As was noted at the Good Friday service, the Lord Jesus at the Last Supper gave bread to Judas. The apostle John says that after this identification of him, Satan entered him and he went out into the night.
There is an important sense in which we should fence the Table, and this is what excommunication does. But I am afraid that too many of us want to protect the Table with the officiousness of an Uzzah protecting the ark. However, the ark did not need protecting—Uzzah needed protecting.
Charles Spurgeon was once asked how he would defend the Scriptures. “Defend the Scriptures?” he replied. “I would as soon defend a lion.”
The Table the Lord established at that Last Supper did not need to be protected from the likes of Judas. Judas was the one who needed refuge, and he would not take refuge in the only place that could be found. Judas died shortly after his treachery settled in upon him, and the Lord’s Supper is still being faithfully honored and observed two millennia later.
For those who come in simple faith, the Table fences us. The Lord is our shield and protector—it is not the other way around. And when we approach the Table in this faith, and declare the Word that accompanies the sacrament with authority, people who do not want the Lord to protect them (on His terms) flee from it.
But we are not in that position. We have come. We want to be fed. We gather to receive the Lord’s kindness to us—and He offers it to you here.