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MYSTICISM IN THE TABLE
Mysticism is a topic and term
that often induces caution from those who encounter it. Although mysticism is
nothing new or anything of which to be afraid, the misunderstanding of its
concept creates fear among believers. Alluding to the reality of participation
in the body of Christ, when the church experiences Christ through the
sacraments, mysticism becomes a tangible comprehension rather than an ambiguous
discussion.
As a mystical sacrament, the Lord’s Table holds unique and manifold implications for the people of God and perhaps more than the sacrament of Baptism. The church must undergo the Table with the realization of its subject—namely Christ. Moreover, the Son is not the only party at work during the Table, for as with the Gospel, the Table includes Trinitarian work and a triune experience. The Eucharist is, thus, not only remembrance and observation but experience and participation in the life of Christ. In such a manner, the church participates not only in a sacrament but in a reality that transcends the mere eating of bread and drinking of wine. The Table, therefore, is an inimitable and mystical act of worship for the people of God in which the Lord himself invites his people to commune with him and involves himself in the life of his bride.
Who Is the
Subject of Communion?
Any act of the Christian faith
demands care in comprehension of the subject (i.e., the one who works during
the act). There subsists no disparity in the sacraments, especially the Table
of the Lord. The proper way to employ the Lord’s Supper is by a realization
that God himself is the subject of the sacrament (i.e., the Lord is the one who
primarily moves and works rather than the one who is often supposed to be
enacting the ritual). In Communion, therefore, triune God is the subject
through his action, through his grace, and through his active participation.
God is first subject through
his action in the Eucharist. Communion is described as “the partaking of the
consecrated elements at the Eucharist *, whereby there is a communion or
participation (koinonia) with Christ and in him with all the members of
the congregation.”[1]
The chief phrase in such a definition and indeed that one which God’s people
must grasp is “with Christ and in him with all the members of the congregation,”[2]
for the Table embodies the church’s union with and in Christ more than any
other sacred act.
God rather than humanity is
the one who employs his work in the lives of his people during the Table. Said
another way, an appropriate understanding of Communion involves a realization
of not the church’s work but God’s. As with salvation, God alone works to
glorify himself. The manifestation of Christ in the Table then is performed by
God rather than his people.[3] In
a cyclic manner, the church participates with Christ in Communion and is
changed by God’s work through obedience in partaking of the elements (i.e., the
more one participates in Communion, the more one is changed by God’s work
through the action).
God, moreover, is subject of
the Table through grace. God is the only one who may impart grace; thus, the
Lord’s action during the Table is essential to a suitable observation of the
sacrament. One may rightly wonder what is meant by the impartation of grace
through the Lord’s Supper. Such an understanding is not meant to deter from the
historic teaching of grace alone but is rather to recognize God’s unique
position as the giver of grace—all graces whether salvific grace or daily
graces that exclude that of salvation.
Although a common Evangelical
reaction to the possibility of God’s imparting grace through the sacraments is
negative, when one comprehends God’s graces imparted on all humanity and
especially to his own people as authentic, a shift occurs in the way God’s
grace is perceived, for God’s grace is then viewed as more than mere fire
insurance from eternal damnation and rather as an intimate part of the Lord’s
covenant with his people. Grace is not a singular and isolated element of God’s
love but a perpetual encounter designed to be experienced by the people of God.
Through the Table, therefore, the chosen people of God doubtlessly experience
the grace of the Lord.
Third, God is the subject of
Communion through his participation. The church is factually, accurately, and
precisely the body and bride of Christ without exaggeration—God’s people
comprise a body, which “the church, understood as the ‘community of faith’ or
the ‘communion of saints’, [and understanding such] is about safeguarding the
integrity of our faith.”[4]
To fittingly observe and practice the sacraments, it is obligatory for God’s
people to discern themselves as a part of a singular body (namely the church)
comprised of a plurality of individuals. Participation in the sacraments,
therefore, may only be practiced communally, for in such a manner, the
sacraments are offered to the Lord as acts of worship from a mystical body.
The Lord’s Table is a communal
act more than an individual expression. Thus, the sacrament should always be
employed corporately rather than individually (e.g., between couples in rites
of marriage or any other context that excludes the remainder of the
congregation in which the sacraments are employed).
