On this episode, we conclude our discussion on the Lords Supper by making an appeal for a table that’s open to all.

Music:
“Kid Kodi”
Blue Dot Sessions
www.sessions.blue

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Episode #58 – The Lord’s Supper: Part 7

An Open Table

Thesis: If Luke’s theology of the Lord’s Supper is applied to the church’s practice of the Lord’s Supper, then the church must practice an open communion offered to all: Christians, non-Christians, and the disabled. 

Division Around the Table

Internal Division

• Rich and Poor (1 Cor 11:17–22)
• Denominational Lines (e.g., presence of Christ; Church of Christ vs. Everyone)
• Righteousness (e.g., criminals, members of the LGBTQ community, divorcees)

External Division

• A non-believer who has never been baptized
  • It is generally believed that the Lord’s Supper is an enriching activity for the Christian rather than the non-Christian. 
• People who cannot believe (i.e., low functioning disability)
  • Logic: If a Christian is defined by…(repentance, baptism, etc.), and a person does not need to perform those actions because they are unable to understand them and are unable to sin, then they have no need for the Lord’s Supper which is an enriching activity for the believer. 

Inclusivity Around the Table

Inclusivity in Individual and Global Christian Communities

• The Lord’s Supper invites all followers of Jesus to the table to experience together the unifying presence of Christ. 
• The inclusivity of the Supper breaks down the historic barriers between both denominations and different beliefs about Christ’s presence in the supper. 
• It breaks down barriers within individual Christian communities, such as between rich and poor or male and female. 

Inclusivity in All of Life

• By weaving the themes of Jesus’ acts of table fellowship throughout the Gospel into his account of the Last Supper, Luke challenges believers to reflect upon Jesus’ inclusive practices as they partake of the Supper. Partaking of Jesus’ body in the bread is a reminder of what Jesus did in his body, specifically for Luke, the way Jesus included the bodies of others.
• In Luke, Jesus eats with tax collectors and sinners (e.g., 5:27-32; 7:34; 19:1-10). On one level, this demonstrates Jesus’ willingness to be identified with those living outside the typical boundaries of righteousness for faithful Jews. On another level, Jesus is fellowshipping with those excluded by the Jewish leaders (i.e., the Pharisees) because of their sinful or treasonous lifestyle. In the eyes of the Pharisees, for Jesus to associate with such people is for him to support a lifestyle that is contrary to the Law and threatens to bring God’s judgment upon the people.
• However, any application of Jesus’ fellowship with tax collectors and sinners in Luke must account for the theme of forgiveness or “release.” Jesus does not merely share a table with tax collectors and sinners; in Luke, he calls them to repentance. Levi is identified as a “sinner” in need of “repentance” (Luke 5:32). The lost parables of Luke 15, a defense by Jesus of his table fellowship with tax collectors and sinners, illustrate the desirability of sinners coming to repentance.
• The question Christians must ask themselves upon “remembrance” of the inclusivity of Jesus’ table, as they partake of the Lord’s Supper at Christ’s table, is whether they are extending the same inclusive invitation, characteristic of the kingdom, as Jesus. Are they reaching out to Christians outside the walls of contemporary church buildings, especially those ostracized by religious leaders? This may look like beginning a prison ministry to reach out to those often forgotten by Christian establishments because of their “sin.” It may mean finding ways to support single Christian mothers or women who have had an abortion, those many churches today label as “sinners” worthy of exclusion. It may mean inviting to our literal tables and the Lord’s table Christian members of the LGBTQ+ community to engage in the dialogue and hospitality many Christians today are unwilling to have.
• My point is not to argue whether any of the above practices are right or wrong, but simply that these are examples of those whom some modern religious leaders exclude because of “sin.” Many believers today believe, as the Pharisees did in Jesus’ day, that association with such individuals always supports sin. Regardless of an individual’s stance on such issues, Luke’s Gospel presents a Jesus who stands firm in his convictions regarding sin by calling people to repentance while not allowing those convictions to exclude people from the table. Jesus eats with tax collectors and sinners, many of whom are never developed as characters in the Gospel, and probably many who never accepted the kingdom. Jesus invited himself over to Zacchaeus’ house without any repentance requirement, and that interaction ended with salvation brought to the house. Jesus did not require righteousness or repentance for fellowship; all Jesus required was the willingness to sit at a table.

