Some sins, both public and private, devastate the doer. Public sins can cause one to withdraw from the church or the Christian community and, by extension, the Lord’s Supper or communion. If your sins reached the public domain, whether through being caught out or your own confession, you have likely experienced some of these withdrawals. Guilt, shame, and doubt can keep you from participating in communion; our sin can make us feel unworthy to partake in the Lord’s Supper.
Sin tempts us to withdraw from this grace of God.
Is guilt weighing you down? Are you painfully aware of some hidden sin? Do you regret moments from the past week? If you’ve answered yes to those questions, I’d still say: go to the table.
Apart from the hardened hypocrite, most of us have felt unworthy for communion, unfit to participate. We’ve sinned. We’re sinners. Our sins have had consequences. Our church community might even be aware of how we’ve fallen short. In all this, it’s tempting to let the elements pass you by; or to remain rooted in your seat.
Christ Qualifies Us to Participate
However when those feelings arise we must remember: Christ bore our guilt. The sins you committed and are committing, even those you’ll go on to commit, have been covered and forgiven. Christ met the penalty for them. He suffered the curse so that you and I don’t have to. Before God, you aren’t guilty. Not anymore. You’re justified by faith. Being worthy for the communion table doesn’t depend on your own righteousness but Christ’s. His work makes us right with God.
Before God, you aren’t guilty. Not anymore.
True, in the sight of the people you may still look very guilty. But God has counted you righteous, by faith in Christ. So approach and partake in the Lord’s Supper. This itself is a way of putting your faith in God, who takes away our guilt.
No One Is Worthy of Communion
Sin is shameful and the consequences are regrettable. Everyone caught in sin or who’s made confession before others knows this well, painfully. The week might have contained humiliating sin, remorse and deep disappointment with yourself. We feel as though our status has been reduced, downgraded. Such humility and desperation for the grace of God are vital prerequisites for participating in communion. After all, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6). To this end, the Lord’s Supper is simultaneously a challenge to the proud.
Who is worthy of the body and blood? No one.
In the aftermath of sin we feel that we’re unworthy to participate in communion. Sin tempts us to withdraw from this grace of God. But sin will haunt us until glory, until God makes us whole again.
Who is worthy of the body and blood? None. No one. Neither the bishops in their vestments; nor the presbyters in their Genevan gowns are worthy of this sacred meal. Not even the holiest saint who ever lived. The fact of grace is that we’re unworthy. The riches of communion are for the spiritually impoverished, the morally bankrupt. For sinners.
Don’t Participate in an “Unworthy Manner”
In closing, however, one last point needs making. While communion is for the unworthy, it isn’t for the unrepentant. It isn’t for those obstinately sinning. The Lord’s Supper isn’t for those “who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ” (Jude 1:4). God issues a stern warning against the person who “eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner” (1 Corinthians 11:27). That is, for the unrepentant this sweet meal will taste sour, like judgment, or wrath (1 Corinthians 11:29).
If you’ve been warned or rebuked, exhorted by your church leader or another believer not to walk an evil path and haven’t changed, consider not partaking in communion.
