Should We Enlarge The Lord’s Supper? (Part 2)
It is clear from an honest reading of the Matthew 26:26-29, Mark 14:22- 25 and Luke 22:19,20 that the elements were nothing more than one moderate piece of bread and one moderate drink from a cup for each disciple. The important thing was that it was the bread and cup that Jesus blessed and gave, just as He gave His body and blood. When all the disciples had eaten their own portion of bread and drank their own portion of the cup, this supper was done; it wasn’t about the amount, but the symbolism.
When instructing the church at Corinth about the Lord’s Supper, Paul quite clearly forbids making a common meal out of it. This is exactly what the church at Corinth was doing. Please note Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 11:20-22: “When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord’s Supper. For in eating every one taketh before other his own supper: and one is hungry, and another is drunken. What? have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? shall I praise you in this? I praise you not.”
Clearly they were abusing the Lord’s Supper by making it a common meal. Paul plainly states the Lord’s intentions to them in the next verses. The Lord took bread, gave thanks, and gave it out. He did the same thing with the cup. This is the pattern of the Lord’s Supper. The instructions that Paul gave to the Corinthians were meant to bring them back to an orderly (1 Corinthians 14:40) observance of this pattern.
God bless you, and I love you.
Kevin Cauley