May 22, 2014
Out of Sequence
Sunday during communion I
observed a woman taking the emblems out of sequence. She drank the juice, returned
the cup to the tray and then took the wafer and passed the tray back to the
server. I considered the Lord’s Supper and wondered if there was any
significance in the order in which Jesus presented the symbols to the
disciples. It’s almost as though Jesus
introduces the bread (body) as a prelude to the crescendo of the blood (wine). Of the bread he simply says, “This is my
body.” However, with the introduction of the cup he said, “Drink from it, all
of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many
for the forgiveness of sins” (Matt 26:27-28 NV). The sacrificed body
of Jesus is profound, but it is the blood of Christ brings death and life.
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----Metaphor and symbolism go only so far before they break down. They’re not equations. They’re parallels of meaning between particular aspects of similar processes or situations or things. But if you keep parsing you begin to find other aspects and parts which have no parallels between them at all, or sometimes are even contradictory. Hebrews parallels with His flesh the curtain through which He opened for us a new and living way. It was the tearing of His flesh which opened the way like the tearing of the curtain. But before His body was torn, was it really that which prevented our access to the Most Holy place as did the curtain? Somewhere we must stop parsing when using symbolism and metaphor. And a great rule of thumb for knowing where to stop is where the author stops.
-----Everywhere we see communion done we see the bread first. Is it unimportant because Jesus did not mention anything about order? If we did it in the technical order of occurrence at the sacrifice of Jesus, we might want to do the wine first, since his blood was spilling profusely from the time of His lashing before the time His body was broken on the cross. But in so doing, we would break metaphor before even starting, because communion’s metaphor of receiving His sacrifice is through the meals Levitical law made of the sin offering and of the Passover Lamb. Regarding the Passover meal, wine is being consumed from the first cup of the Seder before the meal is even served. But the cup Jesus used to institute communion was the third cup of the Seder, which came after the meal. But then, it wasn’t the meal Jesus distributed as His body. It was the bread. And that He did before the third cup. Details! Oh my!
-----From the Passover event, He sliced out this little piece of time for instituting communion. Within it metaphor holds up well in the two symbols as a meal of Jesus flesh and blood. Nor does it break down at their order because the drink of a meal is by its very nature for washing down the meal. Besides, it's just the way Jesus did it. Yes, a detail.
-----What more do we need? I think most of us are careful about the order because it just fits. I suppose some think anybody partaking out of order eat and drink condemnation upon themselves, being an unworthy manner and all. But arrival at this necessitates abandoning required literary principles any reader must use to receive an author’s intended idea. I Cor 11:28 clarifies the “unworthy manner” warned about in verse 27 as something avoided by examining your self, rather than the communion process. Verse 29 drills into it deeper by offering the problematic concept of not discerning the body - a conceptual tie-back to the introductory remarks of this whole context. In that introduction Paul stated they were each going ahead with their own meals without regard for anybody else. Then, in conclusion he states that doing communion without attention (discerning) to the rest of the believers (the body) is dangerous.
-----I like to say that such things as this symbol order are things “fuzzy around the edges”. The Bible speaks no condemnation upon doing them out of order. Yet the order is clearly implied. So, I would say this dear lady's problem is a lack of a bit of knowledge. Yet knowledge puffs up while love builds up (I Cor 8:1). So, to avail knowledge's worth while avoiding its puff, you’ve got to fuzzy the edges of what you know to warm the love for who you know.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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