1 Corinthians 11:26

‘TILL HE COME’

‘For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till He come.’

1 Corinthians 11:26

So St. Paul sums up his teaching about Holy Communion. He has shown that this sacred ordinance is in no way left to man’s ideas or fancies, either in its origin or mode of celebration. He has told us its source, whence it comes. Our warrant is Christ’s own institution. It is a memorial feast designed not by man but by the Lord Himself, Who knows our needs. It is a feast; it is a memorial. And as he tells us its origin and its nature, so too he tells us its duration—‘till He come.’

I. This memorial of the Sacrifice of Calvary once offered is to sound forth along the whole course of time, repeated in the ears of generations yet unborn, carrying on into the future the sweet accents of the love of God and the condescension of our Lord Jesus Christ. Before the eyes of men in all coming time this picture of Christ crucified, the broken bread and poured-out wine, are to be set forth, that we may ‘remember the exceeding great love of our Master and only Saviour Jesus Christ thus dying for us, and the innumerable benefits which by His precious blood-shedding He hath obtained for us.’ Within the reach of all Christians this feast is to be spread and the invitation go forth that they should draw nigh and eat and drink, and live for ever, until time shall have an end. ‘Till He come,’ for then the last echoes shall die away, the picture will be needed no more, the doors of the banqueting hall shall be closed, for the Lord shall have come.

II. There was need that its duration should be plainly taught.—The Apostle foresaw that the heresy would arise of denying the necessity of Holy Communion, saying it was only for a time, the need of it had but passed away. ‘Till he come.’ There is reason in this as in all else which belongs to the religion of Christ. The Lord has gone away from us so far as His visible presence is concerned, but only for a time. And in His absence the dying gift He gave to His Church is very precious, His last bequest dear beyond all price, the picture of His death fashioned by His own hands in His love very sweet to look upon. As often as we eat this Bread and drink this Cup and show forth before the Father the Lord’s Death, all He has done for us comes back to us with a living freshness, as when first we heard it, and a lively remembrance of His Death is ours. But we shall not need it always—only till he come; for then the need will disappear, when the Bridegroom Himself shall have come to His bride.

III. It is true, too, of the other ways in which Holy Communion is a memorial.—We show the Lord’s Death before the world. It is our declaration to a careless, unbelieving world that we believe in the Crucified, but the world will not require this preaching of the Cross then, for ‘every eye shall see Him and they also which pierced Him.’ We show the Lord’s Death before God. In Holy Communion we plead before the Father what Christ has done. In the very act and words of Christ Himself we pray ‘for Jesus Christ’s sake.’ It is the highest form of prayer we Christians possess. But when he comes, prayer will be changed into praise! Instead of pleading the Sacrifice of Jesus for our own sins and the sins of the whole world, we shall adore Him that sitteth upon the throne.

IV. Holy Communion is more than a memorial: it is a feast.—Not only refreshment to the mind, but food for the soul; not only a calling to remembrance what Christ has done for us, but a partaking of Christ; not only a gazing upon, but eating and drinking. And what are its benefits which are thereby conveyed to us? We are told in the Prayer of Humble Access. Strengthening and cleansing, these are the blessings offered to us. Well, then, this Holy Communion can only be for a time—‘Till He come.’ Yes, we shall not always need thus to be strengthened or cleansed; strengthening is for the weak, cleansing for the sinning. But when the Lord shall come we shall be made strong, our weakness made perfect in His strength. We shall need no more cleansing, for our baptismal robe shall be washed white in the Blood of the Lamb, never again to be stained with sin in that holy place where there ‘shall in no wise enter anything that defileth.’

V. What, then, is the practical lesson for each one of us?—Not surely to stand aloof from this Blessed Sacrament, as do so many, and neglect to use it. Nay, but just as the Coming of the Lord is a real event, as we look and wait, and pray for it, as each Advent season here points onwards to and reminds us of the day when He shall come, this Holy Communion, the witness of His Coming, must be very precious to us. It is given to us by our loving Lord for our sustenance in this earthly pilgrimage through which we are journeying, and each true-hearted servant must count it his chiefest privilege frequently, reverently, and regularly to ‘shew the Lord’s Death till He come.’

—Bishop C. J. Ridgeway.

