It is common for Christians to talk about ministers fencing the Lord’s Table. And we really can do better with our word pictures. It is easy for this image to become quite displeasing. One imagines a high chain link fence running right along the edges of a table, forbidding anyone from enjoying the meal. The minister is tying off the last of this chain link with some barbed wire on top as if the Table is a prisoner and you’ve got little to no chance of obtaining visiting rights.

How different the picture is when Christ first instituted this meal. For he was not inside a fence. He was inside a room, reclined, eating and drinking with those He loved. 

We are not opposed to a boarder around this table, but that boarder is the Living Stones of the Temple of God. The Heidelberg Catechism we recited earlier says that this table is not for the enemies of God and we could not agree more. The reason the enemies of God are not to eat and drink is because “then the covenant of God would be profaned and his wrath provoked against the whole congregation.” 

That “whole congregation” is in the room. That “whole congregation” is at table with the Lord. That “whole congregation” is sanctified by the blood of the covenant. How then could they be excluded from the blood of the covenant which is found in this cup? If the cup has sanctified them, why can it not touch their lips?

All of you baptized Christians are loved by God from the littlest of you to the greatest. And this table is for you. You are in the house of God and that is the boundary of this table. It is a beautiful house, far better than a fence. And the table right here at the center of it is furnished with the Bread of Life Himself. So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ.