In 11:26 Paul says, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you declare the Lord’s death until He comes.” At the Lord’s table, while we are eating and drinking, we are making a declaration. We declare the Lord’s death until He comes. To declare means to proclaim, announce, or display. In organized religion, whether in Catholicism or Protestantism, I doubt that anyone realizes that the purpose of so-called mass or holy communion is to declare the death of Christ, to display His death to the universe. Those who attend mass or communion automatically have the thought of remembering the death of Christ. This is a natural concept. Furthermore, certain pastors may strengthen this concept with their teaching. People spontaneously think that to participate in holy communion is simply to remember Christ’s death.
However, it was the thought neither of the Apostle Paul nor of the Lord Jesus that we should remember Christ’s death. The Lord Jesus said, “This do unto the remembrance of Me. ” We are to partake unto the remembrance not of something, but unto the remembrance of a living Person. We are to partake of both the bread and the cup unto the remembrance of the Lord. As we have seen, this means that our partaking should result in the remembrance of Him. To remember the Lord Himself is an important matter. Nevertheless, for the most part, Christians do not realize that at holy communion they should remember the Lord and not merely what He has done for us. Notice that verses 24 and 25 do not simply say “remembrance of Me,” but speak of “the remembrance of Me.” The use of the definite article adds emphasis and strength to this expression. We should not remember anything else; we are simply to have the remembrance of Christ Himself.
Although we are to remember the Lord, we are not told to remember His death. Rather, in verse 26 we see that we should declare the Lord’s death. Christ’s death is not for us to remember—it is for us to declare, announce, display. We must display it to all the angels, demons, human beings, and creatures. We must declare, announce, the Lord’s death until He comes. In this verse the word “until” is significant, for it points to the kingdom.
In verse 26 we have the Lord’s death and the Lord’s coming. In between Christ’s death and His coming there is a gap, a gap which is filled in by the church. We may say that the church is a bridge connecting the Lord’s death to His coming. Thus, the church bridges a deep gap from one side to the other. This means that the church continues the Lord’s death and brings in His coming back. Without the church, this gap would not be bridged. There would be no way to connect the Lord’s death with His coming.
The goal of Christ’s first coming was His death, but what will be the goal of His second coming? The answer to this question is in Matthew 26:29. Here, while the Lord was establishing His supper, He tells us that He would not drink of the fruit of the vine until He drinks it with us in the kingdom of His Father. This indicates that His second coming has a goal, and this goal is the kingdom.
Each of the Lord’s two comings has a goal. The goal of His first coming was to die to accomplish the all-inclusive redemption. The goal of His second coming is to set up God’s kingdom.
We should not take for granted Paul’s words, “Declare the Lord’s death until He comes,” and we should not understand them in a superficial way. It is a matter of great significance that Paul wrote these words. He did not put them down according to his opinion. In verse 23 he says, “For I received from the Lord that which also I delivered to you.” What Paul spoke to the Corinthians was what he received from the Lord. This is the reason I refer you to Matthew 26. In establishing His supper the Lord did speak of His coming back in relation to the Father’s kingdom.
It is crucial to see that there are two comings of Christ. With His first coming a great thing was accomplished—His death to carry out an all-inclusive redemption. After His death, Christ went away to receive the kingdom. This is revealed in the New Testament and also in the book of Daniel. In Daniel 7:13 and 14, the prophet beheld that “one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.” In Luke 19:12 the Lord, in a parable, refers to Himself as “a certain nobleman” who “went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return” (Luke 19:12). Furthermore, according to both the book of Daniel and the Gospels, the Lord will come back after receiving the kingdom. He will come back with the kingdom and will establish this kingdom for God’s universal administration.