Every week, when I read the words of institution for this Supper, it includes the phrase “you show the Lord’s death till He comes.” This means that this meal has two elements in it—consummation and delay. We commune with the Lord now, and we show the Lord’s death until He comes. The showing of the Lord’s death is a present proclamation. This word comes means that there is a sense in which He is not here now; that is the delay.
This Table is a place of training. We learn how to receive God’s gifts here, but we also learn how to wait patiently. God does not answer all our prayers in the instant we offer them. He sometimes does this for younger Christians, in much the same way that little ones have their plates filled up first at the dinner table. The older children have enough strength and wit to wait more patiently.
Why does God delay in the answering of our prayers? The reason is because there is a much greater blessing in it for us if He does it that way. He receives more glory, and we receive more good. One of the goods is that we learn endurance and patience. We learn how to wait upon Him; we learn how to trust Him.
Every week that goes by in which the Lord has not come is a deferred glory. God wants us to become long term thinkers, not short range thinkers. Deferred glory is great glory.
So come, and welcome, to Jesus Christ.