God’s participation in the
Table is a mystery in itself, for although the church executes the actions of
the Table, God’s work is what makes the holy meal unique. More than
remembrance, the Lord’s Supper is a participation in and with the divine. The
actions of the church in the Lord’s Supper might be distinguished as the
catalyst or vehicle of God’s work while the Lord’s work in the lives of his
people utilizes God the Son as the means of such work.[5]
Believers might commonly but mistakenly view themselves as the acting party in the Eucharist, but truly, while he is assuredly the object of worship, God is also (and perhaps more) the subject (i.e., the primary force of work in the action). Therefore, to shy from the mystical participation in the Lord’s Supper would be to negate the teachings of the New Testament and the early church that the sacraments are participatory. Tertullian contends, “The unity of the church of God is a perpetual fact; our task is not to create it, but to exhibit it.”[6] As such, the body of Christ holds the unique privilege and sole right to participate in Holy Communion with triune God through the Table and experience his work as the subject of the sacrament.
Trinitarian
Work During the Table
Another mystical
characteristic of the Lord’s Table is the Trinitarian work of the Godhead. The
Trinitarian element of Christian worship is often seemingly neglected in modern
western Christianity. Nonetheless, all works of any person within the Trinity do
not subsist without glorification and complimenting of the other two.
Theologically, all work of the Spirit glorifies the Son, and all work of the
Son glorifies the Father. Similarly, the Father expresses his matchless love of
the Son and the Son of the Spirit, and together, all three members of the
Godhead exist in mutual and eternal love for each other. Thus, while the Table
certainly highlights the centrality of Christ and his sanctifying work on the
cross, both the Father and the Spirit are involved in the saints’ communion
during the Table.
First, the work of the Father
must not be undervalued in one’s understanding of the Table. In fact, often
referred to as the Great Thanksgiving, the overarching prayer of the Table is
presented to the Father through the mediation of the Son and in the power of
the Holy Spirit. Paralleled with the life and ministry of Christ, God’s earthly
work reaches its pinnacle at the cross, upon which he was sent by the Father to
die (John 20:21).
Covenant theology suggests not
only an overarching Covenant of Grace between God and his chosen people but
also a Covenant of Redemption initiated between the members of the Godhead at
some point in eternity past.[7]
The Covenant of Grace is the perfect plan of God in how the chosen people would
be redeemed while the Covenant of Redemption is the pact made by the Father,
Son, and Spirit as to how such love between the Godhead would be expressed. The
Covenant of Redemption, thus, precedes and supersedes the Covenant of Grace.
The work of the Father during
the Table mirrors his work in salvation, for through the Son, the Table’s
elements are offered not only as remembrance of Christ’s sacrifice but as
participation in the glory received by the Father because of the Son’s atoning
work. In salvation, Jesus’ redeeming work is trajected toward the Father and
for his glory; in the Table, participation of God’s people with the Almighty
serves to glorify the Father.
Perhaps, the most apparent
member of the Trinity involved in the Table is the Son since the command to
partake is ordained by Jesus Christ himself.[8] The
Son’s role in eternal salvation is central; so also is his role in the
sacrament of the Table. Historic Eucharistic theology advocates for the Son’s
literal presence at the Table—an inimitable aspect of the sacrament, as it is disparate
from other sacred acts of worship. The Gospel is Christocentric; so also are
the sacraments.
The Son’s role in the Table
subsists as mediatory. Since the Lord’s Supper is to the glory of the Father,
it must be received in righteousness, which is impossible without
mediation—namely the mediation of Christ in and through his righteousness. As
such, the Son is central to a proper employment of the Table, for without such
mediation, the church’s communion with the Lord may not be employed.
Union with Christ is vital to
understanding the Table. As the Eucharist symbolizes the atoning death of
Christ through the elements of bread and wine, it also symbolizes that the
believers share in the sacrificial death of Christ (i.e., the church shares not
only in Christ’s resurrected life but also in his death, as Christians die to
themselves). The Apostle Paul teaches, “…he who is joined to the
Lord becomes one spirit with him” (1 Cor 6:17).[9] Additionally,
the Table signifies a union with the Lord that is 1) unattainable apart from
his mediation and 2) based in the reality of death to self, as, in the process
of progressive sanctification (2 Cor 3:18), Christ increases and his people
decrease (John 3:30). The Apostle Paul writes:
Do you not know that all of us who
have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We
were buried therefore with him by Baptism into death, in order that, just
as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too
might walk in newness of life.
For if we have been united with him
in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a
resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with
him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we
would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set
free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we
will also live with him (Rom 6:3-8).
