1 Corinthians 10:16-22 - Homiletics

The Christian feast.

"The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?" etc. The text undoubtedly refers to the feast which Christ instituted the night on which he was betrayed, and the words lead us to look at that feast in two aspects.

I. AS A MEDIUM FOR SPIRITUAL COMMUNION . "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?" The shed blood and broken body of Christ are here regarded, and must ever be regarded, as the effects and expressions of his self sacrificing love. His "flesh" and "blood" mean his spiritual life. What was that spirit life that animated and controlled him? Self sacrificing love. This made him Christ, marked him off from all other men that ever lived; it was the very "body" and "blood" of his soul. When we are commanded, therefore, to eat his flesh and drink his blood, it means that we are to take his spirit into us, his spirit of self sacrificing philanthropy. This spirit is, indeed, the only true food for souls. It alone answers the two great purposes of food—it gives strength and satisfaction. No man can become morally strong, or morally satisfied, without appropriating the self sacrificing love of Christ. Now, in the true spiritual celebration of this feast, there is a twofold "communion.''

1. A "communion" of the disciples with Christ. They drink in his spirit, and by a living sympathy are brought into a close and. tender fellowship with him. Christ comes in to them and sups with them, and they with him. We are always bringing those with whom we have the strongest sympathy into our inmost being.

2. A "communion" of the disciples with one another. "For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread." "This verse explains how the breaking of the bread was the significant act, which expressed, sacramentally, the communion of the body of Christ. There is one bread, it is broken in many pieces, and as we all (though each receives only a fragment) partake of the one bread, which, unbroken, consisted of these pieces, we, though many individuals, are one body, even the body of Christ, with whom, as well as with each other, we have communion in that act." All who have a supreme sympathy for one common object will, by a law of their nature, be brought into communion one with another. All hearts will throb with one great feeling, all thoughts will flow into one common channel. Thus all true Christians are united one with another, as all the planets are united by circling round one centre, and deriving therefrom a common impulse, a common life, and a common order.

II. AS THE EXCLUSIVE PRIVILEGE OF CHRISTIANS . Paul speaks in these verses of two other feasts.

1. The feast of the Jewish priesthood. "Behold Israel after the flesh." The Jewish sacrifice was divided, a portion offered on the altar, and a portion taken and eaten.

2. The feast of the idolatrous heathen. "What say I then that the idol is anything, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is anything?" etc. The heathen had their feasts; they partook of that which they offered to their gods. But the spirit manifested in the partakers of both of these feasts—Jewish or heathen— would exclude from the feast which Christ ordained. In the one there was only a formal respect for Jehovah, and in the other, for demons and evil spirits. "But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils." None are to be admitted to Christ's feasts who are not in vital sympathy with him. "Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils."