My family dinner table will soon look different. With our daughter graduating, one chair will be empty more often than not. I am torn with mixed emotions. On one hand is sadness, recognizing there will often be one less voice participating in the daily recap (something you learned, something you enjoyed, and something you encountered in your quiet time). On the other hand, I see these moments with greater joy as I am reminded of the tremendous blessing God has given our family.
This Sunday in corporate worship, we celebrate at a table together as the Eastmont family. We won’t have time for everyone to tell what they’ve seen and heard this past week. But we will have opportunity to proclaim the most important event in human history. This Sunday we come to the Lord’s Table and remind one another of how the God-man, Jesus, took our sin upon Himself and drank the full cup of God’s fury-filled wrath toward us as sinners.
In the midst of this remembrance we will then proclaim the truth of the freedom we now share because Jesus died once for all that we may live no longer under the bondage and tyranny of sin. As we approach the Lord’s Table, I want to remind us of a few concepts:
- First, the elements represent the grace that we already received. There is no salvific merit in the elements at the table.Rather, they remind us of the sorrowful death that leads us to joyful hope.
- Second, we understand the requirements for coming to this table belong to the Lord. We recognize that the observance is for baptized believers who are in good standing with the local church (not under church discipline) and are living in a manner consistent with their profession.
- Finally, this supper is intended to be part of the regular worship of God’s people. There is much to be said about the manner in which we don’t serve ourselves, but actually serve one another as fellow ambassadors of Christ.
As we come to the Lord’s Table this week, let us be rightly reminded of the heinous nature of our sin and the glorious grace of Jesus. Then may we joyfully eat and drink in a manner worthy of our calling as brothers and sisters in Christ.
