The man flew airplanes in the war against Viet Nam. He was a pilot for Delta for almost 30 years. A year and a half ago he flew a small plane into Tulsa to pick me up so that we could fly together to a District Mission Board meeting in Milwaukee. When his plane was refueled and we stowed my luggage he pulled out a “pre-flight” check list. He went over everything from seat belts, to fuel pressure, to the latch on the cockpit door. His actions surprised me. Why would a man who had flown so many planes for so many years need to go over such simple things? Before we landed in Milwaukee he pulled out another checklist. He looked at certain gauges and lights and switches.
After we landed I asked Dave why a man with his experience as a pilot needed to check everything so thoroughly each time he flew. He told me that if you miss something simple it might cost you your life. Once you are speeding down the runway or in the air you don’t want to realize that you have forgotten something important. So every pilot no matter how experienced he is goes over a checklist for takeoffs and landings.
In the Word of God for our sermon this evening the Apostle Paul gives us inspired guidance to prepare for the Lord’s Supper. We could say it is a “pre-communion” checklist. It doesn’t matter if we have come to the Lord’s Table for one year or fifty years--one time or a thousand times. Each of us is in equal need of preparation so that we are blessed by our eating and drinking.
We ask the Holy Spirit to guide us in our preparation to receive the sacrament as we consider these words from 1 Corinthians 11:23-29. (Read text.) This check list for receiving the Lord’s Supper isn’t complicated or extensive. But it is very important. As we dig into these verses let’s each answer the question:
AM I PREPARED FOR THE LORD’S SUPPER?
I. Do I have faith in Jesus’ words?
II. Do I remember what Jesus has done?
III. Do I recognize what I will receive?
As Lutheran Christians we let God’s Word interpret itself. One of the ways that we do that is to look at the context of the words in which a command is given or a truth is stated. Among the spiritual problems facing the Christians at Corinth the Apostle Paul was led by the Holy Spirit to address the Lord’s Supper. They had become careless in the way they prepared to receive the meal that Jesus had instituted. It seems as though they had forgotten what Paul had taught them about Holy Communion. So he went over exactly what Jesus said in connection with the Sacrament. He reviewed the purpose and the content of this special eating and drinking.
On this Maundy Thursday we have a special opportunity to recall Jesus’ own words about his supper that he spoke on the night he was betrayed. Our order of service also helps us to review the purpose and the content of the eating and drinking we will do this evening at Jesus’ command. Before we come forward to his table let’s answer the question, “Am I prepared for the Lord’s Supper?” Under that question these verses from 1 Corinthians direct us to three thoughts. Do I have faith in Jesus’ words? Do I remember what Jesus has done? Do I recognize what I will receive?
I.
The first thing that the Apostle Paul did in his attempt to get the Corinthian Christians to consider how they prepared to receive the Lord’s Supper was to take them back to Jesus’ own words. “For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.’” Did the Corinthians have faith in those words of Jesus? Did they believe that Jesus’ body was given into death for them? Did they trust that his blood was their covenant with God? If they did they would be properly prepared to receive the Lord’s Supper and be blessed by their eating and drinking. Then Jesus’ body and blood would provide them with the proof that their sins were indeed forgiven. They would have peace in their hearts and the strength to serve God. If they didn’t believe Jesus’ words the Lord’s Supper would not be a blessing to them as he intended.
“Am I prepared to receive the Lord’s Supper?” The spiritual checklist that helps us answer that question has not changed. All those who commune must ask themselves if they have faith in Jesus’ words. Every time we receive the Lord’s Supper we proclaim the words of institution that Jesus spoke. But perhaps our ears have become deaf to what they say. Do we hear Jesus say “for you,” and for the “forgiveness of your sins”? Or do we just go through the motions? It is not enough just to believe in general that there is forgiveness of sins. It is necessary to believe that there is forgiveness for your sins in the Sacrament. Tonight, and each time we eat and drink as Christ commanded may we ask if we have such faith in Jesus’ words.
What does it mean to have faith in Jesus’ words about the Lord’s Supper? Picture it this way. You are standing on the top floor of a burning building in which all the exits are blocked by fire. On the street below is a circle of firemen holding a safety net. It is not enough to know that if a person would jump down he or she would land safely. It is necessary for you, in order to escape death in the fire to trust in the net and jump into it. So in the Lord’s Supper you must throw yourself into the precious words of Jesus as your spiritual safety net. He said, “given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins.”
“Am I prepared to receive the Lord’s Supper?” The Apostle Paul encourages us to first consider Jesus’ own words connected to the Sacrament. To be prepared to receive it we must have faith in those words. Do we believe that his body was given into death for us? Do we believe his blood was shed for our sins and is still our covenant with God? Through faith worked in us by the Holy Spirit we are able to say, “Yes, I believe that the body and blood I receive in communion with the bread and wine are for me and for the forgiveness of my sins.”
After addressing a communicant’s faith in Jesus’ words the Apostle Paul focuses on the second purpose for receiving Communion. “For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” Following Jesus’ own words, “do this in remembrance of me,” Paul called on the Corinthian Christians to consider what they were doing when they ate the bread and drank from the cup of the Lord’s Supper. Through it did they remember what Jesus had done?
Let’s make that question part of our spiritual checklist for receiving the Lord’s Supper. Do we remember what Jesus has done for us through his suffering and death? Do we recall his innocent life given as payment for our sins?
II.
