Untitled Sermon

# The Cross at the Table

### 1 Corinthians 11

Good morning, church.

[PUT ON HAT]

So… I realize that I am about to preach from a passage about head coverings while wearing a hat.

Which means either this is going to be a very short sermon…

[PAUSE]

…or we need to slow down and figure out what Paul is actually saying.

And I will tell you, I have read a lot about this passage this week.

The good news is that I have learned quite a bit.

The bad news is that people who have studied this passage for their entire lives still disagree about parts of it.

So, that is encouraging.

But maybe that is actually good for us.

Because sometimes we come to Scripture looking for a quick answer. We want a verse to tell us exactly what to think, exactly what to do, and then we can move on.

But sometimes Scripture does not let us move that quickly.

Sometimes a difficult passage forces us to slow down.

To ask better questions.

To listen more carefully.

And hopefully, to depend a little more upon the Holy Spirit to lead us into truth.

So before I tell you anything about this passage, I want us to hear it.

[READ 1 CORINTHIANS 11:2–16]

Okay.

Let us just let that sit there for a second.

[PAUSE]

And here is the question I want you to think about:

**If Paul were standing in this room right now, what would you ask him?**

Because I have a few questions.

Paul, what exactly do you mean by “head”?

What did hair communicate in Corinth?

What did a covering communicate?

Why do you bring creation into this?

What do you mean by glory?

What do you mean by authority?

Why are angels suddenly involved?

And what in the world do you mean when you say nature teaches us something about hair?

And then, right in the middle of all of it, why do you suddenly say:

**“Nevertheless, in the Lord…”**

And because Paul has just told us, “Imitate me as I imitate Christ,” I have another question:

**Paul, how does what you are saying here fit with the way Jesus treated women?**

Because whatever Paul means, Paul himself tells us that Jesus is the pattern.

We do not have to pretend this is an easy passage.

But we also do not have to walk away from it.

We can bring honest questions to Scripture.

The Holy Spirit is not threatened by our questions.

And perhaps one of the gifts of a passage like this is that it reminds us that reading Scripture faithfully requires more than finding a verse that supports what we already believe.

It requires us to listen.

Because all of us come to Scripture carrying assumptions.

We have traditions.

We have experiences.

We have things good teachers taught us.

We have cultural ideas that feel so normal to us that we may not even recognize them as cultural.

And that includes assumptions we may have inherited from church culture.

So faithful reading means we are willing to bring all of those assumptions back under Scripture.

The question is not:

**“Can I find a verse that supports what I already believe?”**

The question is:

**“What is this text actually saying?”**

What did these words communicate to the Corinthians?

What problem is Paul addressing?

Why does he make this argument?

How does the argument move?

And where does Paul himself place the emphasis?

Because our goal is not to make Paul answer the question we walked into the room asking.

Our goal is to hear the question Paul is actually answering.

And that is why context matters so much here.

Corinth was an honor-and-shame culture.

Public status mattered enormously.

What you wore mattered.

How you wore your hair mattered.

Your gender, wealth, freedom, reputation, family—all of these things communicated something publicly about where you belonged and how much honor you carried.

And Paul knows this church.

He spent about eighteen months with them.

These are not strangers receiving a random theological essay.

He knows these people.

He has taught them.

He loves them.

And if you have read much of Corinthians, you know Paul can also be pretty sharp with them.

Sometimes direct.

Sometimes pastoral.

Sometimes sarcastic.

Sometimes rhetorically provocative.

Paul expects them to think.

Which means we cannot simply take our twenty-first-century assumptions about hats, hairstyles, gender, authority, or public respectability and drop them into first-century Corinth.

And that includes assumptions we inherited from church.

Because sometimes we have heard an interpretation so often that we begin to confuse **familiarity with certainty.**

There is a difference.

Bible-believing Christians have understood these verses differently.

Some see Paul establishing an ongoing pattern of male headship, expressed in Corinth through head coverings.

Others believe the coverings are primarily tied to Corinthian ideas about honor, shame, gender, and public propriety, and they see Paul's argument moving toward the mutual dependence of men and women “in the Lord.”

