Why did God make some people who took communion in a disrespectful manner sick in 1 Corinthians 11:29-32? And should Christians still participate in communion today if Jesus already returned? To answer these questions, we must first understand the end-times significance of this meal.
When Jesus established the ritual of communion, he did so at the Jewish feast of Passover and gave it new end-times significance (Luke 22:13-18). Recall that Passover signified the Israelites’ escape from Egypt. The Jews would prepare their meals in advance without yeast so they could eat it on the run, and God would kill all the firstborn in Egypt who didn’t put the blood of a lamb over their doorpost. This gave the Israelites a narrow opportunity to flee their oppressors.
Exodus 12:11-13 (WEB) This is how you shall eat it: with your belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste: it is Yahweh’s Passover. 12 For I will go through the land of Egypt in that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and animal. I will execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt. I am Yahweh. 13 The blood shall be to you for a token on the houses where you are. When I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.
Passover’s New Significance
Passover wasn’t just a Jewish story for Christian Jews. 1 Corinthians 11:26 and Colossians 2:16-17 explain that the celebration pointed to Christ’s return. It was a sign of their deliverance from their oppressors (Matthew 23:29-36), their need to escape Jerusalem, and their salvation through Christ. This understanding prepared them for his coming. Jesus instructed his disciples to watch for his return and be sober (Luke 21:34-36). When they saw him coming and armies surrounding Jerusalem, they needed to quickly escape to the mountains without hesitation to avoid destruction (Luke 17:28-33; 21:20-22). If they fled, they would be saved (Luke 21:27-28).
Escape by the Blood of the Lamb
It was during Passover of 66 AD that several miraculous events and signs occurred, warning the Jews to flee the impending destruction.
Thus were the miserable people persuaded by these deceivers, and such as belied God himself. While they did not attend, nor give credit to the signs that were so evident, and did so plainly foretel their future desolation. But like men infatuated, without either eyes to see, or minds to consider, did not regard the denunciations that God made to them. Thus there was a star, resembling a sword, which stood over the city: and a comet, that continued a whole year. (15) Thus also before the Jews rebellion, and before those commotions which preceded the war, when the people were come in great crouds to the feast of unleavened bread, on the eighth day of the month Xanthicus, [Nisan,] (16) and at the ninth hour of the night, so great a light shone round the altar, and the holy house, that it appeared to be bright day time. Which light lasted for half an hour. This light seemed to be a good sign to the unskilful: but was so interpreted by the sacred scribes, as to portend those events that followed immediately upon it. At the same festival also an heifer, as she was led by the High-priest to be sacrificed, brought forth a lamb, in the midst of the temple. Moreover the eastern gate of the inner [court of the] temple,9 which was of brass, and vastly heavy, and had been with difficulty shut by twenty men, and rested upon a basis armed with iron, and had bolts fastened very deep into the firm floor; which was there made of one intire stone: was seen to be opened of its own accord, about the sixth hour of the night. Now those that kept watch in the temple came hereupon running to the captain of the temple, and told him of it: who then came up thither: and, not without great difficulty, was able to shut the gate again. This also appeared to the vulgar to be a very happy prodigy: as if God did thereby open them the gate of happiness. But the men of learning understood it, that the security of their holy house was dissolved of its own accord: and that the gate was opened for the advantage of their enemies. So these publickly declared that this signal foreshewed the desolation that was coming upon them. Besides these, a few days after that feast, on the one and twentieth day of the month Artemisius, [Jyar,] a certain prodigious and incredible phenomenon appeared: I suppose the account of it would seem to be a fable; were it not related by those that saw it; and were not the events that followed it of so considerable a nature as to deserve such signals. For, before sun setting, chariots and troops of soldiers in their armour were seen running about among the clouds, and surrounding of cities. Moreover, at that feast which we call Pentecost; as the priests were going by night into the inner [court of the] temple,10 as their custom was, to perform their sacred ministrations, they said, that in the first place they felt a quaking, and heard a great noise: and after that they heard a sound, as of a multitude, saying, “Let us remove hence.” (Josephus, War of the Jews, 6.5.3, http://penelope.uchicago.edu/josephus/war-6.html)
Days after Passover, Roman armies surrounded Jerusalem, and angelic armies were seen coming in the clouds against the city. The Christians recognized these signs and fled the city. According to the early church father Eusebius, Christians fled the fortified city of Jerusalem to the remote, mountainous town of Pella to save themselves from its destruction. Describing this event, Eusebius wrote:
“But the people of the church in Jerusalem had been commanded by a revelation, vouchsafed to approved men there before the war, to leave the city and to dwell in a certain town of Perea called Pella. And when those that believed in Christ had come there from Jerusalem, then, as if the royal city of the Jews and the whole land of Judea were entirely destitute of holy men, the judgment of God at length overtook those who had committed such outrages against Christ and his apostles and totally destroyed that generation of impious men.”
Epiphanius of Salamis, a church father writing in 377 AD, also described the flight to Pella:
“…after the exodus from Jerusalem, when all the disciples went to live in Pella because Christ had told them to leave Jerusalem and to go away since it would undergo a siege. Because of this advice, they lived in Perea after having moved to that place, as I said” (Epiphanius, Panarion 29,7,7-8).
Because Christians believed Jesus’ words, they metaphorically covered their doorposts with the blood of the lamb and were spared from the destruction of the “firstborn.”
Death of the Firstborn
In God’s redemptive plan for mankind, Israel was the first the receive the exclusive rights to be God’s people (Exodus 19:5-6; Amos 3:1-2).
Exodus 4:22-23 (WEB) You shall tell Pharaoh, ‘Yahweh says, Israel is my son, my firstborn, 23 and I have said to you, “Let my son go, that he may serve me;” and you have refused to let him go. Behold, I will kill your firstborn son.’”
