Our view of the Lord’s Table is stunted, anemic. Too often we see this sacrament as merely quiet time with a snack. We reflect on our sins, which we ought to do. We reflect on what Christ has accomplished for us, which we ought to do. If we’re fortunate, we remember to reflect on the glory of coming into Christ’s presence, that we are at His table with Him. But it is a rare thing indeed for us to remember that it is we who are at His table. We usually come alone.
Communion speaks not only of our union with Christ, though it does speak of that. It also speaks of our union with each other. And the two are inseparably bound together. You cannot have union with Christ and not have union with His people. You cannot have union with His people without having union with Him. Communion is neither just me and Jesus, nor just me and my friends. It is Jesus and me and my friends.
Friends, of course, is not the right word for it. The communion of saints is not some sophisticated way of talking about fellowship. Rather we come to the table with all those who, like us, are in covenant union with Jesus. We come together as the body of Christ. We are not merely a collection of like-minded people, we are instead a collection of body parts, feeding upon the body of Christ.
Apart from the table of the Lord, however, we do not fly apart. We are still and always the body of Christ, knit together by the fact that we are knit together with Christ. And this ought to have a profound influence on how we see each other. Because we are in union with Christ we ought to look at our brothers and sisters as Christ looks at them, namely, as those who are in union with Christ. When the Father looks at us, because of our union with Christ, He sees Christ. When we look at our brother, we ought to see the same thing.
That’s not always so easy. How often we have heard, or made the lament, “Loving Christ is easy; it is loving Christians that is hard.” What we see in the church is not often terribly lovable. Our siblings in the church, like our siblings in our homes, have the capacity to get under our skin. We irritate each other. Worse, we sin against each other. How can our communion be sweet when we have to contend with so much contention and bitterness in the church? The answer is not found in some pop-psychology feel-good exercises to teach us to be nice. We don’t need sensitivity training. We don’t need a bootstrap effort to just try to get along. The answer instead, as is so often the case, lies in believing the gospel.
When we believe the gospel, first we believe that God Himself has already judged those sins our brothers have committed against us. There is no need to nurse a grudge when God Himself has been satisfied. Second, when we believe the gospel, we believe that we ourselves are utterly unworthy. We realize that we are still sinners, and that we get under the skin of others. We no longer take offense when we are not treated with the dignity and respect we deserve, because we know we deserve no dignity and respect. We know what we are, and we know that Jesus got what we deserve. And so we learn to forgive others as we would have them forgive us.
When we believe the gospel, we look forward in hope to the end of our salvation. We long for the day when we will be what we were redeemed to be, blameless and upright, when we will be in ourselves what we are in Christ. We will watch for signs that we are progressing, that we are growing in grace. And we will delight to see those signs manifest in our brothers and sisters. We will remember that we will be with them for eternity, and that we will, when we and they are fully sanctified, we will love them fully.
When we believe the gospel, we will believe that in union with Christ we can do all things, including loving the unlovable. We will not give in to carnal sloth, and rest in a merely future hope. We will believe that He is at work in us to give us faith and hope, and the greatest of these, love.
When we believe the gospel, we will, perhaps most importantly, believe that our brothers and sisters are in union with our heavenly husband, Jesus. When we look at them, if we would believe the gospel, we must see Him. He loves them as a husband loves His bride, and as our husband, commands us to love them as well. But we can do it because He is there. He is one with them. If we believe the gospel, we will not need Him to tell us when we gave Him food when He was hungry, when we clothed Him when He was naked, because we will already know that because of our union with Him, when we do these things to the least of our brethren, we do them unto Him.
When we believe the gospel, we will know that the Lord’s Table is not required to come coram Deo, before the face of God. We will know that we are before His face every instant we are in the presence of those who are in union with Him. We will enjoy the mystic, sweet communion of the saints whenever and wherever the saints are gathered. Wherever we are, He is there among us, because we are in union with Him.