And there are variations within both of those views.

I am not asking you to settle that debate this morning.

I am asking us to recognize something that matters whenever we read Scripture:

**There is a difference between what the Bible says and what we have always been told the Bible says.**

[PAUSE]

Those may turn out to be exactly the same thing.

But we should not assume they are.

That does not mean truth is unknowable.

It means we care enough about truth to distinguish the text from our interpretation of the text.

We can hold convictions deeply and still bring them back to Scripture.

In fact, the more important a conviction is to us, the more willing we ought to be to examine it carefully.

Sometimes Scripture will confirm what we have always believed.

Sometimes Scripture will correct us.

And sometimes Scripture will make us admit that something is more complicated than we were taught.

But Scripture gets to do the talking.

[PAUSE]

And whatever interpretation we adopt here has to account for **all** of Paul's words.

We do not get to emphasize “head” and “authority” and then hurry past:

**“Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man nor man of woman.”**

And we do not get to emphasize mutuality and pretend Paul did not say the difficult things that came before it.

The whole text gets a vote.

The question is not:

**“Which verses support the position I already hold?”**

The question is:

**“What is Paul doing with all of these verses together?”**

And right in the middle of this difficult argument, Paul gives us something wonderfully clear.

Listen again to verses 11 and 12:

“Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man nor man of woman…”

And then Paul lands here:

**“…all things are from God.”**

All things are from God.

Man cannot say to woman:

“I do not need you.”

Woman cannot say to man:

“I do not need you.”

“In the Lord,” Paul says, we are not independent of one another.

And underneath both stands God.

**All things are from God.**

Whatever else we conclude about every disputed detail in these verses, that ought to make us very careful about using this passage—or any passage—to establish our own importance over somebody else.

Because underneath this chapter, a question keeps appearing:

**Who gets the glory?**

Corinthian culture asks:

**How do I establish my honor?**

The Kingdom of God asks:

**How do I give God glory and use what I have received for others?**

And I think that begins to help us see what holds this entire chapter together.

The Corinthians have met Jesus.

They have received the Spirit.

They have spiritual gifts.

They gather for worship.

They take communion.

But they keep dragging Corinth into church with them.

They keep bringing the world's ideas about status and honor into the body of Christ.

And if we are not careful, we can do the same thing.

We can follow Jesus while still carrying the values of the world around us.

Our culture tells us to establish ourselves.

Protect ourselves.

Build our platform.

Defend our rights.

Make sure people recognize our value.

Get what belongs to us.

But the gospel confronts something deeper than whether I occasionally need to give up one of my rights.

The gospel confronts the assumption underneath our obsession with rights:

**That my life ultimately belongs to me.**

Paul has already told this church:

“You are not your own… you were bought with a price.”

My body comes from God.

My gifts come from God.

My freedom comes from God.

My salvation comes from God.

The people around me come from God.

Everything is gift.

[PAUSE]

And when you begin to discover the goodness of the One who gives, surrender stops looking like God trying to take something away from you.

Christian freedom can no longer simply mean:

**“I am free to do whatever I want.”**

Christian freedom becomes the astonishing freedom to stop making everything about me.

The question changes.

Instead of asking:

**“Am I allowed to do this?”**

I begin asking:

**“How can what God has given me glorify Him and serve the person beside me?”**

Because if everything is gift from God, I do not need to use God's gifts to establish my own importance.

And as we keep reading, that problem suddenly becomes painfully visible.

[READ 1 CORINTHIANS 11:17–22]

Now we are not arguing about hair anymore.

[PAUSE]

**We are at dinner.**

And what is happening at the table is ugly.

Some people are arriving early and eating their fill.

Some are drinking enough that Paul says they are actually getting drunk.

And others arrive with nothing.

They are hungry.

And they are being humiliated by their own brothers and sisters in Christ.

They have brought the Corinthian system of status right into the Lord's Supper.

Do you see it?

**The outward issue has changed.**

**The heart problem has not.**

They are still asking:

Who has more?

Who gets there first?

