Let it be said that
it is precisely at the communion table (as a microcosm of the messianic
banquet, an announcement of the advent of the kingdom of heaven, and a reminder
of Jesus’ ministry as it is so well summed up by His own meal practice) that
the past, the present, and the future become a single reality that is full of
mystery and wonder.
Not leaving behind
the Abrahamic covenant component of the communion, and its promise, reflecting the
Creator God’s intentions for the redemption of His creation and of His
image-bearers that would manifest itself in an acknowledging worship of Him,
that all nations would be blessed by Abraham and his progeny, one sees that all
of God’s past promises (with their present kingdom and future kingdom
implications) are being fulfilled whenever and wherever peoples of all sorts
come together to celebrate the table of the Lord.
It is at that very
moment, in which all stand before the covenant God, to lift the elements in
recognition of the universal Lordship of Christ, and to do so in a full
equality that is devoid of divisions and barriers to participation, that it is
possible to catch a glimpse of the glorious future that the Creator intends to
bring to pass for His world that He so loves, and for the creatures to whom He
lent His image. More than that, as one looks to the example that has been
provided by Jesus, at the meals at which He participated, the ceremony
(sacrament if you like) that He instituted, and the understanding of both that
were held by the early church, remembering that for both Jesus and the church
that He left in His wake, their vision of the kingdom was informed by Isaiah’s
beautiful vision of the messianic banquet.
With that in mind, one
is also able to rightly perceive that the all-inclusive table of Jesus---the
table that announces the kingdom of heaven while also confirming a desire to
participate in the outworking of that kingdom, while undoubtedly possessing a
Gospel communicating power that is able to move those who participate at the
table without having made a confession of Jesus as Lord, to come under the
conviction of such a confession (thereby informing all that the communion table
should be an open one)---becomes among other things, a unifying force that
breaks the back of racism, class division, and any and all types of social
ostracism, marginalization, or oppression. It does these things, at least
partially, through a reminder that goes out to all, be it individuals, groups,
or governments, that Jesus is king.
Knowing this, is it
not a shame that the breaking of the strength of that which often unnecessarily
divides does not occur each and every time believers gather together, as a signpost to the world
that, in the kingdom of God as represented by the church, the principalities
and the powers that hold an undue and illegitimate sway in the world have been
stripped of their authority at the cross and are now under a demand to submit
to the Lordship of the crucified One?
If one knows this,
and is cognizant of the charge that Jesus, with the messianic banquet in mind,
while preaching and embodying the power and presence of the kingdom of heaven,
was frequently charged with dining with all of the wrong people (tax collectors
and sinners), then how could the church ever allow divisions at the table that
was gifted to His disciples within what was obviously the same mindset?
On what basis can anyone close a table and exclude anyone from
participation? Do believers dare limit participation at the table of the
Lord (which is not an individual body’s table but the table of the Lord) to a
certain group of people that have met a certain set of subjective requirements
that have been established in what might very well be an air of unearned
superiority and unheeding forgetfulness of the example of the Lord of that
table?
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