Until
He Comes

This verse comes at the close of the oldest written account of the Lord's Supper. In this passage, the Apostle Paul reminds the Corinthians of what he had received: on the night He was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and gave the cup in the same way (1 Corinthians 11:23–25). Then Paul states what every such meal accomplishes. As often as we eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim the Lord's death until He comes. It is interesting to note that Jesus did not leave His people a monument or a ceremony; rather, He left a table.

The meal looks in two directions at once. It looks backward to the cross, since the bread is His body given and the cup is the new covenant in His blood, and eating it proclaims His death. The rock was struck, and this table is where we keep drinking from what flowed out (1 Corinthians 10:4). But the verse also points the meal forward with three small words: until He comes.

The supper is not a permanent arrangement. It is the traveling form of a feast that is still ahead, and it continues only until the day it is fulfilled. Scripture tells us what that day will look like, and it looks like a wedding. In Revelation 19:9, the Apostle John records the announcement, "Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb." Jesus Himself looked across the table on His last night and said He would not drink of the fruit of the vine again until He drank it anew with His disciples in His Father's kingdom (Matthew 26:29).

Thus the Bible's whole story is framed by two meals. It opens with a meal taken wrongly, when our first parents ate from the one tree God had withheld (Genesis 3:6), and it closes with a wedding feast. This gives every small meal with God its full meaning. When we read a verse at breakfast or say a prayer later in the day, each day's portion is a rehearsal for that table. We are not merely maintaining a habit while the years pass; we're training an appetite that will one day be satisfied. The feast was also never designed for one person alone. Israel appeared together, the early believers broke bread together, and the supper Paul describes was received as a gathered church.

So we keep eating, daily and gladly. The Bible's final chapter extends one last invitation: "And let the one who is thirsty come, and the one who desires the water of life drink freely" (Revelation 22:17). Every portion between now and that day is both food for the road and a foretaste of the destination. The Lord who fed His people with manna in the morning will seat them at His supper in the end.

Today's question is one of hope: when I eat with the Lord today, do I remember that a greater table is already set?