Inclusivity to Non-Christians (Open Communion)

• Open Communion – the public opening of the church’s practice of communion
  • A distinction must be made between denying communion and publicly inviting the unbaptized to participate in the church’s communion practice.
    • Does the Church of Christ have an open or closed communion? 
• If, as has been argued, the Lord’s Supper in Luke’s Gospel is the culmination of Jesus’ table fellowship, and is, therefore, to be read in light of such table fellowship, then the opening of the table to outsiders (i.e., non-Christians or the unbaptized) should be a logical conclusion. Jesus’ table fellowship, throughout the Gospel, is with tax collectors and sinners, those outside of traditional Jewish standards of righteousness. In Luke, Jesus agrees with the Pharisees that these individuals are sinners, yet he still sits at table with them. Then, it is at the table that Jesus announces forgiveness and salvation. For example, Jesus does not require belief or repentance from Zacchaeus before inviting himself to Zacchaeus’ table, resulting in salvation coming to Zacchaeus’ house. Zacchaeus was seeking Jesus; that is all that was necessary for Jesus’ table. In fact, Jesus was seeking Zacchaeus, desiring to share a table with him rather than the other way around. In Luke 7, when a sinful woman comes to Jesus’ feet at the home of Simon the Pharisee, Jesus does not exclude her as an intruder to the table but treats her as if this is where she belongs and announces that her sins have been forgiven. By acting in such a way, Jesus is redefining the boundaries of the kingdom, of inside versus outside, and of the sacred versus the profane (e.g., 5:27-39; 7:36-50; 14:1-24).
• The inclusivity to sinners, evidenced in Jesus’ table fellowship throughout the Gospel, is even practiced by Jesus at the Last Supper. While some would argue that the Last Supper is an example of Jesus only including believers (i.e., his disciples) in the Lord’s Supper, the disciples’ presence suggests the opposite. Luke moves Jesus’ words about Judas’ betrayal to after the Lord’s Supper. The reader makes her way through the intimate dinner setting between Jesus and his disciples, in which the Passover is reinterpreted in light of Jesus’ Passion, before realizing that a sinner, the betrayer of Jesus, has been at the table the whole time. Additionally, the other disciples, while not betrayers of Jesus in the same sense as Judas, also forsake Jesus by the end of the Passion week. The commitment and understanding of the disciples at the Last Supper, particularly Judas, is far from the type of commitment and understanding many contemporary churches expect from those invited to the table.
• Jesus, all the way up to and including the Last Supper, sits at table with sinners. The same practice must be evidenced among the followers of Jesus. If the church allows a Lukan theology of Jesus’ fellowship and hospitality and the Lord’s Supper to guide their practice, then sinners (i.e., non-believers and the unbaptized) must be included.
• To exclude anyone from the Lord’s table is to cut against the grain of Jesus’ entire ministry and even his institution of the Lord’s Supper. It reflects the image of superiority evidenced by the Pharisees at table with Jesus in Luke 14 and that of the disciples at table with Jesus following the Lord’s Supper. For believers to focus on personal achievement, as if they have done something to deserve a seat at Jesus’ table more than others,  or to fill the Lord’s table with those who are like them (i.e., Christians),  or to assume that they, rather than Jesus, are the host and decide who is and who is not invited,  is to create a table that looks drastically different than the eschatological table meant to be experienced at the Lord’s Supper.  In Luke 14, Jesus responds to the Pharisees by illustrating how the eschatological banquet will be open to all, especially those who look a lot different than the Pharisees, in order that the Pharisees might model such inclusion at their tables.
