Key Verse 24
“This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.”
Today’s passage talks about two of the most controversial topics among Christian denominations: the propriety of men’s and women’s roles in worship, and the meaning of the Lord’s Supper. Surprisingly, these things which are intended to unite us often backfire into division and contention. So, I was puzzled to figure out what to write about this passage. But I found meaning in the word “worship”. The word “worship” is defined as “to ascribe worth”, particularly to God. Revelation 5:12 says, “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!” Worship is a lifestyle which reveals God’s worth. Specifically in this passage, Paul is addressing the matter of corporate worship which occurs at the Sunday worship service. May God bless us to worship Him as we study this passage.
First, Worship is Giving (2-16)
Let’s read verses 11-12, “In the Lord, however, woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. For as woman came from man, so also man is born of woman. But everything comes from God.” Paul wrote this letter of 1 Corinthians in response to a report from some of the Corinthians that there was division in the church. There were divisions among leaders, divisions between men and women, divisions between rich and poor, divisions over spiritual gifts, and more divisions. You can imagine how much fighting there was in the Corinthian church. At the root of all of these divisions was pride and selfishness. To summarize verses 2-16 of today’s passage, there was contention over how some women were dressing at the worship service. Fashions have changed a lot in the last 2,000 years. But there is a timeless principle in dressing as an act of worship and dressing for the wellbeing of others. In Corinthian culture, a woman who shaved her head was communicating to others that she was an adulteress. The Corinthians wanted to express themselves freely. But they did so at the cost of diminishing the glory of God and distracting others. This is an abuse of the freedom of the gospel. A self-centered person wants to be the center around which everything else orbits. Self-centeredness makes everything else a means to an end, by expecting all others to circle around them. Because of our sinful nature, we want to draw attention from others. This is not a matter of elegance verses simplicity, but of self-centeredness verses others-centeredness. Self-centeredness wants to be on the pedestal, to be in the limelight, to get love and attention from others, and to have others revolve around oneself. One of the qualities of God as a Trinity is that he is others-centered. C.S. Lewis described the Trinity as the dance of God. In fact, love can only express itself when there is another to give it to. Theologian Cornelius Plantinga said, “The persons within God exalt each other, commune with each other, and defer to one another….Each divine person harbors the others at the center of his being. In constant movement of overture and acceptance, each person envelops and encircles the others….God’s interior life [therefore] overflows with regard for others.” 1
In verses 2-16, Paul compares the Trinity with marriage. Let’s read verse 3, “Now I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.” Here’s where this topic gets contentious. When I looked up the word “head” in the dictionary, I got 36 different definitions. Among them, I like this one: “headship is the power to act on behalf of somebody else, or the ability to gain the respect of other people.” We tend to think of leadership as being more important than others, or having the power to restrict others. Neither of these is the Biblical definition. Paul compares the headship of a husband to a wife with the headship of the Father to Jesus in the Trinity. This is not the self-centered exercise of power but leadership that takes care to serve the spiritual, emotional, and physical needs of the wife. “The head of Christ is God” indicates that within the Trinity the Father has a role of authority or leadership with respect to the Son, though they are equal in divinity and attributes. Paul applies this truth about the Trinity to the relationship of husband and wife. In marriage, as in the Trinity, there is equality in being and value but difference in roles.2 As God’s creation, men and women are equal in value, equal in respect, equal as human beings having abilities, intelligence, talent, etc., but different in roles. Regardless of cultural changes, natural physiology tells us that men are made to be the supporters and women are the nurturers. But these roles are complimentary. In mathematics, a reciprocal is a number or quality that is related to another by the fact that when multiplied together the product is one. So, in marriage, despite differences, a man and woman have unity. Tim Keller said, "If this world was made by a triune God, relationships of love are what life is really all about."3
Second, Worship is Receiving (17-34)
It might have been better to put this part first, since we cannot give until we have first received. We cannot have the self-giving love that we just thought about until we have first received love from God. When the Corinthians met together to celebrate the Lord’s Supper, they had a major attitude problem. Paul says that some of them went ahead without waiting for anyone else. Some remained hungry while others got drunk. It was likely the rich that cut ahead of the poor or the men who cut ahead of the women. Therefore, Paul said that their meetings did more harm than good. It is clear that they did not understand the meaning of the Lord ’s Supper very well.
