The Lord’s Supper is rooted in the actions of Jesus, who ate with tax collectors and sinners, who miraculously fed multitudes of people who came to hear him, who ate with his disciples a final meal before his execution, and who sat down to meals with them after his resurrection. The church’s celebration of the Lord’s Supper appears to have drawn upon these meals Jesus held and above all upon the Last Supper, with its dominant paschal imagery of covenant, sacrifice, and freedom.
Last Supper and Lord’s Supper. Too often in Protestant services, the Lord’s Supper has been interpreted solely in light of the Last Supper. While the cross certainly stands at the center of the Lord’s Supper, its proclamation is incomplete if it does not include the Good News of the Resurrection and of the freedom from sin and death it effects. The recovery of the Lord’s Supper in many Protestant churches will entail a recovery of the proclamation of the fullness of the gospel. As it proclaims the Good News of freedom, new life, holiness, and victory over sin and death, so also can the celebration of the Lord’s Supper contribute positively to spiritual formation.
It can be argued that the Eucharist (or Lord’s Supper) functions as the fundamentally stable element of the Sunday service. Other portions of the weekly times of worship can and do change according to the time of the liturgical, civic, or agricultural calendar. Each Sunday, the service proclaims a different facet of the saving love of God, and the changing readings, hymns, and sermons reflect that fact.
For those churches that celebrate the Lord’s Supper each Sunday, the Eucharist provides a counterpoint, a context for the seasonal portions of the service. It proclaims the larger context for the church’s gathering together: the saving death and resurrection of Jesus. Several advocates of liturgical renewal have spoken of the Great Thanksgiving at the Lord’s Supper as the creed par excellence of the church, for in it the saving acts of God on behalf of humanity are remembered in thanksgiving. As it does so, the Great Thanksgiving provides a constant reminder, a context for reflection and action in Christ’s name.
The Lord’s Supper can most adequately contribute to spiritual formation when it is celebrated often, preferably every Sunday. Some may consider that a weekly celebration of the Lord’s Supper is “too Catholic” or somehow indicates crypto-Anglicanism. It is worth pointing out that frequent or weekly celebration of the Eucharist was practiced not only by the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformers (Luther, Calvin, and Simons) but also by the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century forebearers of the “free church” denominations, English and Scottish Presbyterians and Congregationalists, and English Baptists. A recovery of frequent celebration for these churches will entail a rediscovery and interpretation of their own traditions’ thought on and practice of the Lord’s Supper.
--Robert Webber, The Ministries of Christian Worship, p. 319.
