What if you partake in the holy communion and aren't worthy of it?

One weekend during a run after having read and re-read John 6, I began to think of it as a movie:

Act 1 - Verses 22-35: The introduction to the discourse and lesson. Christ is preparing those around Him for the discourse (Remember that the Jewish Feat of Passover was near: 6: 4. “Now the pasch, the festival day of the Jews, was near at hand.” This would be the future setting of the Last Supper. Foreshadowing?).

Act 2 - Verses 36-59: The discourse itself (We have Christ’s oath, 6:54 “Then Jesus said to them: Amen, amen, I say unto you: except you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you” then re-emphasized, 6:56 "For my flesh is meat indeed: and my blood is drink indeed.").

Act 3 - Verses 60-71: The end, portraying the reaction of the disciples and St. Peter's confession.

Jesus says four times (35, 41, 48, 51) "I AM the bread from heaven." It is He, Himself, the eternal bread from heaven, and there is a parallel between the manna in the desert, which was physically consumed/eaten, and this "new" bread which will be consumed/eaten. As a simile, He is saying just as you ate manna you will also consume Me. It would not make sense for Christ to say "Just as you ate real manna in Heaven, so will I be like bread, but only figuratively."

In Verses 54-58, the word used for eat translates to “gnaw” and “munch.” There is nothing figurative about the choice of words. So disturbed were the disciples that it caused them anxiety and doubt, and subsequently caused them to walk away.

Lastly, Christ was a master communicator. I doubt He miscommunicated. Had He done so then he would have corrected the misunderstanding as He had done previously (refer to Matthew 16:5-12, John 3:1-5, 22, and John 10:10-16).

Peace.

 

When I read and re-read John 6 a few weeks ago, I read 3 miracles:

Miracle # 1 – The multiplication of the loaves. The disciples believed because they saw.

Miracle # 2 – Christ walked on water. The disciples believed because they saw.

Because of Miracle # 1 and Miracle # 2, people wanted to visually see another miracle.

Miracle # 3 – Christ foreshadows the greatest of all miracles, the Eucharist. The disciples could not visually “see” this miracle and the literal interpretation of it caused them to disassociate with Christ.

It seems the faith of many was based on Christ’s visual “performances.”

But the Apostles, who had come to know Christ even if they did not completely understand what He had said, believed, as stated by St. Peter: “You have the words of everlasting life.”

I also think of Mark 9:8-9 about the Transfiguration: “Mark 9:8. And as they came down from the mountain, he charged them not to tell any man what things they had seen, till the Son of man shall be risen again from the dead. 9:9. And they kept the word to themselves; questioning together what that should mean, when he shall be risen from the dead.”

Christ did not ALWAYS reveal everything to his Apostles or anyone else at the moment He addressed it. There was nothing symbolic about what He stated in John 6. Those who stayed, believed.

Peace.

 

Simple answer to a complex dilemma: if the bread is the body of Christ and the wine is the blood of Christ, as taught by the apostle Paul, and you eat and drink unworthily, you may face sickness and even death. But if the Lord's Supper your church serves is only symbolic, and merely represents the body and blood of Christ, but isn't actually, as it was at Corinth, then nothing may happen to you at all.

How's this for a prayer before Communion?

Again, we bow before You and pray to You, O good and loving God. Hear our supplication: cleanse our souls and bodies from every defilement of flesh and spirit, and grant that we may stand before Your holy altar without blame or condemnation. Grant also, O God, progress in life, faith, and spiritual discernment to the faithful who pray with us, so that they may always worship You with reverence and love, partake of Your Holy Mysteries without blame or condemnation, and become worthy of Your heavenly kingdom.

Or this one?

I believe and confess, Lord, that You are truly the Christ, the Son of the living God, who came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the first. I also believe that this is truly Your pure Body and that this is truly Your precious Blood. Therefore, I pray to You, have mercy upon me, and forgive my transgressions, voluntary and inadvertent, in word and deed, known and unknown. And make me worthy without condemnation to partake of Your pure Mysteries for the forgiveness of sins and for life eternal. Amen.

How shall I, who am unworthy, enter into the splendor of Your saints? If I dare to enter into the bridal chamber, my clothing will accuse me, since it is not a wedding garment; and being bound up, I shall be cast out by the angels. In Your love, Lord, cleanse my soul and save me.

Loving Master, Lord Jesus Christ, my God, let not these holy Gifts be to my condemnation because of my unworthiness, but for the cleansing and sanctification of soul and body and the pledge of the future life and kingdom. It is good for me to cling to God and to place in Him the hope of my salvation.

Receive me today, Son of God, as a partaker of Your mystical Supper. I will not reveal Your mystery to Your adversaries. Nor will I give You a kiss as did Judas. But as the thief I confess to You: Lord, remember me in Your kingdom.


Those are taken from the liturgy attributed to John Chrysostom, which the Church in the East has been using nearly every week since about A.D. 400. May they help you.

 

Some of you folks must be quick typists. Otherwise you must spend half your days on one post.

X the word unworthily cannot be refering to our worthiness as a person. Outside the blood of Christ we would never be worthy, under the blood of Christ we are all worthy.

