The Finest View

The Finest View

The host always seats his guests so that they can get the finest view. If there is a beautiful vista into the garden, the guest is not seated with his back to it, but is placed at that side of the table which will allow him to lift his eyes from time to time and see the beauties that lie outside. If a guest is taken to some famous hotel, or to some magnificent beauty spot, the host sees to it that the visitor gets the seat with the finest view.

Have you ever stopped to consider how the Lord has placed you when seated at His Table? We come to the communion service and sit as He has placed us. It does not make any difference whether the church faces north, south, east, or west, or whether your seat is in a high gallery, straight out from the pulpit, or to one side in a transept. There is, in spite of any place in which you may be seated, a spiritual vision that has been definitely designed by the Lord. If we fail to look up to see the view that He has placed before us, it is our own loss. There are three things to take into consideration as we think of the Lord's Table.

First of all, it is generally observed on the first day of the week. This is not the Sabbath of the Law of Moses; this is the Lord's day, the day of resurrection. So we approach the Table on the grounds of the work of the risen Lord Jesus Christ.

Secondly, we are seated with our backs to the cross. Calvary was a judgment for sin, and when we come to the Lord's Table, judgment is behind us. It is God, Himself, who has said that the believer shall not come into judgment but is passed out of death and into life (John 5:24). This is why "there is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:1).

Finally, as we lift the bread and the cup to our lips, we look out across the Table to the view that He has prepared for us "until He come" (1 Cor. 11:26). What a glorious view this is. Not only is judgment past, but glory lies before us. We lift our eyes to His coming; the Lord is at the door. We see Him, no longer the suffering Messiah, no longer in intercession for sinning saints, but in all the glory of the Father, the glory of the adoring angels, and in all His own glory.

When Clemenceau visited the United States, he said at the moment of his return to France that the most wonderful thing he had seen while in America was the view from his dinner table overlooking the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River. Impressive as that view is, it is a view of erosion and death. No abyss, be it ever so deep, no mountain, be it ever so high, can compare with the grandeur and the glory of the scenes that the Lord has placed opposite us as we sit at His Table. Lift the cup high and drink all of it; the glory lies before us. It is "till He come."

1. If the Lord’s Table is a means of grace, is there anything wrong with participating in the Lord’s Supper weekly. Why or Why not?
2. Even though Communion is distinct from the Passover, what are some similarities? If there are similarities what are they and how did they function in the Old Testament?
3. Is there any part of Communion that involves human participation, if indeed, receiving grace from Him in the midst of this supper? Why or Why not?