When the Lord established this meal, He intended for His people to proclaim His death until He comes again. And this is what we are doing. The death of Jesus is the new testament; we say this as a means of shorthand—we do not exclude the resurrection and ascension of Christ, but rather speak of the whole in terms of one of the more striking parts.
Through the death of Jesus, we come to life. Of course, more precisely, through the death of Jesus we die, and through the new life of Jesus we walk in newness of live. Strictly speaking, Jesus did not die so that we might live. He died so that we might die. He lives so that we might live.
And so the entire congregation, and not just the preacher, proclaims the death of the Lord as we partake together of this meal. But take note, this Table should not be seen as a Protestant crucifix, with Jesus perpetually dying or everlastingly dead. We partake of the living Christ. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we partake of Christ’s death and resurrection here. We are being knit together with Him, bone of His bone, and flesh of His flesh.
We are being built up into a new humanity, which is the work of the Holy Spirit. He uses many means to accomplish this, but central among these means are Word and sacrament. The instrument that He gives to us to enable us to receive what He ministers to us through these various means is of course faith. Without such faith, no man can see, still less enter, the kingdom of God.
But objectively this remains the meal of that kingdom. This is the nourishment that is found there. And all who sit down at this Table are proclaiming, by that action, that they believe that Christ died, and that He rose again from the dead. They proclaim the gospel, in other words. So take care that your heart is proclaiming the same thing that your fellowship in the bread and wine is proclaiming. To do otherwise is to trifle with holy things.