I can’t remember anyone ever telling me what I was supposed to be doing during the Communion Service. When I was little I thought people were looking at the floor but didn’t know why. As I grew I figured out that looking down in church meant people are praying. Prayer involves thanksgiving so I assumed people were thanking Jesus for dying for them. Everybody seemed to know what to do so I decided it must be obvious. If it was obvious to them then I wasn’t going to look stupid and ask. So it wasn’t until I went to Seminary that I found out what to do during the Communion Service. My guess wasn’t far from right.

Prayer and Meditation

I had the part about prayer right but I didn’t understand much about what part prayer was playing in our experience of grace at the Table. Prayer is the demonstration of reverence and attention as well as the experience of them. In prayer we give thanks as we see the broken bread and the cup, which, representing His body and blood, reveal the cost of our sin and Jesus payment. They speak to us about how He freely gave Himself for us and how the Father’s desire for our presence is so great that He has done the unimaginable to remove our sin “as far as the east is from the west.”

Jesus is exhibited before us, reminding us and applying to our hearts and minds that the gospel means that we are able to relax and rejoice in God’s presence. The elements also help us to meditate on the power of sin and God’s anger at sin, both of which are seen when Jesus pleaded that if there is any other path to take other than becoming sin and taking on the Father’s wrath, He would. But there was no other way for God to be just and merciful except for the Cross. And so Jesus gave Himself according to the will of the Father.

And There’s More

Martin Luther, preaching on Hebrews 12:2-3, said this: “The whole value of the meditation of the suffering of Christ lies in this, that man should come to the knowledge of himself and sink and tremble.” But the Larger Catechism adds this word: “affectionately” meditating on his death and sufferings. Luther was right but the goal is not just trembling but the realization and application of the love of Jesus who went to the Cross with His people specifically on His mind.

It is that affectionate meditation that enables you to be moved by the grace of God which has been poured out upon you, to judge yourself knowing that forgiveness is found in Christ, and to enjoy true communion with Him. When true communion takes place you grow in hungering and in thirsting for Him. And when you grow in hungering and thirsting for Him, He expands your ability to feed on Him by faith. At the Lord’s Table the Holy Spirit helps you to receive of Jesus’ fullness, trust more fully in his merits, rejoice in His love, and give thanks for His grace. Using all these things, you are led by the Spirit into renewing your covenant with God and love for all the saints who belong to Jesus. All of this is going on when you come to the Lord’s Table.