The
Lord's Supper and Christian Mission
The church's mission is in
continuity with the mission of the
historical Jesus of Nazareth.
The synoptic gospels depict the whole appearance and history of Jesus in
the light of his messianic mission.
Luke 4:18f. sums up his mission with words taken from Isa. 61:1f. Matthew makes Jesus answer John the
Baptist's question with Matt.11:5f.
According to Matt. 10:7-8, the disciples are sent to the lost sheep of
the house with the same mission. The proclaimed mission of Jesus and the
disciples is about healing the sick, liberating the captives and preaching the
gospel to the poor.
God is love, but love as
sentimentality is not true love. Love has to go with justice. In the same way, peace without justice is
false peace. It has to go with
justice. Thus love, justice and peace
are not separable. Therefore the
Christian mission is a continuing friendship with the poor in which we share
the love of Jesus. The earthly Jesus celebrated the
feast with tax-collectors and sinners.
This common meal of Jesus are to be understood as anticipation of the
sacred banquet of the last days.
According
to the gospel of the kingdom proclaimed by Jesus, many will sit at table in
God's kingdom (Matt. 8:11, Lk. 13:29).
Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God (Lk.14:14). The synoptic parable of the great supper
(Matt. 22:2-10) clearly shows the unity of the kingdom of God and the
fellowship of the table. The Lord's Supper therefore has its
origin in the messianic feasts with his disciples and with tax collectors and
sinners. This eschatological hope and
promise of prophets is the background for the Lord's Supper. The Lord Jesus is the evangelist of the
poor and messianic host who invites the
hungry to eat and drink in the kingdom of God and brings them into the divine
fellowship. The Last Supper has a particular
significance and the church never celebrates the feast without pointing back to
Jesus' Last Supper 'do this in remembrance of me'(1 Cor. 11:23 ff.).
Between
the feast with Christ and the great banquet of the nations in the kingdom of
God lies the world's hunger and misery. The prophetic vision in Isa. 25:6-8
talks about the eschatological feast of 'justice and peace' shared by the
nations in the kingdom of God. The Lord's Supper is not a place to
practice church discipline. In the
Lord's Supper, Christ exercises his 'ministry' as prophet, priest and
king. He exercises in the same way that
he gave himself for the redeeming liberation of many.
The Lord's Supper is obeying
Christ's invitation to his ongoing work of messianic mission and a continuing
friendship with the poor in which we share the love of Jesus. The meaning of the Lord's Supper is
inseparable from Jesus' practice of
table fellowship with sinners and the poor throughout his ministry (Mk. 2:15,
Lk. 15:1-2). Thus the Lord's Supper is an anticipation of the
coming joy of the messianic reign of justice, freedom and peace in the midst of
present suffering. To the messianic banquet in
Lk.14:15-24, all are invited to this table, especially the poor, the sick and
the outcast. From this, we can see the
significance of the Lord's Supper for the Christian mission in the world today
for healing and reconciliation of Jesus Christ.
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