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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.

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[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.