The first step in understanding the Lord’s Supper is to recognize the love of Jesus. Let’s read verses 23-26, “For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me’ In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” Verse 24, which is our key verse, explains how we worship God by receiving. Jesus said, “This is my body, which is for you.” The message of the gospel is that Jesus gave his life for us by dying on the cross. Jesus gave us the righteousness that he deserved and he took the punishment and the shame that we deserved. For this, Jesus poured out all of his life-blood. Beyond this, Jesus rose again, and by his power, he begins the work of resurrection in our lives, both now through the transformation of our hearts, and in the future through resurrection of our bodies. This is the great gift of God. No one can give more than what God has given.
More than recognizing Jesus’ love, we need to receive Jesus’ gift of saving love and grace in our hearts. Without it, we do not have the resources of self-giving love for God and others. Also, without God’s love, we lack a sense of value and wellbeing. That is why the Corinthian women dressed to be the focus of attention, and the Corinthian men, presumably, fought to eat the most at the Lord’s Supper. However, when we receive the overwhelming love and grace of Jesus, we have no need to demand others’ love and attention. In C.S. Lewis’ book, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the characters arrived on an island where there was a table filled with gourmet food. The food magically replenished itself so that it never ran out.4 Lewis intended this scene to be a symbol of the Lord’s Supper. The overflowing resource of God’s love in our hearts is more than enough for us to have for ourselves, as well as to share with others, and even to give back to God in thankfulness.
In the last part of verse 24, Jesus said, “Do this in remembrance of me.” There are differences between Christian denominations regarding weather the Lord’s Table is a sacrament or a symbol, but the most important thing is that it is a memorial. Jesus said that remembrance of him was the purpose for the Lord’s Supper. In the modern world, we tend to think of everything as getting old and outdated. My laptop computer lasted only a couple of years. Jesus’ death and resurrection happened 2,000 years ago, and even though we believe that it was historical, some people act as if it is a thing of the past. But Jesus death and resurrection continue to have power in the present.5 Jesus’ saving grace transforms people’s lives just as powerfully in the 21st century as it did in the 1st. Yet even though we know this, we tend to forget. Jesus’ grace worked powerfully in my life once upon a time, but those memories fade compared to the demands of busy modern life today. Jesus established the Lord’s Supper as a memorial to bring the power of his past death and resurrection into the present reality. The bread and wine are memorials that remind us of Christ’s body and blood that were sacrificed for us at the cross. The New Testament does not prescribe many mandatory rituals, but Jesus established two: Baptism as a proclamation of faith, and the Lord’s Supper as a memorial of Christ.
Let’s read verses 27-32, “Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment. When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world.” This week begins the traditional season of Lent. At our church, we call it Easter Preparation, but it means the same thing. It is a time that we examine our hearts. We gather more frequently to hear God’s word. We repent of our sins as we meditate on Jesus’ suffering and death for us. Many Christians at this time decide to fast, not necessarily of food, but also from worldly pleasures such as entertainment or shopping. The main thing is that we renew our focus on Christ, especially in celebrating the most significant event of his resurrection. His resurrection on Easter morning is the first fruit which gives us hope that we will also be resurrected at the last day.
In today’s passage, we thought about the meaning of true worship, which is to ascribe worth to God. God is worthy of our worship. He not only created us, but also redeemed us. God is a Trinity in which each person loves, exalts, and defers to the others. Like his own nature, God created marriage between a man and a woman. Though we have different roles, we have unity in our humanity and value. A husband’s headship is to take care to serve the spiritual, emotional, and physical needs of his wife. It can only be earned through respect, not demanded. A wife’s submission is also given, not demanded of. However we lack this self-giving love because of our sinful human nature. Only when we first receive the love of Jesus can we enter the dance of God by worshipping him from our hearts and serving others. In order to receive God’s love, Jesus died on the cross to forgive our sins and rose again to empower us with the hope of resurrection. Jesus also established the Lord’s Supper as a memorial to bring his past victory into the present reality. When we fail to receive Jesus love and grace, we become starved for love and attention like the Corinthians who disrupted the worship service with their self-centeredness. But when we receive Jesus’ love and grace, we are empowered to love ourselves, others, and also express thanks back to God. May God bless us with a true spirit of worship.
Works Cited:
1. Plantinga, Cornelius. Engaging God’s World: A Christian Vision of Faith, Learning, and Living. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002, p20-23
2. ESV Study Bible. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008.
3. Keller, Timothy. King’s Cross: the Story of the World in the Life of Jesus. New York: Penguin Books Ltd., 2011
4. Lewis, C.S. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. New York: Harper Collins, 1952
5. Stott, John. Redemption. Jan. 1, 2000. http://thegospelcoalition.org/resources/a/Redemption_3