The word worthy as has been stated already refers to the manner in which you take it. The key to this whole passage in 1 Cor 11 is "as oft as ye do this remember me"...

This is an ordinance of rememberance. Which is in keeping with the past character of God. So many of the feasts of the OT were in rememberance or looking forward to the very same thing.

The symbolism represents a literal object (Christ) but should not be taken so literally that we are to think that magic occurs when the Pastor blesses bread and wine.

 

Magic?

Is casting out demons magic?
Is Healling the Sick magic?
Is raising the dead magic?

It takes less to ask Almighty God to transubstantiate a cup of wine into blood then it does to Ask God to raise the dead.

Magic, indeed!

 

Good luck with that.:thumbs:

 

raying: :tongue3: :tongue3:

 

Can you imagine the first Communion after the death of Jesus. I would think that was a sincere, somber and real felt, asking God to bless the bread to represent His Body and the Cup to represent His Blood. Do you think as they took that very first Commuion that they did not think of it as reality? I would think they did.
I will say this. The more you really think of it as the real thing the better your communion and remembrance of the Lord will be. I have come home with my heart flooded with Joy from a good Communion where all in one mind and one accord take the bread and the fruit of the vine in remembrance of the body and blood of Jesus. 2000 years later it seems to be easy to think of it as just another ordainance, but are you really doing it in remembrance of Him. amen,

 

When you can point that disusting idea out in scripture then at that point it will have validity.

 

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Cant you just feel the love? Your words on another post.

Can you read or just wanted to make a remark?

Can you imagine the first Communion

BTW, what is disusting? What would be disgusting about taking communion, you lost me Rev?

 

Xdisciplex

Look on the bright side. The passage doesn’t say anything about dying and going to hell, just getting sick or daying (‘sleep’).

If the house group you are a part of is mutually interactive, that is allows for everyone to share a psalm, doctrine, revelation, tongues, or interpretation of tongues according to I Corinthians 14, why don’t you share your concern?

You could point out this verse about eating unworthily. Also, that verse quoted earlier in this thread about blessing the bread and wine and actually sharing in the blood and body of Christ while we do this is another thing to consider.


You could also suggest a little break to reconcile, if necessary, with others there, and to pray and examine your hearts to see if there is any sin.

Some interpret the verse about eating unworthily to mean in an unworthy manner. Many of the Corinthians were eating in an unworthy manner. They were not regarding the Lord’s body. Notice that several verses later, Paul says that ‘ye are the body of Christ and members in particular.’ Also, notice that in chapter 10, he argues that we are all one bread because we partake of that one bread. So it makes sense to interpret not regarding the Lord’s body in chapter 11 to refer to not regarding the other saints. They were not regarding the Lord’s body by partaking of communion when some of the saints were not allowed to eat.

Paul said they were despising the poor. He also said to wait for one another. It could have been that the poorer members, slaves and servants, were not as free to go to the meetings as the richer Christians. By the time the poor late-comers got there, the food was gone. Whatever the case, from the passage it is clear that the poor were being despised. The bread and wine was not being eaten in a fair manner. One man was hungry and another was drunken.

Keep in mind also that this is talking about a meal. Jesus instituted this practice during the Passover meal. Paul uses the term ‘the Lord’s Supper’ and the Greek word for ‘supper’ refers to the meal eaten toward the evening. Jude mentions a love feast. If you read early church writings, you will also see that the Christians were known for eating this Agape meal when they met. In 200 AD, Hipploytus mentions the idea of eating cheese or olives in connection with the supper. Considering the fact that it was started at Passover, it seems likely to me that Christians may have had something with their meal. We know that Jesus and His disciples ate something else with their bread and wine. The Bible specifically mentions the ‘sop’, or bread dip.

Jesus passed bread and wine around after the meal or at the end of the meal. Historically, the eucharist, or ‘communion’ got separated from the love feast meal. Perhaps it was something done at the end of the meal originally. But churches just chopped the meal part off after a hundred years or two.

Remember that the apostles did not have any experience with the Roman Catholic church when they received Holy Communion from Christ. So they didn’t know to give away little wafers with crosses on them. They had round cakes of bread and the experience of eating an actual meal with Christ.

Since the early Christians ate this meal together when they met, it seems likely to me that Paul got upset with Peter/Cephas about the Jews in Galatia separating from the Gentiles to eat may have been about their communion meal. Seeing that Paul later teaches in Corinthians that eating unworthily could result in people getting sick and dying as judgment from God, we can see how he would be so opposed to Jews and Gentiles separating to eat. Galatians does not specify that it was holy communion. But if we look at the issue in Corinth, and if it were indeed an issue of the poor, who came late, being excluded from the meal because all the food was gone when they got there and the rich didn’t wait for them to arrive to begin eating, then this would also be an issue of division during the Supper, as well.

I agree that communion is taken too lightly in a lot of churches. I don’t find anywhere where scripture says ‘it is just a symbol’ and cringe when I hear people say that.

Maybe the solution lies in always going to church ready to take communion. Before you get started, reconcile relationships with anyone there that you may have a conflict with. You can always refrain from taking communion if you can’t take it with a clean conscience as well.