To help you prepare for communion, consider this short reflection from question 97 of the Shorter Catechism, “What is required to the worthy receiving of the Lord’s Supper?”
A: It is required of them that would worthily partake of the Lord’s Supper, that they examine themselves, of their knowledge to discern the Lord’s body, of their faith to feed upon Him, of their repentance, love, and new obedience; lest, coming unworthily, they eat and drink judgment to themselves.
These words are from 1st Corinthians 11, where the Apostle Paul tells Christians to “examine” themselves to avoid eating and drinking the Supper in an “unworthy manner.”
The “unworthy manner” is not a sense of inward shame or humiliation, rather, it is to taking the Lord’s Supper without discerning our attitudes towards the Lordship of Christ in our lives. Have we obeyed His Word or have we forgotten it? Have we repented of Sin or are we living in it? Paul warns us NOT to come to the table of Christ without a thorough examination of these questions.
This examination of our worthiness to receive the Lord’s Table is a blessedly ironic exercise. When we admit our unworthinessof salvation by proclaim Jesus as our true and great hope, we become worthy of His table. Thus, when we partake of the Bread and Cup, we proclamation our reliance on Jesus’ supreme worthiness AND our great comfort His truly belongs to us by faith.
Reflect on this prayer from Scottish Pastor John Knox as you prepare for the Lord’s Supper:
“We do not presume to come to this Thy table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in Thy manifold and great mercies. We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under Thy table. But Thou art the same Lord, whose property is always to have mercy: grant us, therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of Thy dear Son Jesus Christ, and to drink His blood, that our sinful bodies may be made clean by His body, and our souls washed through His most precious blood, and that we may evermore dwell in Him, and He in us.
O Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world:
Have mercy upon us.
O Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world:
Grant us Thy peace.
O God, who by the blood of Thy dear Son hast consecrated for us a new and living way into the holiest of all, grant unto us, we beseech Thee, the assurance of Thy mercy, and sanctify us by Thy Holy Spirit, that, drawing near unto Thee with a pure heart and undefiled conscience, we may offer unto Thee a sacrifice in righteousness; through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
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