(SECOND OUTLINE)

THE HOLY EUCHARIST

Many controversies have gathered around that quiet place of peace, the holy table. To-day we will shut out all these, and ask our Master to meet us. The first Lord’s Supper lives—identical and immortal—in the Lord’s Supper of to-day. And in it lives all He did, all He said, all He was and is, and is to be.

I. Ye do proclaim the Lord’s death, i.e. the tidings of it, to one another. As instituted, the holy service is nothing if not social, mutual. Scripture knows nothing of a solitary Eucharist. The rite has a mutual significance.

II. The Lord’s death.—That is the central message; the mortal is the vital here. The broken bread, the poured-out wine, the institution, all take us to the Cross. Every communion draws afresh the sacred life of atoning blood around all our hopes, all our life.

III. We proclaim His glorious life by the very fact of proclaiming His death. Never would the first believers have kept festival over their Master’s death, had not that death been followed by a triumph over the grave. Only the Risen Christ can explain the joy of the Lord’s Supper. He is alive for evermore, and He is our life. Feed on Him—everywhere and always upon Him.

IV. Till He come.—As the Supper is our witness to the part of the finished course and to the presence of the Risen life, so it is our infallible prophecy of the coming glory. Even so, come, Lord Jesus, adored and longed for.

—Bishop H. C. G. Moule.

(THIRD OUTLINE)

THE LORD’S DEATH

The Lord’s Supper commemorates Christ’s Death. No Life was like Christ’s: none ever was so full of light and love and sweetness. But Our Lord Himself, and the Evangelists four, and the Apostles besides laid the emphasis on His Death. The Lord’s Supper was ordained in remembrance, not of His Incarnation, but of His Death. There is a legend in the Lives of the Saints that the devil once appeared to St. Martin in the likeness of the Lord, and demanded from him obedience. ‘If thou art my Lord, show me thy wounds,’ replied the saint.

I. Christ was Divine.—He was God. The finished Sacrifice of Calvary was a Divine Sacrifice.

II. His death was voluntary.—Love nailed Him to the Cross. ‘Christ … offered Himself’ (Hebrews 9:14).

III. To suffer for the guilty is precisely what generous and noble natures long to do.

IV. In this wondrous death we see—

(a) God’s love.

(b) God’s wisdom.

(c) God’s power.

It is the story of the Crucified Saviour that melts human hearts and transforms human lives.

—Rev. F. Harper.

Illustration

‘A boy ran away from his home. His father told him never to come back again, as he did not want to see his face any more, and his son said he never would. But the mother did not forget her boy so soon. Her mother’s heart could not give up her boy, and she began to pine about him.… Well, it came at last to a bed of sickness, which presently proved to be a bed of death. The father went to his wife’s bedside, and asked her, “Is there anything I can do for you?” At first there was no answer, but he pressed her again, to see if there were anything he could possibly do for her. “No,” she said, “nothing, except this—bring me back my boy.” But he had said that he should never come back, and he was not going to give in. No; he would not do this. The next day the same request being put to her, she gave the same answer—“Bring me back my boy.” The father then wrote to his son, who was away, and said, “Charlie, your mother wants you to come back.” “No,” replied the boy, “not until father wants me to come back will I return.” Again the request was made of his wife as to what could be done, and again the answer was, “Bring me back my boy.” Then the father wrote to his son, “Charlie, your mother’s dying; come home.” He took the first train to come home to his mother, and when he arrived, he went into her room and stood on one side of her dying bed. The father came in, and stood at the other side. They looked at each other, the son at the dying mother, and the husband at the dying wife. They spoke to her, but not to each other. The dying woman at length said, “Father, won’t you speak to Charlie?” “No.” Then she asked her boy, “Charlie, won’t you speak to your father?” “No,” replied he, “he must speak to me first.” She pleaded with them, and besought them with her dying breath to be reconciled, but they would not. Then, raising herself from her bed, she took the hand of the boy and the hand of the father, and placing one inside the other, she fell back on her pillow dead. That father looked into the eyes of the boy, and the boy looked into the eyes of his father, and they both commenced to sob like little children. The father said, “Charlie, I forgive you; will you forgive me?” “Yes,” said Charlie, and, with clasped hands, they were reconciled over the dead body of the mother. It is a picture, and a very beautiful picture of reconciliation. Here you may be reconciled over the body of the Crucified One, over the Crucified at Calvary. But the picture does not hold in this respect: your Father is not unwilling to be reconciled to you, but He is pleading with you. I was going to say that His Heart is breaking for you.’