We noted last week that the cup we drink is the cup of the new covenant. One of the fundamental terms of the new covenant is the glorious promise that God will remember our sins no more. This, therefore, is the cup of God’s forgetfulness.
What of the bread? We are told that the bread is the body of Christ Jesus, and that we are the body of Christ Jesus. In this Supper, we are told to look to one another, and to see Christ there.
Now as you look around the sanctuary at all the other saints gathered here, what thought comes to mind? Is it “saints, ha!” Are you perhaps mindful of the person across the room, or perhaps sitting right next to you, who has done or said an unkind thing to you? And perhaps they did it just this morning?
But God’s Word remains sure, regardless of what men do or say. You are still (all of you together) the body of Jesus Christ. When God looks at you, He sees Jesus Christ. When He looks at you, He sees the perfections of Jesus. When you look at one another, you are commanded to see the same thing. This can only be done by faith, and it is a lesson that even the apostle Paul spent time learning. Even though we once knew Christ after the flesh, now we do so no longer. And for this reason, we no longer know any man after the flesh either (2 Cor. 5:16). There are many things that go with this, but surely one of them is forgetfulness. Love covers a multitude of sins. This is a Table of Love. So what should be happening here? Forget it.
Our minds rush to the scriptural exceptions so that we can establish loopholes in principle. And once we have the loophole, we can refuse to forget petty offenses against ourselves. If we are not to simply “forget” bank robberies, or serial murders, or such things that involve the police, then we insist that we must be permitted our little grudges. No, this Table forbids that.