Dead men don’t eat. Skeletons are endlessly famished. Corpses endure permanent starvation. Bread is for the living. Wine is not for the grave.
God doesn’t spread His feast and then wistfully yearn for somebody to turn up; as if He were a shy high schooler hoping the cool kids come to His birthday party. Rather, the great problem is that man cannot come to this supper table of spiritual life because he is spiritually dead.
So if this meal is for the living, but man is dead, something miraculous must first take place. You must first be made alive. If you eat this meal in the deadness of unbelief you just eat more death. This was the warning which Paul gave to the Corinthians regarding eating the supper unworthily and suffering illness due to such unbelieving disregard for the new life which this supper signifies. But you can only come to this family meal of God our Father if you are first born anew into His family. Here is where the evangelical emphasis on the new birth is of utmost importance. God is the God who makes dry bones live. He is the one who turns stony hearts into beating hearts. This new birth is, from top to bottom, a gift which you are to receive.
This supper is divine irony. It is a meal of new life that was brought about through Christ’s death. So, the question comes down to this, should you eat this meal of life out of death? Well, are you dead or alive, and how do you know? The Apostle John tells you how: Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God (1 Jn. 5:1a). If you believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the divine Messiah, the eternally begotten Son of God, you have been born of God. Christ is your life, and if you have trusted in Christ, you are most certainly alive, and if you are alive … then come and welcome to Jesus Christ…
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