Luke 22: The Lord's Supper, Examining Yourself Before Communion

Introduction

"We do not have seven sacraments, but we have two ordinances." With these words, Tino Di Domenico, pastor of the Pentecostal Evangelical Christian Church of Seriate, near Bergamo, opens a Bible study on the Lord's Supper, a few days before Sunday the 18th, when the church will celebrate it.

The context is concrete: eight people have just been baptized and are about to take the Lord's Supper for the first time. The pastor wants everyone to know what they are doing when the little cup arrives in front of them. He starts from Luke 22:14-20, goes through the Old Testament Passover, then dwells at length on 1 Corinthians 10 and 11.

His message comes down to one idea: the Lord's Supper belongs neither to the church nor to you, it is "the Lord's." You come to it as a guest, after examining yourself.

Outline of the message

1. Two ordinances left to the church

The first ordinance is baptism: "Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 28:19). The second is the Lord's Supper: "Do this in remembrance of me."
Everything changes fast, and excessive modernization leaves one perplexed. But there are anchor points, things that are impassable and can in no case be crossed. The pastor tells of having seen, in Brazil, a Holy Supper celebrated with Coca-Cola.
Baptism is unique: you are baptized only once, fully aware, in sound doctrine. The Lord's Supper, on the other hand, is repeated.
"Baptism is an explosion of joy; the Lord's Supper is something more intimate, more inward."

2. "I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you"

A few days earlier, Jesus had entered Jerusalem to cries of "Hosanna." He knew that those who shouted "Hosanna" would soon shout "Crucify him."
When the hour came, he sat at the table with the apostles and said to them: "I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer" (Luke 22:15). It is the last time he eats with them, and what we do for the last time takes on extraordinary importance.
The Passover recalled the deliverance from Egypt. All the feasts find their fulfillment in Christ. The pastor warns against those who call themselves modern and yet return to traditions.
"I will not eat it again": Jesus ascended to heaven with his body, and he will return in the same way (Acts 1:11).
Jesus takes a cup and says: "Take this and share it among yourselves" (Luke 22:17). Then, after supper, he gives another cup: "This cup is the new covenant in my blood." He does not set out procedures, chalice, small cups or trays: he says what it means.
When the church moved from the common chalice to small cups, the pastor received a lot of criticism. One experience had nevertheless convinced him: when he first arrived, while his wife was pregnant, he visited a young man at the end of his life whose illness no one had told him about. They took the Lord's Supper with him from the same cup, and, following the custom of the time, the pastor and his wife drank last. After the young man's death, he learned that he had been suffering from serious illnesses. He wondered what he would answer to believers who might reproach him for having made them drink from the same cup knowing the risk. "The Bible also says not to put God to the test." When you know a risk exists, you have to be careful: this traditional firmness, he concludes, has nothing to do with the Word.
"Very often, by dint of discussing procedures, we forget the powerful and profound meaning of the cup of the new covenant."

3. A meal that belongs to the Lord

"When you come together, it is not the Lord's supper that you eat" (1 Corinthians 11:20). Whose meal is it? The Lord's. The church does not own it and cannot do with it as it pleases.
He is the one who organized it, who invites us to it, and who put the essential ingredients into it: the bread and the wine, the body and blood of Jesus. We come to it not as someone who deserves it, but as a guest.
Taking the Lord's Supper alone at home amounts, in a way, to detaching yourself from the body. For someone who is bedridden, the church brings the Lord's Supper to the home, and it has done so many times for the sick.
In Acts 2:42, the three thousand converts had no pastors, no deacons, no building. They met in homes, "continued steadfastly in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread." They did not avoid each other, they sought each other out: this was koinonia.
The pastor warns against a trend that claims the church should meet only in homes. The first believers did so because there was not yet a place of worship.

4. What the bread and the wine are

"The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a sharing of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a sharing of the body of Christ?" (1 Corinthians 10:16). Paul does not say "this is the blood," he says "this is the communion."
The pastor reviews the doctrines: transubstantiation, formulated in ancient times and then reaffirmed at the Council of Trent against Protestant doctrine, according to which the bread and wine disappear to become the body and blood of Jesus; Luther's consubstantiation, in which the body and blood are added to the bread and wine; the spiritual presence in Calvin. He rejects them all.
The bread stays bread and the wine stays wine. With humor, he points out the coughing fits after communion: many are allergic to sulfites.
"He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me" (John 6:56). When Jesus says "I am the door" or "I am the way," he is not speaking of a physical door or road: these are images to help us understand.
"The heavens cannot contain me. How could we want to put Jesus in a little cup?" The Lord's Supper is a memorial: "Do this in remembrance of me."
Symbols are important, but we must not idolize them. They carry a memory that touches the heart, the emotions, the mind and the will.

