithfulness of God;
• The only way of salvation - through the cross of Christ (if there had been another possibility, God would not have sent His only begotten Son to such a cruel death).
• There is no forgiveness without the shedding of blood;
• Only the blood of Christ can save;
• The impossibility of salvation by another path;
• That true believers do not belong to themselves;
• A message that is foolishness to the world but power to those being saved.

We went on to consider how helpful the Table can be in the practice of self examination, calling us to consider whether we are believers who are wholly devoted to the Lord, whether we are sinning against a brother or sister in the body and whether we have the necessary discernment to eat the meal in a worthy manner. We saw the usefulness of the Supper to correct our perspective on the past, the future, our sin and condemnation outside of Christ but the heavenly realities that are ours in Him. Finally, we looked at how the Table should correct our perspective on the church as the body of which we are members, joined together in Christ.

For our last meditations, and in the light of all we had seen to this point, we presented the arguments from Scripture that support a frequent celebration of the Lord's Supper (and they are many) and briefly considered the arguments often given to participate less frequently (which seem to be fewer and not derived from Scripture).

What a wonderful gift the Lord has given us in this meal! How rich it is, and how helpful to us as believers if we use it wisely and consciously reflect on all the truths that are laid our before us in a visible form. What food luxurious loads the board, when at His Table sits the Lord!  Our prayer continues to be that the Lord's people may treasure this means of grace, may observe it frequently and may come to know Christ better and to be more like Him as they eat the bread and drink the wine!