Reflection by Pastor Shawn:
There’s something important we can learn from our Pentecostal brothers and sisters about the Lord’s Supper.
Pentecostals are Christians who emphasize the activity and gifts of the Holy Spirit in the life of the church and in the believer, including speaking in tongues, words of prophecy, and healing. Regarding the Lord’s Supper, Pentecostals generally don’t see it as sacramental—in their view, it is not a unique way that God’s grace comes to us. Like many Baptists, their preferred term for the Lord’s Supper and for baptism is “ordinance”, since these are the two practices that Jesus commanded (or “ordained”) us to do. Pentecostals emphasize our remembering the death of Christ in the meal, along the lines of what is commonly called the “memorial” view. While the Pentecostal tradition has not given much attention to developing a detailed theological understanding of the Lord’s Supper, there is a clear pattern of being devoted to the meal as an important practice.
However, I want us to consider one aspect of the Lord’s Supper from the Pentecostal Christian tradition: divine healing. I think most all Christians recognize that God can heal and sometimes he does. But the Pentecostal movement has given special attention to God’s healing us—physically, mentally, and spiritually. They approach the preaching of the Word and prayer for healing with the expectation that God regularly—although not always—heals. Further, Pentecostals sometimes understand the Lord’s Supper as a place for healing, sometimes even calling it a “healing ordinance.”
While the Pentecostal movement is relatively recent in church history, this idea isn’t coming out of nowhere. There is an ancient Christian way of depicting the Lord’s Supper as *medicine*. The Lord’s Supper is where we find healing. This would not only include physical healing for illness, but also mental healing, emotional healing, and spiritual healing. This approach understands the meal to commemorate Christ’s death, and Christ’s death as a healing event. Here’s how the theological thinking goes: Calvary is where God restores the world broken by sin. Sin is a poison; it is a disease. When Christ defeats sin and death on the cross, he restores health and wholeness. And not just for the whole world, but also for us as individuals and as communities. The Pentecostal tradition reminds us that we should look to the crucified Christ, who we celebrate in the bread and the wine, to make us whole. He can heal what ails us—in our bodies, in our minds, in our souls, and in our hearts.
In other words, it is completely Christian to say, “There is healing at this table” when we come to the Lord’s Supper. How might our appreciation and experience of the Lord’s Supper be enriched if we came to the meal with this in mind?