Jesus tells us to do certain things in order to commune with Him. These things are not only to be done, they are to be done in a certain way. The service of the Passover was the time when He instituted the fellowship of the Lord’s Supper, and we are to begin where we are told to begin. He told us to take and eat, take and drink. He did not say, “Here, figure this out.” He commanded us nothing in regard to the metaphysics of bread. He did not urge to develop a highly refined theology of wine. Such things are okay—in their place—but that place is not here.
In this place, we are commanded to love Jesus Christ, and to love His body. We are show our love for His body by partaking of His body, along with the rest of His body.
As we partake, we are not partaking alone. We are communing. We commune with Jesus Christ, and with everyone that He communes with. We can (and should) fence this Table against any who want to live against God in a high-handed way, and yet still approach this Table. That is what church discipline is for. But we are not competent to fence the heavenly Table. It is His Table, after all.
How many people will be taking the Lord’s Supper today? They number in the millions. Because it is a covenant meal, and because there is so much unfaithfulness in the Church, more than a few are eating and drinking condemnation. But what is that to us? We leave them to their own master.
Our concern now is to remember that countless believers, from countless churches and denominations, are being received this morning by Jesus Christ Himself. You must, without knowing their names, receive them too, receive them in principle. And the best way to do that is by receiving your actual neighbor, the one sitting three rows back from you, the one with whom you have sometimes quarreled. Lay it all down. Put away the sin. Discern the body. Partake.