When it comes to the Lord’s Supper, the problem of the haves and the have-nots has always been a very pressing one. Recall that in the church at Corinth, there was this problem even with the elements of the Supper itself. But this communion is a time of unity and union, not a time for competition and vainglory.
Many sins are two-sided, and bring reciprocal temptations with them. For example, when men love to desire, and women love to be desired, this is an example of a reciprocal temptation. It is the same kind of thing with the haves and have-nots. The have-nots love to envy and desire, and the haves love to be envied.
Grace annihilates all this. There are those who envy you your place at Christ’s Table, but it is deadly to rejoice in this, wanting to be envied. You will be, that will happen. But knowing this is very different than having an emotional need for it to happen.
God has chosen you to be here. But what do you have in this that is not a gift? There is a difference between being highly pleased with yourself (“what a fine fellow I must be to get this invitation”) and being profoundly grateful. Both responses know something about the honor that has been conferred, but it is the second response that knows the nature of the honor—it is grace all the way down, grace from front to back, grace to the uttermost heavens. It is all sheer, unimaginable, infinite, majestic, sovereign gift.
Not only did we not merit or earn any of this, but we, all of us, actively demerited it. We forfeited it, first in our father Adam, and then again in our own career of sinning. But despite this, God, who is rich in mercy, invited us to come, to sit down with Him, to rejoice with Him, to commune with Him.
And we leap at the opportunity, although we are sometimes troubled by the fact that some of the other sinners around the Table appear to be taking advantage of the omniscient one.