The Early Church was also convinced that Jesus was intimately present
when this sacramental meal took place. In other words, the New Testament authors
illustrate this event as a very real sharing, fellowshipping, and communing
with the risen Jesus. By partaking of the bread and cup, early Christians
understood themselves as abiding in Christ and experiencing the salvific life
that he offers:
So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the
flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves. He
who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up
on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. HE who
eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living
Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me, he also
will live because of me. This is the bread which came down out of heaven; not
as the fathers ate and died; he who eats his bread will live forever.” (John
6:53-58)
In this discourse, Jesus promises a present experience of eternal life
to those who partake of the flesh and blood symbolized by the Lord’s Supper. By
sharing in Jesus’ body and blood, early Christians understood themselves as sharing
in Jesus’ God-given life, which in turn, heightened the anticipation of the hope
of resurrection life on the last day that would result in living forever. Paul
employs the Greek noun koinonia (literally: a sharing, fellowship,
participation) to describe the experience of those celebrating the Lord’s
Supper: “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of
Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ? “(1
Cor 10:16). This is why Paul was so adamant that his churches could not attend
feasts at pagan temples in which the meals were sacrificed or dedicated to an
idol or a pagan god:
I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to
demons and not to God; and I do not want you to become sharers in demons. You
cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of
the table of the Lord and the table of demons. (1 Cor 10:20-21)
Those who were in Christ were united to Christ and belonged to him (1
Cor 6:15), and this meant that their behavior mattered, especially regarding
these highly religious and ceremonial meals. Instead of eating the bread and
drinking the cup in an unworthy manner, Paul encourages his readers to examine
themselves with sound judgment (1 Cor 11:27-32). In fact, Christ expresses a
strong desire that his followers willfully obey his teachings in order that he
may come and dine with them in the communion meal: “Behold, I stand at the door
and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him
and will dine with him, and he with me” (Rev 3:20). The verb that Jesus uses
here appears in other contexts involving the sacramental sharing of the bread
and the cup (Luke 22:20; 1 Cor 11:25), demonstrating that he is indeed talking
about his desire to fellowship with his followers in the Lord’s Supper. Those who
failed to take seriously the sanctity and surrounding this ritualistic meal
would often find themselves under the judgment of God, including being
weakened, struck with sickness, or even death (1 Cor 11:30). The writers of the
New Testament were deeply concerned with portraying this regular sacramental
meal as an intentional time of self-reflection motivated by all that Jesus accomplished
in his death on the cross and the promise of his return to raise the dead and
consummate the kingdom of God. (Dustin R. Smith, A Systematic Theology of
the Early Church, ed. J. Jeffrey Fletcher and Scott A. Deane [Boise, Idaho:
Integrity Syndicate, 2025], 421-22)