Israel is often portrayed as the firstborn in many Bible stories, while Gentiles/nations/Christians are depicted as the younger brother (Romans 11:11). In Galatians 4:21-31, Paul compared natural, unbelieving Israel to Abraham’s firstborn son Ishmael, who persecuted Isaac. Similarly, the unbelieving Israelites persecuted Christians and would not inherit as sons. Hebrews 12:16 also implicates unbelieving Israel as being like the firstborn Esau, who sold his birthright to his younger brother Jacob for temporary relief. The leaders of Israel, who were afraid of losing their power to the Romans, did not believe in Jesus and traded their Messiah for temporary relief (John 11:45-50). The older brother in the story of the prodigal son, who was upset when God showed grace to the younger brother, typifies the unbelieving Jews (Luke 15:28-32). As a result of their unbelief, God took away the kingdom from natural Israel and gave it to believers throughout the world (Matthew 21:23).
Passover served as a type of what would happen in the final days. In Egypt, the firstborn son of each household would die without the blood of the lamb on the doorpost, while those who had marked their doors with the lamb’s blood would be spared (Exodus 12:12-13). Similarly, in the final days, God would pass judgment on the unbelieving firstborn Israelites while sparing those who believed in the blood of the true Lamb, Jesus Christ.
The Context of 1 Corinthians 11
This all has special significance for the first-century practice of communion. Christians were instructed to eat the Passover in faith of what Christ had done for them and to understand its typification for when he returned. This has bearing on the passage about communion in 1 Corinthians 11.
It’s possible that 1 Corinthians 11 was written specifically to Jewish believers. Passover was a Jewish feast, and it’s possible that only Jews celebrated it (with new enlightenment). It’s true that 1 Corinthians was written to both Christian Gentiles and Christian Jews. However, because the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 assumed that Christian Jews should still keep the law but ruled that Christian Gentiles didn’t need to, this meant that Paul sometimes gave specific and differing instructions to each group. It’s important to note that Christian Jews kept the law not out of obligation but in order to keep the gospel unoffensive to unbelieving Jews.
For instance, Paul talks about permission to eat food sacrificed to idols on two occasions, the first time addressing Gentiles and the second time addressing Jews. He instructed Gentile believers that they could eat food sacrificed to idols as long as in their conscience they weren’t eating to worship a foreign god and as long as their fellow unbelieving Gentiles didn’t think they were eating to worship a foreign god (1 Corinthians 8:7-9). Later, he told Jewish believers that although they were technically free to eat such meat in Christ, if they knew it was food that had been prepared as a sacrifice, they should not eat it because that would be breaking the Mosaic law and fellow unbelieving Jews would have been offended by their actions (1 Corinthians 10:23-24, 28, 31-33). He also commanded specifically that Jewish women be silent in churches in accordance with the Mosaic law so that they wouldn’t offend fellow unbelieving Jews (1 Corinthians 14:34).
1 Corinthians 14:34 (WEB) Let the wives be quiet in the assemblies, for it has not been permitted for them to be talking except in submission, as the law also says, Deuteronomy 27:9.
Chapter 11 in first Corinthians is addressed specifically to Jewish believers. Paul opens in chapter 10 by describing the history of Israel, “Now I would not have you ignorant, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea” (1 Corinthians 10:1 [WEB]), making this more explicit in verse 20, “But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God, and I don’t desire that you would have fellowship with demons.” He goes on to encourage Jewish men to have short hair and Jewish women to have long hair so that the unbelieving Jews would not be offended (1 Corinthians 11:1-16). Paul does not focus on Gentile and Jewish believers together again until chapter 12 when he says, “Now concerning spiritual things, brothers, I don’t want you to be ignorant. 2 You know that when you were heathen, you were led away to those mute idols, however you might be led” (1 Corinthians 12:1-2 [WEB]).
God’s Discipline in 1 Corinthians 11
In this context, the passage about communion appears. The Jewish believers would have been celebrating communion at Passover with the unbelieving Jews. Paul mentions that unbelievers were eating this meal with the Christians (1 Corinthians 11:18-19). Some unbelieving Jews got drunk and ate all the food, which was disgraceful and dangerous. If Jesus returned on Passover, they wouldn’t have fled because they were drunk. If this continued, they would be trapped in Jerusalem when the Roman armies destroyed it. Also, if they ate all the food, those who were fleeing wouldn’t have anything to eat on their journey. That’s why Paul says, “But when we are judged, we are punished by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world” (1 Corinthians 11:32 [WEB]). God warned them to take this meal seriously because those who stayed behind in Jerusalem suffered horrendously, and God didn’t want anyone to endure that. The sickness and death that God was inflicting upon the Jews in 1 Corinthians 11 were likely directed towards those unbelieving Jews who were eating the Passover meal disgracefully among the Christian Jews.
Is Communion Necessary Today?
The Passover communion was fulfilled in 66 AD, but Jesus said he would eat it again when he came in his kingdom.
Luke 22:15-18 (WEB) He said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer, 16 for I tell you, I will no longer by any means eat of it until it is fulfilled in God’s Kingdom.” 17 He received a cup, and when he had given thanks, he said, “Take this, and share it among yourselves, 18 for I tell you, I will not drink at all again from the fruit of the vine until God’s Kingdom comes.”
Matthew 8:11 (NIV) “I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.”
Instead of the Passover communion, there is a feast for Christians from all nations, including Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to celebrate that God’s kingdom has arrived. Communion has evolved from a quick meal of unleavened bread to a feast of celebration. It’s no longer just a Jewish feast but a feast for all nations. We may still celebrate its evolved form today knowing that God’s kingdom has come and we are invited to dine with God.