5. The cups of the Passover

In Egypt, it was the blood of the lamb on the doorposts that saved the houses of Israel (Exodus 12:26-27). The word Passover comes from "passing over": the destroyer passed by when he saw the blood. At Sinai, Moses sprinkles the people and says: "This is the blood of the covenant" (Exodus 24:8).
In the Jewish Passover meal, there was not one cup, but five. The first, the cup of sanctification, was filled to the brim as a sign of blessing. People washed their hands and drank reclining on the left side, as free men, whereas in Egypt they had eaten standing, with their loins girded.
The second, the cup of proclamation: the youngest asked "Why is this night different from all other nights?", and the father told of God's faithfulness, pouring out a drop for each of the ten plagues.
The pastor distinguishes remembrance from commemoration: remembrance leaves you a spectator of a distant event, commemoration makes you take part in the present in an event of the past.
The third, the cup of blessing, came after the meal and the lamb. It is the one Jesus took and gave to his own. The fourth, the cup of praise, accompanied Psalms 115 to 118. The fifth, the cup of Elijah, was not drunk: the door was opened in symbolic expectation of the messenger who announces the Messiah.
"This cup replaces the one before." The pastor warns against those who replace the Lord's Supper with these rites and begin to judaize again: in history and culture, that is fine; in the celebration, it is mixing things up.

6. Let each person examine themselves

In Corinth, a city divided between the rich and the dockworkers of the port, the rich ate and got drunk without waiting for the poorest, who arrived hungry. Paul writes: "I do not praise you" (1 Corinthians 11:17-22).
He brings them back to the upper room (1 Corinthians 11:23-26). The Lord's Supper looks to the past, regulates the present and announces the future: "You proclaim the Lord's death until he comes."
Some believers, angry with someone, decide not to come to church on the Sunday of the Lord's Supper. "It is not absence from the Lord's Supper that saves you."
"Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord" (1 Corinthians 11:27). The pastor says a "danger of death" sign should be put on the trays.
Verse 28 does not say "let each person examine the brothers and sisters," but "let each person examine himself." When you begin to examine yourself, to think about your faults and the promises you have not kept, there is no room left to examine others.
When the cup comes near, ask yourself: "Am I taking poison or am I taking life?" The problem is not in the liquid, it is in the heart. If you say "Lord, I am unworthy, but you show me grace," eat and drink. If you think you are better than others, you provoke God.
"For this cause many among you are weak and sickly, and not a few sleep" (1 Corinthians 11:30). Not every illness comes from this, the pastor specifies, but some ills come from poorly managing one's spiritual life. And one can die in many ways: in one's ministry, one's calling, one's gifts.
The remedy: "For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged" (1 Corinthians 11:31). When God corrects us, "the touchy take offense, the saints thank God."
The body of the Lord is the church, full of flaws "because you are in it and I am in it." The pastor warns against the "stay-at-home faith" of those who pray only at home.

7. One table, communion and reconciliation

"Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body" (1 Corinthians 10:17). What puts us in communion is neither culture, nor skin color, nor dialect, but the bread. To withdraw from the fellowship of the brothers and sisters is to despise the body of Christ.
"You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons" (1 Corinthians 10:21). The Lord's Supper says: I belong to Christ and to Christ alone. It is at once inclusive and separating.
The tray is not taken out of anyone's hands. The church proclaims, then each person bears his or her own responsibility. It does, however, recommend that those living in an unworthy situation, such as cohabitation outside marriage, not take it.
Like the three thousand of Acts 2, who were baptized before breaking bread, the church gives the Lord's Supper to those who were baptized in water as adults and who understand what it means.
Drawing on Matthew 5:23-24, the pastor says: if, as you are about to take your cup, you remember that your brother has something against you, set it down and go be reconciled. The pioneers would go to brothers and sisters they had fallen out with, carrying bread and wine, and would not leave without having taken the Lord's Supper together.
On frequency, the Bible leaves freedom: every day in the homes (Acts 2:46), on the first day of the week at Troas (Acts 20:7), "when you come together." What matters is knowing what you are about to do.

Key takeaways

The Lord's Supper is "the Lord's": he organized it, he provided its elements, and we come to it as guests.
The bread stays bread and the wine stays wine. The Lord's Supper is a communion and a memorial, not a transformation of the elements.
The cup of the new covenant replaces the cups of the Passover: there is no need to go back to the old rites.
"Let each person examine himself": look inward first, before looking around you.
We do not take the Lord's Supper angry with a brother or sister: reconciliation comes before the offering.

Personal application

When the cup comes near you, do you know what you are taking, and in what state of heart you are taking it?
Is there someone you are angry with and need to go and see before the next Lord's Supper, to ask forgiveness or to forgive?
Do you catch yourself examining others more than yourself? What does the Lord show you when you place yourself before him?
How do you receive God's correction: by taking offense or by thanking him?
Has your faith become "stay-at-home," or do you seek communion with your brothers and sisters despite their flaws?

Verses cited

Frequently asked questions

Do the bread and wine become the body and blood of Jesus?

No, according to Tino Di Domenico. The bread stays bread and the wine stays wine. In 1 Corinthians 10:16, Paul speaks of "communion" with the body and blood of Christ. Just as when Jesus says "I am the door," these are images to help us understand. The Lord's Supper is a memorial: "Do this in remembrance of me."

What does it mean to take the Lord's Supper "unworthily"?

It means coming to the table thinking you are better than others, staying angry with a brother or sister, or holding bitterness in your heart. The remedy, says the pastor, is to examine yourself (1 Corinthians 11:28-31): acknowledge your faults and ask the Lord for grace, whose blood cleanses us from all sin.

Who can take part in the Lord's Supper?

In his church, Tino Di Domenico gives the Lord's Supper to those who were baptized in water as adults and who understand what it means, like the three thousand in Acts 2. He never takes the tray away from anyone, but he recommends that those living in an unworthy situation abstain.