When Jesus first instituted Holy Communion he had gathered with his disciples to participate in what is called a Seder meal, one of the highlights of the Passover week. The first Passover meal, of course, had been done centuries before Jesus came on the scene. It commemorated that time when the Jews were in bondage in Egypt. Moses warned Pharaoh to let his people go, but Pharaoh hardened his heart. So God sent a death over the land of Egypt, but miraculously this death passed over the homes of the Jews who has smeared the blood of a lamb on the door frames of their houses. God then commanded his people to remember what he had done by eating a special meal similar to the one eaten at the first Passover. In that way they would proclaim to each generation the greatness of God’s salvation.
For the same reason Jesus commanded his disciples to frequently gather for the meal of the new covenant. They would remember what he had done and proclaim it to each other, to their children, and to the world.
The Greek word that the Holy Spirit led the Apostle Paul to use in these verses is very revealing concerning one of the purposes for the Lord’s Supper. The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament gives this definition, “an act done in order to remember.” In other words, Jesus told us to participate in Communion for the purpose of remembering what he has done for us. If you tie a string to your finger you are doing an action to help you remember something. The other day my wife told me that she put her engagement ring on her other hand to help her remember something. Maybe you do other things like that in order to remember something. In the Lord’s Supper we do what Jesus commanded in order to remember what he has done for us. When we remember we are prepared to eat and drink.
Before we come forward to eat the supper Jesus has prepared for us let’s consider carefully if we are prepared. Do we remember what Jesus has done for us? Do we see him as our substitute who lived and died in our place to give us a place in God’s kingdom? When we are led by the Holy Spirit to remember what Jesus has done we are prepared for the Lord’s Supper. We are then able to eat and drink for the purpose he intended.
The last item on the spiritual checklist that the Apostle Paul has given us focuses on what we receive when we eat the bread and drink the cup. Many of the Christians at Corinth weren’t being blessed in their communing because they failed to recognize what they were eating and drinking. “Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself.” A pilot who doesn’t use his checklist and forgets to put down his landing gear is in for a rough landing. In a similar way someone who communes without recognizing what he is receiving puts himself or herself in grave spiritual danger. So again we are led back to our question, “Am I prepared for the Lord’s Supper?” The Apostle Paul would have us answer that question by asking if we recognize what we receive in the Lord’s Supper.
III.
Once again it is helpful if we look at the context of these words. In the chapter before the verses I just read Paul asked the question of the Christians at Corinth, “Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.” (1 Corinthians 10:1617) Paul wasn’t asking in order to get an answer from them. He knew the answer. In fact, in the Greek language the Apostle used words that were expecting a “yes” answer. A person who communes receives the body and blood of Christ in communion with the bread and wine. The “real presence” of Jesus body and blood with the bread and wine make the Sacrament the blessed meal that it is. In a personal way a believer can taste and see that he or she is forgiven.
But how is this possible? How can we receive the glorified body of our risen Savior with a bite of bread and a sip of wine? We simply aren’t told how. And our puny minds could not understand it if we were told. In the Lord’s Supper a miraculous mystery takes place.
It would be a tragedy to reject this teaching just because we can’t understand it. We don’t let our lack of comprehension prevent us from receiving the benefit of other things in life why let it happen with the Sacrament? Do you understand how you car works? Most of us here probably don’t. Does that prevent us from using it and receiving the benefits a car provides? No. Can you explain what electricity is? Can you tell me how that electrical current can run through wires for miles and miles? Can you explain how it give us light, or heat, or power? Just what is electricity anyway? Very few of you, if any, would attempt to explain it. But all us enjoy its benefits. It would be foolishness to say, “I don’t believe in electricity because I can’t explain it. So I won’t use it.” The same truth can be applied to the Lord’s Supper.
Let’s carry that illustration one step farther. This time let’s focus on the wires that bring us electricity. When the current is turned on, do the wires change into electricity, so that they are no longer wires, but only look like wires? No, the wires are still wires. On the other hand, do those wires only represent or symbolize electricity? Isn’t there actually electricity coming through them? Of course there is. The wires actually have electricity running through them. In a similar way: in, with, and under the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper we receive Christ’s body and blood. The hymn writer said it well, “We eat this bread and drink this cup, / Your precious Word believing / That your true body and your blood / Our lips are here receiving. This Word remains forever true, / And there is naught you cannot do, / For you, Lord, are almighty. // Though reason cannot understand, / Yet faith this truth embraces: / Your body, Lord, is ev’rywhere / At once in many places. / I leave to you how this can be; / Your Word alone suffices me; / I trust its truth unfailing.”
Am I prepared for the Lord’s Supper? I am if I recognize what I will receive when I commune. At the powerful word of our Savior we receive his body and blood with the bread and wine that we eat and drink.
An experienced pilot goes over a checklist before taking off and landing because of the serious nature of what he is doing. Forgetting something in carelessness or haste could be deadly to him and his passengers. Once the checklist has been completely the pilot can proceed confidently that all systems are ready.
Tonight these words from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Corinthians serve as our checklist for communion. We have asked the question, “Am I prepared for the Lord’s Supper?” Under that question we have asked, “Do I have faith in Jesus’ words? Do I remember what Jesus has done? Do I recognize what I will receive?” The Holy Spirit enables us to answer those three questions. Yes, I believe in Jesus’ words. He says that his body and blood is “for me.” It assures me that my sins are forgiven. Yes, I remember what Jesus has done. Tonight I remember what his death means and I proclaim it. Yes, I recognize what I will receive. Together with the bread and wine of Holy Communion I receive Christ’s body and blood. With those answers we can answer the bigger question. “Am I prepared for the Lord’s Supper?” Yes. Amen.
