A call tor restore the Lord’s Table to our weekly worship
We now add a sixth argument to our series. God has established enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. We participate in a spiritual, holy war. God prepares us a table to strengthen us in waging that war.
An argument from holy war
David says, “you have prepared me a table before my enemies.” I have argued that in the Lord’s Supper, we experience the rest of the Lord Jesus. Yet, according to Hebrews 4, “a rest remains for the people of God. We are a people in the midst of a war for the universe. This war is a cosmic war between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent.
We need the spiritual sustenance our Lord Jesus gives because we are going out to war. We are fighting against our three enemies, sin, the world, and the Devil. As participants in the mission of God, we go out seeking to take every thought captive to Jesus Christ. We need the assurance of the holy armor of God as we go out to this war. In the Lord’s Table, the Lord promises his peace and his rest as we walk in the valley of the shadow of death.
When David wrote, “you have prepared for me a table before my enemies,” he may well have been thinking back to the beginnings of the conquest of Canaan. The people of God enter the land. They have not obeyed God’s command to circumcise themselves while in the desert and so they get to work circumcising the people so that they may roll away their reproach before God. This cleansing is followed by a celebration of the Passover. They ate this Passover not far from Jericho. God set them a table in front of their enemies.
Christ has conquered the Devil, the flesh, and the world on the cross. The people of God work out the salvation that Christ accomplished. The people of God are involved in the mopping-up operation. We eat of Christ himself because we have been brought into the rest of the New Creation. We also eat because we need strength as we continue to assault the gates of hell. In the Lord’s Supper, we see the promise that Christ has already won. We also find strength in continuing to apply that finished work to the mission of God
Maybe you think that faithful churches today are insular. I tend to think so. Why does cultural engagement so often lead to cultural appropriation of the wicked works of this world? Why is the church enervated by secularism? The lack of communion is not the only reason for this. But it certainly provides a part of the explanation. We can say that the Catholic Church has the same problems, but we should recognize that the Catholic Church has so twisted communion through their theology and only until recently, through their practice, that it is no longer recognizable as true communion. The church fails to use the tools God has given her for cultural engagement.
Let us take in Christ so that we may have the courage to take up his armor. The Lord promised a helper to us, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit promises to use communion to strengthen us for the war. We all have demons to fight, our sin, bad situations in our lives, the mockery of colleagues, and the temptations to compromise and join forces with the children of evil. Why do we fail to grasp for that inner strength the Lord promises as we go out to the valley of the shadow of death?
The reformers emphasized that this meal is for assurance. How can we prepare a people to wage war against the works of the Devil if we do not give them this assurance?
