The Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ

Reading: 1 Corinthians 10.16

In writing to the Corinthians, Paul had a number of specific questions to answer which had been raised by the Corinthians themselves. One of these was the problem whether it was lawful for a Christian to eat meat already sacrificed to idols. At Corinth there was every opportunity to eat such meat, not only because there were banquets in the temples in honour of the idols, but also because sacrificial meat was eaten at home since the priests would sell their share of the sacrifice at the meat-market. Paul was strongly in favour of Christian freedom in this respect, but did not want any implication that Christians were involved in the idolatry of the city. To him it was all good food, but if a Christian did knowingly buy and eat such meat - it could give offence to a Christian brother who thought he was identifying himself with idolatry and it could be a bad testimony to the Christian faith to some unbeliever. However, the Christian must certainly avoid the idolatrous feasts - such are quite incompatible with the Lord's supper. He argues that in the fellowship of the Lord's table there is a real communion, a sharing, a participation in the body and blood of Christ - the one word can mean all of this: "fellowship, having in common, communion, sharing, participation". So, he says, to eat at the table of demons is to be partners of and connected with the powers of darkness.

We are gathered together today especially to celebrate again the Lord's supper. What is the meaning of this act, repeatedly performed by Christians across the centuries? And what special demands does it make on us today?

The cup is blessed, the bread is broken and all partake. Does this mean that the bread and wine are miraculously changed into the body and blood of Christ? No, indeed. Yet to the one partaking in true faith they are vivid symbols and reminders of that body and blood. Indeed, as we partake we are invited to “feed upon him in our hearts by faith with thanksgiving”. These words bring to mind the time when Jesus, conversing with the Jews, called himself “the living bread that came down out of heaven” (Jn 6), and in particular his words, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life; and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink” (vv. 53-55). We are not surprised that the Jews were rather revolted by his words, for their laws prohibited entirely the partaking of blood in any form. The reason for this was given in Leviticus: “it is the blood that makes atonement” (17.11). In certain Old Testament sacrifices the flesh of the victim was eaten as a sign of communion with the God of Israel who had ordained these feasts, but the blood was sacred and was never to be drunk as in heathen rites. Of course, it is quite clear that our Lord does not refer to a physical eating and drinking, but the problem of the symbol remains. Under the Old Testament, atonement was always something incomplete and hence repeated. Under the New Testament, the atonement is complete in the self-offering of Jesus once-for-all on the Cross. Thus, we are invited to share in the benefits of this completed salvation. It is by faith in Christ. Who died for our sins, Who rose again from the dead, that we share in the atonement wrought in the broken body and shed blood of our Saviour. In the sacrament of Holy Communion, we remember and receive afresh what God has done. This, indeed, is the “communion (or sharing) in the body and blood of Christ”.

Paul saw that this communion in the body and blood of Christ had a great deal to do with the practical problem of Christian's becoming involved in the idolatry of Corinth. He said most forthrightly, “You cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord, and the table of demons” (v. 21). However, we are not particularly concerned with idolatry of this kind, and may well ask what special demands this makes on us today.

The Corinthians in question were, as we might put it, "trying to get the best out of two worlds" and also "trying to be at peace with two worlds". They saw the value and importance of the Christian message, but were unwilling to allow it to have the full claim on their lives, especially where their social well-being might be concerned. Is this not also the point at which we today try to partake of the table of the Lord, and the table of demons? at which we seek to reserve a place for the idols of this twentieth-century world?

Here is a businessman who realises the value of the Christian faith in his personal life, yet does not run his business on strictly Christian principles. Here is a labourer who is meticulous in his church attendance, yet shoddy in his workmanship and grudging in his service. The examples could be multiplied of the differing ways in which all of us try with one foot to climb the Jacob's ladder into the presence of God but with the other firmly fixed on the ground, and so we seem to be as one climbing while in reality we are quite earth-bound.

And so the communion of the body and blood of Christ brings with it a double challenge - on the one hand, to judge ourselves, so that we may not fall under the judgment of God; on the other, to resolve, in the strength of God, to yield our lives undeservedly to him. Paul seems to reason - if you are going to share in the benefits of Christ's sacrifice, you must realise that this makes unqualified demands upon you. Let us, then share together - but in faith, in complete dedication and in dependence on his grace.

© Peter J. Blackburn, Hawthorne Uniting Church, 3 March 1980
Except where otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the Revised Standard Version, © Division of Christian Education of the National Council o the Churches of Christ in the United States of America, 1952.

Back to Sermons