Proclaim The Lord's Death

For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. – 1 Corinthians 11:26  (NET)

Here in the first letter to the Corinthians, we have the very first, surviving, written record of the what has come to be referred to as the Christian practice of communion.  Though it was undoubtedly something that took place as part of a communal meal---as it refers to actions instituted by Jesus that took place at a meal, for us, it exists primarily as a ceremony involving the bread and the cup, minus a meal.  Even so, it demands to be understood within the context of the Passover, stretching the hearts and minds of its participants all the way back to the time of Israel’s Egyptian exodus, and therefore, it serves to remind those that partake of the elements of the extraordinary, intervening power of God, and of His actions on behalf of His people.  Surely, the Christ-event was and should be thought of along such lines.  Additionally, owing to Jesus’ messianic presentation of Himself, as He did and as He taught, the communion becomes a microcosm of the messianic banquet, which signaled, among other things, that God’s rule on earth had been established, that His kingdom had come, and that a new age had dawned---eclipsing the old age as God had begun reconciling all things to Himself. 

As we consider the message that surrounds the Apostle Paul’s presentation of the Lord’s Supper, as he mentions his having received from the Lord what he had already passed on to them prior to the occasion of the writing of this letter, it is curious that he concludes his recollection with the insistence and directive that “every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.”  Here, there is no explicit mention of the Resurrection.  Though we know that there are Passover and messianic banquet sensibilities at play, along with all that is implied by those things, and though it is obvious that a resurrected Christ is implied in the phrase “until He comes,” Paul seems to restrict the proclamation of the communion to an invocation of the Lord’s death.  By focusing on the Lord’s death, quite naturally, there is a focus on the cross---on crucifixion, and it seems to, at least at this point, as Paul writes to this particular community and as we situate ourselves alongside this community so as to be able to hear the voice of the Spirit that was at work through the Apostle, elevate the cross of Christ to a position of primacy in relation to the Christian meal table. 

Though at first glance this seems a bit odd, especially considering Paul’s pre-occupation with the Resurrection, along with the great dissertation of the Resurrection that will shortly be heard by the recipients of his letter, when we consider the structure that Paul has provided to this point, we find that this focus is not odd in the least.  In the first chapter of the letter, we find it written that “Paul wasn’t crucified for you, was he?” (1:13b), along with “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the Gospel, so that the cross of Christ would not become useless” (1:17).  Shortly thereafter, he adds that “we preach about a crucified Christ” (1:23a).  In the second chapter, Paul reports that he “decided to be concerned about nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” (2:2), while also mentioning that if the rulers of the age truly understood the message of Jesus, “they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (2:8b).  Though thoughts of the resurrected Christ naturally permeate the entire background of the letter, as there would be no church apart from a resurrected Lord, and though there is a reference to the raising of the Lord in the fourteenth verse of the sixth chapter, the movement of this letter suggests Paul’s desire that the Gospel be associated with the crucifixion, and therefore the cross.

Why should this be the case?  Why is it that Paul believes that it is the crucifixion, rather than the Resurrection, that should be the locus of attention and proclamation when the church comes together to take up the bread and the cup?  Is it because the cross, rather than being looked upon as a thing of beauty and as an object of grace, was considered to be the lowest place?  Might this be a reflection on the traditions then in circulation in which Jesus instructs His disciples to take up their cross and follow Him---willfully going to the place of suffering and shame as the means by which the kingdom of God is made manifest, established, and advanced?  Putting aside the fact that it was rather obvious that there were individuals in the church at Corinth that needed to be reminded of the willingness to endure suffering and shame that is demanded of those that proclaim loyalty to Jesus, which is made clear by the language that precedes Paul’s recitation of the tradition of the Lord’s Supper, the focus on the death of the Christ situates those who share at this table at the foot of the cross, identified with their crucified Lord, and branded as He was, as foolish and shameful---as failures according to the way the world has always looked at things.

What will it mean to be identified with a crucified Christ?  As the new age, signaled by the Resurrection, looms large in the background, what will it mean to truly proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes?  Paul provides his hearers with a guide in the fourth chapter of the letter.  As we listen, we consider the communion in which we so gratefully participate.  We find that this guide is indelibly stamped by Jesus’ crucifixion as we hear “For, I think God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, as men condemned to die, because we have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to people. We are fools for Christ… We are weak… we are dishonored!  To the present hour we are hungry and thirsty, poorly clothed, brutally treated, and without a roof over our heads.  We do hard work, toiling with our own hands.  When we are verbally abused, we respond with a blessing, when persecuted, we endure, when people lie about us, we answer in a friendly manner.  We are the world’s dirt and scum, even now” (4:9-13). 

May we indeed be empowered to be the spectacle of the cross to an on-looking world, proclaiming the Lord’s death at His table and in the world in which He reigns---demonstrating that reign as we live as a community that embodies the cross.  Let us not take up the bread and the cup alone, but indeed, let us commit to taking up that vile instrument of death and of the power that attempts to stand against the purpose of our God, gladly enduring its foolishness, its suffering, and its shame so that our Lord and our God might be glorified, that His kingdom might be extended, and that we may sincerely and faithfully attempt to always and forever remain its humble tradents, adherents, and servants.