LORD'S SUPPER

The Lord's Supper

The Lord's Supper Essay

Introduction

The Lord's Supper represents significant part of church life. Unfortunately, much of what is taught and discussed about the Lord's Supper does not focus on the things that Paul focused on. This paper hopefully will force others to think about the Supper in light of what Scripture teaches rather than just in light of our church traditions.

Discussion and Analysis

Most of the New Testament's teaching about the Lord's Supper is negative rather than positive. That is, most of the teaching of the NT tells us what not to do rather than what to do. There really is very little teaching about the Lord's Supper to begin with. The Synoptics mention the institution of the Supper (Matt. 26:26-29; Mark 14:22-25; Luke 22:15-20) in the context of Passover with John only mentioning the Passover meal and the dipping of the sop (John 13:21-30, in the context of the discussion about Jesus' impending betrayal). These passages are descriptive, though Paul apparently saw them as prescriptive since he “hands them down” to the churches he establishes. There are a few passages in the Acts that mention the Lord's Supper (assuming that the phrase “breaking (of) bread” in its various forms is a reference to the Lord's Supper) such as Acts 2:42 and Acts 20:7f. These verses are descriptive rather than prescriptive in that they explain what happened more than they tell us what we should do, but they do give us some idea of what the Supper was like in the Apostolic era and thus provide a guide for our understanding of how they viewed the Supper (Harrison, 1976).

Paul may be referring to the Supper in 1 Cor. 10:16-17 and he most certainly is referring to it in v. 21. Here he does not prescribe how the Supper is to be observed but uses the observance of the Supper to illustrate the ethical implications of idolatry. Paul talks at length about the Supper in 1 Cor. 11:17-34. This passage is the longest, and only, sustained passage in the entire New Testament with prescriptive about the Supper. In vv. 17-22, Paul gives negative teaching (telling them what not to do) to correct the misbehavior related to the Supper's observance in Corinth. In vv. 27-34, Paul draws out the implications of an improper practice of the Supper. These two passages surround Paul's teaching of the Supper in vv. 23-26 (using the words pa???aß?? and pa??d??a, words used to refer to the handing down of sacred teachings or traditions). The prescriptive teaching in these verses does not differ substantially from what is stated descriptively in the Gospels (McDonnell, 1967).

Much of the teaching regarding the Lord's Supper has to do with issues such as who may properly partake of the Supper, what are the proper elements of the Supper (leavened vs. unleavened bread, wine vs. grape juice), and matters of personal holiness and confession of sin (the latter based on 1 Cor. 11:28). Having been raised in church, I have been present at many ...