The bread and wine here represent and embody the most precious gift that has ever been given to anyone. You were redeemed, Peter says, not with gold or with silver, but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ (1 Pet. 1:18-19). This is a precious gift indeed. What kind of vessel should this be put in then? The biblical answer is that you are that vessel.
Just as the bread and wine have a representative meaning, so do the trays and cups here. They contain the sacrament, and learn a lesson from it. They are clean, they are prepared with care beforehand, they are set apart for this use . . . and they are humble. These vessels didn’t cost very much, but nevertheless they represent us, the vessels about to receive the elements of the sacrament.
God does not mind putting His precious things into humble vessels, but He does mind putting them into foul, putrid, unclean, and proud vessels. Remember what the apostle said—we have this treasure in earthen vessels. That is fine, that is a design feature (2 Cor. 4:6-7). But a humble vessel can be clean and prepared, just as a rich, ornamented vessel can be full of blasphemies, abominations, and the filthiness of fornication (Rev. 17:4).
As you prepare yourself to be a fit vessel of the gift you are about to receive, do not think that God requires spiritual ostentation. He actually requires the opposite. He requires care, thoughtfulness, and love. That is what it means to come to Him in a worthy fashion. Don’t try to encrust your cup with diamonds—as though He needed anything decorated with self-righteousness. He doesn’t mind that you are a little plastic cup. Just be a clean one.
We have this treasure in a little plastic vessel, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. You don’t have to earn what you contain—but you do have to contain what you contain.
So come, and welcome, to Jesus Christ.