Many treat this supper as a trip downstairs to the basement of self-examination. Whereas Scripture teaches that this is a heavenly staircase. You are mistaking the meaning of “examine yourselves” if you think it is a call to rummage around for the right set of spiritual feels. As if what God was really after in this Supper was you trying to impress Him with the knick knacks of self-righteousness found in a dusty box down in your heart, next the the old vinyl records and tarnished Little League trophies.
In one sense, this Supper presents a question to you. Are you in Christ? The answer to that is a simple yes or no. You aren’t in Christ if you try to answer that question by reaching for any variety of self-righteousness. Trying to rummage around for evidence that you have very pious feelings, or very good works, or an incredibly precise articulation of the ordo solutis is not how you should answer the question. Do you trust that Jesus was the Christ? Do you trust in Him alone for Your salvation? Do you believe that He was crucified & rose again according to the Scriptures? If you do, then come to the table.
The Supper isn’t an invitation to head to cellar and try to find some good works to impress God with, as if the Good Lord wanted you to be the evening’s entertainment at His feast. Rather, here is Christ. The fulfillment of Jacob’s Ladder, the bridge between God & man, the lone means to come before the Father and be welcomed with eternal Love. The Supper is an invitation to come further up, and further in. Christ in bread & wine brings you into Heaven’s courts. This is possible because by your baptism, by faith in Christ, you are in Him. And His promise to us is that where He is, we may also be.
So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ…
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