Pastor Steve Jones,
Grace Presbyterian Church
Contributor
Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
1 Corinthians 11:28
I have a vivid memory from my youth. It was communion Sunday and the church was preparing to eat the bread and drink the cup of Christ. The minister had warned against coming to the Communion table "in an unworthy manner" and encouraged all to "examine" themselves. I see myself, seated in the pew with my head bowed and my eyes tightly shut, trying to remember everything that I had done that might be construed as sin. I did not want to come to the table with any sin unconfessed or unrepented. I remember the sense of burden as I sought to "come clean," acknowledging all the sin I could so that I would be worthy to eat the bread and drink the cup. Desperately, I examined myself so as to scrub my soul clean enough to be a right receiver of the elements. Still, each time I would go to the table feeling somehow "unfinished," knowing that I hadn't worked up enough repentance to make myself a proper recipient. I was far from being able to perceive the Lord's table as "a cup of blessing." Instead, it was to me a fearful exercise in deception.
I don't know if my youthful perception of what constituted a right approach to the Communion was the result of the way I was taught or the self-righteousness by which I then practiced "religion," But I do know that it was wrong, abysmally wrong.
The Lord's table is not for those who perceive themselves to be "cleaned up," but rather for those who know themselves to be helplessly soiled. It is not for those who think themselves presentable, but rather for people who know that their iniquity has gone over their heads. The table is for sinners. We do not examine ourselves to try to minimize or control our sin. Instead, we examine ourselves to make sure that we are aware of just how utterly sinful we are. They who come to the table must know that they have no hope of acceptance except God be merciful to them. In other words, the Communion is for those who know, beyond a doubt, that they NEED a savior. It is not for those somehow competent enough to come, rather it is for those desperate enough to have no other hope. For them, alone, it is a table of blessing—the blessing of undeserved forgiveness.