Bible Passage: 1 Corinthians 10:16-17
Pastor: Joel Jenswold
Sermon Date: March 28, 2024

Bulletin Maundy Thursday 2024

In the name of, and to the eternal glory of, Jesus,

Have you ever stopped to consider how many times it is recorded in Scripture that Jesus ate with people.   Jesus went to dinner at Matthew’s house.  He went to dinner at Simon the Pharisee’s house.  He had dinner at the home of a man known as Simon the Leper.  On the Saturday before Palm Sunday he had dinner with Mary, Martha, and Lazarus in Bethany.  This is just to mention a few.  The Pharisees once came to Jesus’ disciples and asked, Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? (Matthew 9:11)  Jesus once said this to his opponents, The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard. (Matthew 11:19)  Eating with people was a big part of Jesus’ ministry!

To appreciate the significance of this fact, we must have an understanding of what we might call “table fellowship.”  The significance of “table fellowship” was HUGE in Jesus’ time and culture.  To eat with someone was not a casual thing.  To sit at a table with someone, to break bread with them, was to welcome them, to accept them.  It was a sign of peace and friendship and goodwill.  To gather at a table with someone was to say, “I am happy to be associated with you.”  It was significant.  It was profound.  It was “fellowship.”

That’s why it should not surprise us that one of the most significant things Jesus ever did for his disciples was done at a table while Jesus was enjoying table fellowship with his friends.  It was at a table the night before he died that Jesus instituted a meal that is The Ultimate “Table Fellowship.”  

About 35 years have passed since Jesus gathered around the table in that upper room on Maundy Thursday night with his disciples.  There is now a Christian congregation in the city of Corinth due to the missionary activity of Paul.  These are relatively new Christians.  And sometimes with new Christians there are some “growing pains” as they try to figure out how they fit into their culture, not the way they used to, but now as Christians.

And this is one of the matters Paul is writing about in chapter 10 of 1 Corinthians.  These new Christians need some help and guidance.  It seems some had not made a clean break from the idol worship that had been a part of their past.  Some, it seems, were still involved in worship or attendance at idol temples.  Just before our text Paul had said, Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry. (10:14)  Just after our text he will say, You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons. (10:21)

“The Lord’s table.”  He wants them to think for a moment about the Lord’s table.  He says, The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a communion in the blood of Christ?  The bread that we break, is it not a communion of the body of Christ? (v. 16)  Paul knows there is a special table where the Corinthians have a special table fellowship.  At this table, there is a cup.  And they set this cup apart with special words.  They “bless” it.  And at this table there is also bread that is set apart for this special meal.  And this bread is broken and distributed.

Paul calls attention to a special “fellowship,” or “communion” at this table.  He reminds them, he reminds us, that the cup – really the contents of the cup, the wine – is a “communion” or a “fellowship” in the blood of Jesus.  The bread at this table is really a “participation” or a “fellowship” in the body of Jesus.  Here is ultimate table fellowship!  At the table of the Lord the body and blood of Jesus “fellowship” with the bread and wine!  At the Lord’s table, Jesus really fellowships with the recipients!

But here is where people sometimes stumble.  They way overthink things.  They reason, “Why would Jesus really give me his body and blood?  How can Jesus really give me his body and blood?  Jesus must have meant that the bread and wine represent his body and blood.  They are a good reminder of his body and blood.  Yes, that’s it!”  But that is not what Jesus said.  When he instituted this supper, he said, “This is my body…this is my blood of the new testament.”  Paul in our text isn’t emphasizing a “representative” correspondence between bread and wine and body and blood.  He is emphasizing a real “communion.”  A real “fellowship” of these things.

Friends, here is what I know.  I am a real sinner.  I do not “represent” a sinner.  I’m a real one.  The wrong I do does not “represent” sin.  It really is sin.  Sin is really present with this sinner.  And at the Lord’s table, Jesus really gives us himself.  The body of Jesus that was nailed to the cross, that body is really present and received in Communion.  The lifeblood of Jesus that poured from his sacred veins is really present and given at this table.  I don’t need “representative” forgiveness!  I need real forgiveness.  And at the Lord’s table there is real body, real blood, real forgiveness!  Let us not try to analyze or explain it; let’s rather find comfort in it!

There is one other component to the “table fellowship” of Holy Communion.  Paul says in our text, Because there is one bread, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. (v. 17)  We share a special table fellowship!  We are the body of Christ.  We are that new group of prostitutes, tax collectors, and sinners with whom Jesus is willing to eat.  Please don’t hold my sin against me when we commune together; and I will try to do the same with you.  As one repentant group we come to this table invited by grace.

We called Holy Communion the ultimate table fellowship.  There is one table fellowship that will be better.  It is the fellowship we anticipate each time we come to this Table.  It is the fellowship we anticipate with our post-communion prayer:  “We give you thanks, O Lord, for the foretaste of the heavenly banquet you have given us to eat and to drink in this Sacrament.”  The ultimate fellowship is the one we will finally enjoy in heaven!

Amen.