Servant Leadership in the Supper

In just a few moments, I will invite the heads of households to come and receive the bread and the wine of the Lord’s Supper, so that you can take it back to your seats and share it with your family. This morning I would like to take a couple of moments to address this practice, so that we can understand how doing the Lord’s Supper in this way instructs us in the mercy which we have received.

God deals with his people covenantally, and that means that he normally deals with his people in families. Children who are born into covenant families are born into the church, and so receive the covenant sign, and come to the table as soon as they are able. God provides that it is in the context of families that much of our nurture, and education, and fellowship, and instruction in discipleship takes place. And God has also provided a structure for our families, and instructs husbands and fathers to lead their respective families.

But let us be very clear about what is happening here. We do not have heads of households come forward because fathers and husbands are somehow more worthy to handle the elements, nor do heads of households have some kind of special priestly status. In Christ there is neither male nor female, and all the baptized have equal access to the Father through our Great High Priest the Lord Jesus Christ.

But the King, who presides over the feast, and sits at the right hand of God, is the head of his household, the church, the husband to the bride, and the head of the body. And he declared that he did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. He said that the greatest among his disciples would be the servant of all. That’s why we have the heads of household come forward to receive the bread and wine to share with their families. You are serving, fathers and husbands, and you are being served, wives and children. And we are all partaking of this supper together because the Lord Jesus has served us all with his very life.

This is the Lord’s table…