It is then the
mediation of Christ that affords union with Christ among the people of God. The
Son, therefore, is so crucial to employment of the Table that such a sacrament
is impossible without the centrality of Christ.
The third person of the
Trinity involved in the Lord’s Supper is the Holy Spirit. Often the forgotten
person of God,[10]
the Holy Spirit holds a unique role as the enabler, motivator, encourager (John
16:13, 14:16, 15:26, 16:7, Rom 8:9-11, Eph 2:21-22, 1 Cor 6:19).
During the Lord’s Table, the
Great Thanksgiving is engaged with triune God in the power of the Spirit,
through the mediation of Christ, and to the glory of the Father. Such an
understanding is necessary for Trinitarian work to be experienced by the people
of God. The Holy Spirit empowers the church to engage with God in communion and
to experience life (and sacrificial death) of Christ.
Furthermore, the Table
displays the Godhead’s eternal love relationship (i.e., the love between the
Father, Son, and Spirit is unmatched and transcends any other love including
the love between God and his chosen people). As a threefold and unified work,
when the Table is partaken, a participatory act unfolds by triune God. The
Spirit empowers and enables the people of God to partake; the Son mediates the
sacred act; the Father receives the glory; and the entirety of the triune
Godhead is honored—the Table is surely then an act of (communal) worship and,
therefore, must be shared corporately rather than individually, for if the
Table is employed individually, it is not the Lord’s Supper but a mere snack.
The Table’s Trinitarian work is evident not only in the participation of the Father, Son, and Spirit, but the church’s union with God (thus, the term, Communion). A mystical action, the sacrament of the Table persists in the church’s union with the divine, for she (the church) is the bride of Christ not in a figurative but in a literal manner. What the people of God face is not a war against flesh and blood but one that is spiritual (Eph 6:12). Therefore, reality of human life is spiritual rather than physical. The Lord’s Table is a sacrament of Trinitarian implications, for the Father, Son, and Spirit work amongst God’s people during the employment of the sacred action. Without the manifestation of all three members of the Godhead, the Table exists as a mere snack or meal; Communion, nevertheless, is a shared involvement for the people of God—shared between each other and triune God (i.e., Communion is participation in the body of Christ, with the divine, and with triune God).
Anamnesis
Rather Than Just Remembrance
The command of Christ to
partake of the Table in his remembrance (Mark 14:22-25, Luke 22:18-20, 1 Cor
11:23-25) should be considered the ordination of the sacred act of worship
believers now observe (and have for centuries) as the Lord’s Supper. Christ’s
command, however, should not be understood as a mere remembrance of the past,
although certainly such a type is factual. Communion, however, must be observed
as a present reality: as anamnesis rather than only remembrance. In three
primary ways, Communion is anamnesis rather than just remembrance:[11]
1. Communion
is a present reality rather than only remembrance of the past;
2. the
Table is communal rather than individual; and
3. the sacrament is participatory (by and with both the church and God).
The Lord’s Table first subsists
as a present reality more than a meager remembrance of a past instance.[12] The
act of Christ’s atoning sacrifice must certainly be remembered, which is why
the words of institution are vital to a proper participation in the Lord’s
Supper.[13] Nevertheless,
the church’s participation in the Table is not mere observation or mental
recollection but an active sharing with Christ himself: sharing in the
elements, sharing in Christ’s life, sharing in Christ’s death, sharing in
Christ’s resurrection, and sharing in Christ’s certain return. The active
sharing bases the sacrament of the Table on present reality. Participation in
the Lord’s Supper makes the Table’s aspect of anamnesis distinct from
remembrance. God’s people are not only presently invited to the Table of the
Lord but beckoned to participate in its sacramental reality: namely sharing
with Christ.
Second, the Table involves
anamnesis rather than just remembrance based on communal participation instead
of simply individual. The Lord’s Supper should always be employed communally,
and attempts to execute the Table individually (e.g., between couples during
holy rites of matrimony) are feeble and futile, for the sacrament of the Table
is ordained and designed to be engaged as one unified body between the bride of
Christ and her Lord. God’s people exist as a body more than as individuals. In
fact, the only individual aspect of the church is God’s work in his individual
people, which contributes to the edification of the body. Christians must see
themselves as a part of a body before their role as individuals. The Table is
perhaps the most evident sign of the bride of Christ’s status as a singular
body comprised of a plurality of individual believers who have been grafted
into the family of God, for when God’s people commune with the Lord, it is as a
body in union with Christ.