• The eucharistic language of the Emmaus story (Luke 24:13-35) demonstrates that Luke believes Jesus is present at the Lord’s Supper. In the Lord’s Supper, like the disciples’ experience in Emmaus, Jesus is made known to the participants, and their eyes are opened in the “breaking of bread.” In the limbo of personal experience, a person’s heart is opened to experience the risen Lord and understand the story of God climaxing with Jesus. Also, consider the significant teaching moments of Jesus at the table in Luke. Jesus redefines the boundaries of the kingdom (5:27-32), identifies himself as the one who announces the forgiveness of sin (7:36-50), reprioritizes life (10:38-40), defines the orientation of the kingdom as one that looks away from self and religious ritual and towards others (11:37-54), establishes the reversal of exclusion promised in the Eschaton (14:1-24), and establishes his identity as one who seeks and saves the lost (19:1-10). Jesus, throughout Luke’s Gospel, and particularly in the Emmaus episode, reveals himself and the kingdom at the table. The table is the place where the kingdom of God is fully experienced.
• Therefore, consider what people are being excluded from when they are excluded from the Lord’s table. They are excluded from experiencing the kingdom, experiencing the identity of Jesus, and from the opportunity to have their hearts and eyes opened. As with the sinful woman and Zacchaeus, the table is not a place to come after believing; it is the place to come in order to believe or deepen belief. The table is where people should be invited to experience Jesus and be called into a life of baptism and repentance (e.g., 5:27-39; 7:36-50).  As the Emmaus story illustrates, it is only God who opens people’s eyes, and it is at the table where God, in Jesus, is experienced. Through a table experience, a person may find, like Zacchaeus, that Jesus has been seeking after them, drawing them to the table with him.
• The reality of transformation at the table ought to be evident in the lives of all Christian believers who partake. Belief and baptism do not end a Christian’s journey, making the Lord’s Supper the nourishment to continue being what they already are, but the entire Christian life is a journey of transformation. The Lord’s Supper is one of the means by which believers encounter Jesus and are further convicted and transformed into his image. If the Lord’s table is transformative for the Christian through an experience of Jesus, why cannot the same be true for an unbeliever?
• Some have argued that the Lord’s Supper, as a reminder of the character of Jesus’ entire ministry, is meant to convict Christians of the mission to go out into the world and evangelize rather than being a means of evangelism.  However, this limits the vision of mission. Worship does not only take place inside the church and mission outside, but worship and mission are aspects of the Christian’s entire life.  The Lord’s Supper is where Christians “proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Cor 11:26). The Lord’s Supper is not only preparation for mission; it is part of the mission as a proclamation by Christians and an experience of Jesus and the kingdom by all invited. The Lord’s table witnesses to the world the inclusiveness and grace characteristic of the kingdom.  The Lord’s table is not a means to mission; it is the location where mission begins.
• One additional point of inclusion needs to be mentioned, if ever so briefly. Traditionally, at least among Churches of Christ, non-believers are not the only ones excluded from the table. So are those with disabilities who cannot comprehend the Supper’s meaning. Someone unable to comprehend the meaning of Jesus and the Supper is also an individual who cannot believe and does not need baptism. The inability to believe, and the lack of necessity for baptism, considered prerequisites for the Lord’s Supper, excludes them from participation. Again, it is not that most churches would deny someone the opportunity to partake, but neither will they publicly commend someone who is unable to believe and comprehend the right to be at the table. This, too, misses the point of Jesus’ inclusive table. 
• Jesus’ parable of the great banquet, envisioning the character of the eschatological table, includes those with disabilities (i.e., “the crippled, the blind, and the lame.”). If the eschatological banquet, anticipated by the Lord’s Supper, will include those with disabilities, so should the Lord’s table. Additionally, excluding those who cannot comprehend the meaning of the Supper is to exclude them from the same experience of Jesus held back from non-Christians. Jesus’ ministry, as previously established, is all-inclusive. Everyone is invited to experience Jesus; no one is excluded. To exclude those with disabilities from the table is to exclude them from the right to fully experience Jesus and the kingdom and makes them second-class citizens of the kingdom.  If the Lord’s Supper is one of the places where the identity of Jesus and life in the kingdom is experienced, then no one must be excluded, but all must be allowed to experience and be loved by the risen Lord.