The Lord's Supper
I took and handled holy bread
And hoped that it would be my food
At evening bell they found me dead. […]
The Lord’s Supper is a sign and seal of our mystical union with Jesus Christ. It is also a means by which Jesus unites the different members of his church into one body. […]
Whoever . . . eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body […]
Google “last meals” and you’ll discover an online fascination with what people chose to eat when they knew it would be the last time they got to do so. […]
The following is transcribed from the White Horse Inn episode “Discussing Our Differences on the Lord’s Supper” (August 26, 2018). The roundtable participants are Michael Horton (Reformed), Justin Holcomb (Anglican), Steve Parks (Lutheran), and Jeremy Yong (Baptist). This excerpt is lightly edited for length and clarity. […]
God’s sheep are safest when living in clearly fenced enclosures. There, they learn where food is given to them and where their shepherd enters and exits. […]
The Marburg Colloquy (1529) may have been the best chance the Reformation ever had to reconcile the early German Lutheran and Swiss Reformed parties into a doctrinally unified Protestantism. […]
The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.” (1 Cor. 10:16) […]
In his commentary on 1 Corin-thians 10:4, John Calvin makes an interesting comment worth briefly exploring on the sacraments, the ascension of Jesus, and the work of the Holy Spirit. Apparently, many in Corinth were hiding behind the efficacy of the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper as a sort of prophylactic against judgment, […]
Hospitality is a fading art. Of course, we still host and enjoy meals at one another's homes. But now they are often lavish with hours of preparation, putting out the china for the boss or for friends. It's hard to imagine what was normal not that long ago: making an extra bowl of stew in […]
That God takes a deep interest in food should come as no surprise. He created humans with the need for food. The first and last chapters of Scripture make references to food. The fall of Adam involved food. Israel's ceremonial law was largely centered on food. The Psalms frequently praise God for providing food. And […]
Word among established parishioners was that the death knoll for our parish was now ringing. This was it. The life-support system was about to be unceremoniously unplugged. And who would have thought it? After all, they brought in a young minister to turn things around, to get the contemporary service going, to give the young […]
Christian writers at their best seldom fail to mention that just as the Lord's Supper looks back to the Last Supper, so it also looks forward to the messianic meal in heaven, the wedding feast of the future, when Christ as bridegroom and the church as his bride will be united at the "marriage supper […]
I do not believe that I am overstating things when I say that the Lord's Supper is not taken very seriously in many churches today. Most Christians have only the vaguest understanding of what they are doing and why when they partake of the bread and wine (or, more likely, the mini-crackers and grape juice). […]
In recognition of the 500th anniversary of John Calvin's birth, Modern Reformation editors have solicited essays from a number of authorities on Calvin's life and work. Not all of our writers are "Calvinists" (that is, they would not all necessarily agree with him or follow in his theological footsteps), but each has identified a particular […]
