How should the table of the Lord be treated after services?
Question:
I have a question about the Lord's Supper. To be more specific, it concerns the Lord's table itself. How should it be looked at? Is the table seen as just a table during and after the Lord's Supper is conducted or services have ended? I attend a small church. I'm asking this question because I noticed that water vessels and personal items are placed on the table. Also, at the end of services, I see members leaning on the table as if someone was at home or other places. I think we should show reverence to the worship place where we share communion with our Lord.
Can I get your opinion?
Answer:
There is always a temptation to put emphasis on the physical things that we can see and touch. It can be seen in the Pharisees when they put heavy emphasis on washing hands, and pots and pans, in a ceremonious way (Mark 7:3-4). But in doing this they lost sight of the spiritual significance of the laws they followed (Mark 7:5-13).
God gave no instructions regarding the table or the communion ware. Our command is to treat the partaking of the Lord's Supper with proper reverence. "For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes. Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep" (I Corinthians 11:26-30). It is the manner in which the Lord's Supper is taken that is important. To put emphasis on the table or the building is to change God's laws.
