THE SUPPER
[p. 99] THE SUPPER
The twelve apostles were with the Lord when He instituted His supper. It was given to men who had a place in the assembly as representing the Lord’s authority. They were to do a certain act in remembrance of Him, and this was of such importance to Him that He gave an account of the institution to Paul from heaven so that Paul might deliver it to the assemblies in the gentile world. The Lord was to be remembered, or called to mind, in a certain definite act which required that the saints should come together. There are five references to coming together in these verses, and Paul clearly implies that their coming together should have been to eat the Lord’s supper, for he has to tell them that they were not eating that Supper. Each was eating his own supper, and there were divisions among them even when they came together, so that they came together not for the better but for the worse. Truly eating the Lord’s supper would abolish all divisions among saints, and would bring about perfect unity in mind. We are not told in 1 Corinthians when the Supper was to be eaten, but we have an example in Acts 20 of certain brethren, of whom Paul was one, who spent a whole week in Troas, and there is nothing said about them assembling to break bread until the first day of the week: this intimates to us that that is the special day for assembling together.
The proper object to be before us in coming together in assembly is to eat the Lord’s supper, and it is for the remembrance of Him, or calling Him to mind. If the Lord were here we should have no reason to call Him to mind. It is because He is not here that the assembly calls Him to mind in a collective way. No doubt there was a custom amongst the Jews to break bread for one who had died and to drink a cup of consolation (Jeremiah 16: 7), and the Lord took [p. 100] this up and glorified it by giving it a place in relation to Himself. But He gave it quite a new and different setting.
The breaking of bread amongst the Jews was in “mourning”, the cup was one of “consolations” for a parent of whom they had been bereaved. We do not break bread for the Lord in this sense at all: our breaking of bread is a service of thanksgiving, it is a eucharist, there is no mournful element in it. It is not that we have lost Him, but that we have gained Him in the most blessed way: His body has been given, His blood poured out for us. He now has a body of glory in heaven, but He once had a body which He devoted to the will of God and for us, and He once had a life which could be poured out that the new covenant might take effect. And it is ours to give thanks, even as He did when He instituted His supper. We call Him to mind as giving thanks for the loaf and the cup: the Lord was in Spirit beyond His suffering and death when He gave thanks. All was, to His mind, accomplished, His body given and His blood poured out, so that nothing remained but thanksgiving. That is, the Lord placed Himself anticipatively in the position in which His own would be when they ate His supper, and He would be called to mind as in that position. It was in the night in which He was delivered up: the hour of crisis had come, but in His own mind and spirit He could, in the company of His apostles, regard His body as given and His blood as poured out. The new covenant as brought in in the power of His blood was present to Him in that cup. We are to do what He did, for the calling of Him to mind, and we are also to eat the bread and drink the cup, which He did not do. That is our part, to call Him to mind, and our drinking the cup has its place in this. So that the whole service, from the giving of thanks for the bread to the drinking of the cup, is with the object of calling Him to mind, not quite as He was here in the days of His flesh, for His sufferings and death were all future then, but viewed as having given His body and as having [p. 101] made good the new covenant in His blood. So that it is Christ as He is now who is called to mind. He is not viewed as present, but as called to mind, for the saints of the assembly are in the place where He died, but they call Him to mind as the One who in instituting the Supper regarded His body as given, and His blood as filling the cup with new covenant blessings. It is not Christ after the flesh that we call to mind, but Christ as having given His body for the saints of the assembly and as having secured in His blood the new covenant.
What a beautiful thought this gives us of the assembly as all brought together into one thought of Christ! The whole company calls Him to mind in the reality of His great service of love so that every mind is filled with Him as He is now in the presence of God, having devoted His body and His blood for the assembly! Now if a company on earth is thus filled in mind with Him, what is to hinder His coming to them? We do not read of His coming to any company of saints after His ascension because this is not a public matter. It belongs to the intimacies of holy affection, but the disciple whom Jesus loved has recorded His precious words, “I am coming to you”. It is for love to be on the alert, to be ready to say, “The voice of my beloved! Behold, he cometh Leaping upon the mountains, Skipping upon the hills. My beloved is like a gazelle or a young hart” (Song of Songs 2: 8, 9). He is making haste to come to those who call Him to mind. He is able to come in a spiritual way to us if we are ready to receive Him in the truth of His present love to the assembly. The Holy Spirit is here, who is also the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of the glorious Man who is at the right hand of God, so that if He is attracted to come to us He can come in an unseen but very real way to His lovers here as collectively calling Him to mind. He does not come in body, as we well know, but He comes in a spiritual way, so that He can be thus known in a thousand different assemblies at the same time. But when He comes we no [p. 102] longer call Him to mind: He is there Himself, discerned as present by His lovers who worship Him. Some may ask, How, and in what character, will He manifest Himself? That we cannot tell beforehand.