Communion Let Loose

Maybe one reason why weddings are often so boring is because communion is so grim.

We can connect weddings and the Lord’s Supper in at least two ways, indirectly and directly.

Indirectly, a wedding is a new covenant-making event and communion is a new covenant-reminding event (1 Corinthians 11:25). Both are to be serious, both are celebrations, and both are God’s idea. A man and a woman who vow to love and serve each other for their lives is not just a good thing, it’s a thing to make a big deal about. When we eat the bread and drink the cup we remember the Lord Jesus’ love and sacrifice for us that we might have forgiveness and fellowship, and this is good news.

Directly, every wedding now points to the wedding of the Lamb to His bride. When a man leaves his father and mother and holds fast to his wife, and the two become one flesh, we know that “This mystery is profound, and…that it refers to Christ and the church” (Ephesians 5:31-32). “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her…so that he might present the church to himself in splendor” (verses 25-26).

So the angel told the apostle John that we are headed to “the marriage supper of the Lamb” (Revelation 19:9).

The Lord’s Supper is preparing us for the marriage supper. A good wedding is the embodied and extended fellowship of the Lord’s Table; it’s joyful communion let loose. Though there is not much protein in bread and wine, we are growing up in celebration muscles.