Third, the Table includes
anamnesis, as the sacrament is participatory (rather than observatory) by both
the church and God (mindful of the fact that God subsists as the subject of
worship and, thus, the term, Communion). A grave mistake is made when local
churches merely observe the Table without a realization of the sacrament’s
participatory nature. Moreover, such a mistake occurs when the Table is seen as
just remembrance rather than anamnesis, as the former involves participation in
not only a past reality but also present and future, for God’s work in and
through the life of his church is eternal. As such, communion with God is
eternal for the church.
The unique right that solely belongs to the people of God is communion with him, for only the blood-bought church of God, in the righteousness of Christ, may approach him:[14] indeed a grace and privilege that should not be taken for granted. For God’s people to precisely and accurately honor the command of the Lord, his Supper must be approached with an expectation of Christ’s presence in a reality of anamnesis. Vastly disparate from only remembrance, the Table affords the church the irreplaceable opportunity to commune with God through active participation in the life of Christ.
Union with
Christ: The Essence of Communion
Communion is an exclusive
sacrament and act of worship because of its nature: namely that of union with
Christ. Union with Christ is the essence of sacrament and especially in the
employment of the Eucharist. Union is more than partnership, for union is the
church’s intermingling in Christ’s life and in the life of his bride.[15]
The reality of union with Christ endures as a plurality of believers being the
church (rather than doing church), both positional and actual righteousness
among the people of God, and the church’s unique position as a bride—making
worship (and indeed Communion) a horizontal act rather than solely vertical.
The church is comprised of a
multiplicity of people redeemed by the blood of Christ. While earthly reality
suggests the church as a group of individuals, spiritual reality suggests not
only a part of a singular body but a part of the literal body of Christ (1 Cor
6:15-19, 12:12-31). The Apostle Paul teaches such a reality to the Church at
Corinth. Therefore, the church should live as an intact body of believers who
have been and are being radically changed (2 Cor 3:18, Phil 1:6) by Christ’s
perpetual work in his people’s lives—the implication is that the church should
live differently from the ways of the world and exhibit unity as a perpetual
fact rather than something for which is strived.[16] Said
another way, the church should be the church and not do church.
Church is not something to do
or attend (i.e., the church is a living organism rather than a place or an
action). The church should live in Christ’s realities (e.g., the realities of
mercy, compassion, justice, peace, joy, patience, and all characteristics of
Christ’s life). Being the church implicates the people of God in a
responsibility that is greater than what any individual many exude, for being
the church requires significant action that changes the world as Christ did;
the endeavor is greater than any individual. Such a charge may only be
accomplished by living in the reality of Christ’s life as a mystical body in
union with her Lord.
Union with Christ is
stalwartly tied to the position of righteousness both positionally and
actually. First, God’s people are found positionally righteous, for they are in
Christ individually and as a throng. When the Father examines the church, he
does not see the filth of sin but the righteousness of the Son so that the
church may approach him (i.e., the people of God are imputed with the
righteousness of Christ, although they have not done and cannot do anything to
earn it). The position of righteousness may not be attained by works, for if it
could, Christ’s substitutionary atonement would be unnecessary.
Positional righteousness,
however, is not the only aspect of union with Christ, for Christ’s work (in the
lives of his people) does not end with the cross. The Apostle Paul speaks of
the day of completion when God’s people are with Christ either through death or
the Lord’s return for his own (Phil 1:6). Until that day, Christ continues to
work in the lives of his people and transform them from one degree of glory (or
Christlikeness) to the next (1 Cor 3:12:18). Such a process is called
progressive sanctification, and it applies to all of God’s chosen people (i.e.,
no one believer is at the same place spiritually as another). In the process of
sanctification then, God not only accepts his people as positionally righteous,
he is also making them actually righteousness, and one day his people will be
so.
Finally, union with Christ
indicates the church’s position as a bride—the implications of which are
manifold. The church’s position as a bride implies not only the unique identity
as a body but also as a horizontally-functioning body (i.e., worship includes a
horizontal understanding rather than merely vertical).[17]
Anecdotally, a common misunderstanding of worship is that the act is solely
vertical (i.e., between God and his people), but such an understanding is only
partial, for worship (and especially sacramental action) certainly includes a
comprehension of the relational aspect of God’s people. To dismiss worship as
horizontal is to negate one of the most vital aspects of the church: union with
Christ as one church.
