We come here to eat and drink. But this is not food from our cupboards at home—this is heavenly food. But it is not heavenly food because there is anything ethereal or magic about the food itself—this is ordinary wine and this is ordinary bread.
So how then is it extraordinary? If this is ordinary bread then how does it differ from the ordinary bread we eat at home? How does it differ from the ordinary wine we drink at a restaurant?
The thing that makes it special is the intent, the setting, the occasion. In short, this wine and this bread are set apart for holy use, and we use them in this ritual, a ritual specified for us in the Bible. We are told that when we do this, calling on the name of the Lord, that He will meet us here, and commune with us.
There are transformations occurring here, but not in the bread and wine. They are not being turned into the body and blood of Jesus—rather, by the faithful use of them in this specified ritual, we are being turned into the body and blood of the Lord. We are being grown up into the perfect man, the Lord Jesus, the Scriptures tell us.
There is a miracle here. There is a transformation happening. But God is getting these extraordinary results by ordinary means. Do not look at the Table for any miracle. The miracle is happening in all the chairs. Sinners are being made fit for everlasting communion with a holy God, and one of the means that God is using to bring this about is this simple ritual.
He does similar things with other ordinary means. Paper and ink are ordinary, and the paper and ink that make up your Bible are the same kind of paper and ink that make up ordinary books—even sinful and wicked books. That doesn’t matter; what matters is that the Bible comes to you as the word of life regardless. It is the same here.
So don’t have the wrong kind of faith in this ritual. It is not supercharged. But don’t think of it as “just” bread and wine either. God has plans for you, and He is using these means.