One of the great blessings of the covenant is that when we come to the Table of the Lord, the Lord is dealing with us. We partake of Christ in a special way here, and there is no way to partake of Christ with nothing happening. Christ is present here and He deals with us.
But He deals with us according to His grace, and not in a spirit of severity. This part of the service, where I say a few words just before the Supper, is called the Invitation. And it is a true invitation. Come, and welcome, to Jesus Christ is the constant theme.
Now we know that tolerating known sin in our lives is inconsistent with partaking of the Supper, but we need to think of this in more complete terms. Suppose you had that known sin in your left hand, and the bread that we pass out to you in your right. Look down at them both. Everyone knows that one or the other has to go, and that is quite true. One or the other has to go, but the next truth is just as important. One or the other has to go, and it may not be the bread.
We are Christians, which means that we don’t have the right to not partake of the bread and the wine. This is not something we are allowed to opt out of. We must come. The Invitation is an urgent one.
So this means that we are, all of us, called to come to this Table in a spirit of repentant gratitude. Sinners may come. Sinners must come. Defiled Christians are required to come. Rebels may not come while in that condition, but they must come as well. And that is why we come to the broken bread with broken hearts. A humble and a contrite spirit God will not despise. He binds up the brokenhearted.
This is a high Table, but it is not for the high hearted. But if the high hearted are baptized Christians, they are forbidden to come as they are in one sense, and required to come, just as they are in another sense.
So come, and welcome, to Jesus Christ.