Union with Christ should not be restrained or modulated to hold an underwhelming aim. In sacramental theology, the church’s nature (that of being united and found in union with Christ) is indispensable. While both sacraments involve a horizontal participation, Baptism is seemingly often that which is understood as communal more than the Lord’s Table. Communion, however, is perhaps a more profound display of union with Christ than even Baptism, for the sacrament’s essence is erected on the basis of the church’s union with her Lord: one Lord, one faith, one Baptism, and one God who exists over everything.
The
Participatory (Rather Than Observatory) Nature of Communion
What must be understood about the Table (perhaps more than anything else) is the participatory (rather than observatory) nature of the sacrament.[18] The mystical nature of the Eucharist should cause one to observe the elements with a greater comprehension of participation in the body and life of Christ. With God as the subject of worship, he certainly utilizes the Table to work in and amongst his people and, further, in a Trinitarian manner. Moreover, anamnesis beckons the people of God to live in the reality of the life of Christ rather than merely remember it. In such a way, the Table’s participatory nature transcends a mere act in the context of corporate worship, for the reality of Christ’s union with his people exists into perpetuity. The participatory nature of the Table may not be overstated but necessitates a consummate understanding by the church—the bride of Christ.
[1]
Davies, J.G., ed. The New Westminster Dictionary of Liturgy and
Worship (Philadelphia, PA: Westminster Press, 1986), 182.
Certainly,
God is the object of worship, but Christian worship also acknowledges the
Creator as the subject who is the one working in and through his people during
the sacred actions.
[2]
Davies, The New Westminster Dictionary of Liturgy and Worship, 182.
[3] Such
an acknowledgement does not negate the instruction for or the responsibility of
God’s people to participate in Communion.
[4] Alister
McGrath, The
Spirit of Grace, vol. 4, Christian Belief for Everyone (London: SPCK,
2015), 80.
[5] The
presence of Christ should not be understood in a figurative manner but literal,
for surely, Christ is present during the sacraments—especially the Lord’s
Table. Such an understanding is not a recent device but a historically accurate
sensitivity throughout the church’s two-thousand-year practice.
[6] Dow Kirkpatrick, ed., The Doctrine of the
Church (New York: Abingdon
Press, 1964), 187.
[7]
While not explicitly referenced in Scripture, the concept of such a covenant is
evident in the teachings of Jesus—especially in the Gospel of John and the
replete mentions of the work the Father sent him to accomplish.
[8]
In such a respect, the Table is indeed not only a sacrament but an ordinance.
[9]
All biblical references are taken from the English Standard Version (ESV) of
the Bible unless otherwise noted.
[10]
Such a statement indicates the neglect of the Holy Spirit as an apparent topic
within the context of worship (e.g., music, prayers, sermons, etc.). The church
should seek ways to manifest the subject of the Holy Spirit in all facets of
worship.
[11]
Here it is understood that anamnesis is more that mental remembrance, for
anamnesis involves mystical union between God and his people as well as
participation in the life of Christ.
[12]
While the command of Jesus Christ is surely to partake of the elements in his
remembrance and, thus, should not be undermined, the nature of Christ’s
presence during the Table (Matt 26:26-28, Mark 14:22-24, Luke 22:19-20 in
addition to numerous scriptures that point to Christ’s presence when God’s
people partake of the Table’s elements) should also not be neglected.
[13]
That is Paul’s instructions to observe the Table and his words from 1
Corinthians 11:23-25. Without a recalling of such words, the Lord’s Supper has
not occurred, for remembrance involves an accurate account of the sacramental
institution.
[14]
The fencing of the Table is a historic topic of debate among local churches
(e.g., who should partake of and be allowed to participate in the Table). While
the church holds the responsibility for the sacraments to be employed properly,
one must recall that even Jesus allowed Judas to commune with him at his final
meal on earth. Therefore, although the Table is observed communally, rightness
of heart is prepared individually; thus, the church does not hold
responsibility for individual conditions in the context of sacramental roles.
[15]
What is said here is not to dismiss the responsibility of individual
spirituality but rather to enhance it by Christians’ conscious awareness of one
Lord, one faith, one Baptism, and one God over all, through all, and in all
(Eph 4:5-6).
[16]
See Tertullian.
[17]
Worship is horizontal in that it is relational not only between God and his
people (both individually and corporately) but also between the people of God
themselves.
[18]
While the thought of mysticism might cause some to be apprehensive, the truth
of God’s continuous act through the sacraments is assuredly evident during the
Lord’s Supper, for his work in his people’s lives is a reality that should not be
misunderstood during the act of Communion.
