3. The end of the action, expressed by a command, shewing the
leave the authors of it without excuse. The most lively representation of his death, the comfort and end of it would be lost, which is signified by his blood.
Καταγγέλλετε, shew. Some take it in the indicative mood, as our translators, ye shew. It notes to us that by this ceremony the death of Christ is represented. Some take it in the imperative mood, and then the words are to be read thus, 'Shew you the death of Christ;' intimating that it is an indispensable duty, that as often as we eat this bread, and drink of this cup, we should have our thoughts and hearts full of the sufferings of Christ, meditations of him, and thanksgivings for him. It is not only a bare declaration of Christ's death, but of the benefits of it.
Till he come. It is a perpetual ordinance in the church. 'Till he come;' till he shew himself in his perfect majesty, that we may enjoy perfect glory with him. Till he come to judgment, when he 'shall come in that manner as he was taken up into heaven,' Acts 1:11. When remembrance of his death shall be swallowed up in the vision of his person, and fruition of the highest fruits of his sufferings, when remembrance shall be removed by sense. In the meantime, it is a standing monument and memorial of the sufferings of our Saviour.
And by the way, we may observe, that the church shall continue to the end of the world, because these mysteries are to be kept up till
Christ put a period to this form of the creation. And the church only is the seat and subject of these institutions; they were appointed for the church, not for the world, i.e. the unbelieving world.
In the verse observe:
1. The action, eating, drinking.
2. The object, bread, this bread, this cup.
3. The end of the action, expressed by a command, shewing the Lord's death.
4. The frequency of it implied.
5. The durableness of it, till he come.
Doctrine.
1. The Lord's Supper is chiefly instituted for the remembering and shewing forth the death of Christ.
2. The Lord's Supper ought frequently to be celebrated.
3. The Lord's Supper is a lasting and continuing institution, not to be put down at the pleasure of any men.
For the first; Doctrine. The Lord's Supper is chiefly instituted for the remembering and shewing forth the death of Christ.
It is not a bare historical remembrance of the death of Christ; for then.
1. Every profane man who assents to the history of Christ's death, and believes the acting of this tragedy on the cross, and hath a notional belief of the ends of it, might be partaker of this ordinance.
But the apostle puts a bar to that: ver. 28, 'Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread;' so, not otherwise. There would be no need of self-examination if it were only an historical remembrance.
2. A man could not then receive more unworthily, or incur a greater damnation in this than in other acts. But here the apostle fixeth a particular guilt of the body and blood of Christ when received unworthily, vers. 27, 29.
As Christ's death was not a bare dying, but a death with high and glorious ends, so our remembrance of it is not to be a bare historical,