Who gets the better portion?

Who matters?

Who gets noticed?

**Who gets the glory?**

They are using what they have received to establish themselves rather than to love one another.

And Paul says something shocking:

When you gather like this…

**it is not the Lord's Supper that you eat.**

Think about that.

They had the food.

They had the gathering.

They may even have been saying all the right religious words.

But their life together contradicted the gospel their meal was supposed to proclaim.

They were celebrating the cross…

while living according to Corinth.

And so what does Paul do?

Does he give them better table manners?

Does he simply make another rule?

No.

He brings them back to Jesus.

[READ 1 CORINTHIANS 11:23–26]

“On the night when He was betrayed, the Lord Jesus…”

And now Paul places two completely different ways of living beside one another.

**The Corinthians were taking.**

[PAUSE]

**Jesus gave.**

They were guarding their portion.

Jesus took bread, broke it, and said:

**“This is my body, which is for you.”**

They used abundance without love.

Jesus possessed everything and gave Himself.

They humiliated the weak.

Jesus willingly bore shame to reconcile sinners.

They used the table to display division.

Jesus uses the table to announce a new covenant in His blood.

Do you see the contrast?

**Corinth says: “What is mine?”**

Jesus says:

**“This is my body, which is for you.”**

[PAUSE]

And this is why becoming like Jesus is not simply about trying harder to be less selfish.

We behold the One who gave Himself for us.

We encounter His goodness.

His presence changes what we value.

His goodness makes surrender possible.

At Christ's table, wealth cannot buy you a better place.

Poverty does not make you an embarrassment.

Status does not move you closer to Jesus.

Your reputation does not get you better bread.

Nobody gets to use abundance to humiliate someone who has less.

Whatever we brought into this room—wealth or poverty, strength or weakness, reputation or obscurity—none of it purchases our place here.

**We receive Christ as gift.**

And once I realize that my own place at this table is entirely a gift of grace…

it becomes pretty difficult to boast about having a better seat than the person beside me.

And this does not stay at the communion table.

It follows us home.

It follows us to work.

It follows us into our marriages and our friendships and even our disagreements.

Maybe for you it means realizing that you do not always need to win the argument.

Maybe it means noticing the person in this church who has less influence, less money, less confidence, or less visibility than you.

Maybe it means asking whether something you call a “right” has become more important to you than loving the person sitting across from you.

Maybe it means using something God has given you—your strength, your resources, your voice, your position—not to establish your importance but to serve somebody else.

Because everything is gift.

And people shaped by the cross stop grasping for themselves and start giving themselves for one another.

And that brings us to another part of this passage that has sometimes frightened people.

[READ 1 CORINTHIANS 11:27–32]

Paul tells us to examine ourselves.

And I want us to hear carefully what he is—and is not—saying.

Paul does not say:

“Make yourself worthy enough to come.”

Good luck with that.

None of us can do it.

The table is not for people who finally got themselves worthy enough for Jesus.

Paul says not to come **in an unworthy manner.**

There is a difference.

Do not proclaim the self-giving Christ while bringing selfishness, contempt, division, and disregard for Christ's body into the meal.

So examination is not an invitation to stare at yourself until you feel sufficiently guilty.

**And Paul's warning is not meant to drive repentant sinners away from Jesus.**

**It is meant to wake us up to the seriousness of receiving Jesus while refusing His way.**

Because Paul is serious here.

He speaks about judgment.

He speaks about discipline.

He even speaks about weakness, sickness, and death.

We should not make Paul's warning less serious than Paul makes it.

But neither should we miss why the Lord disciplines His people.

Paul tells us.

He disciplines us:

**“so that we may not be condemned along with the world.”**

The God who confronts us is the God who intends to rescue us from the very things that are destroying us.

So examination is an invitation to let His light reveal anything in us that does not look like Jesus.

Before we come to the Table today, I want us to actually do what Paul says.

I want us to examine ourselves.

Not the person beside you.

Not your spouse.

Not your kids.

Not that person you really wish was here to hear this sermon.

Us.

Where am I still grasping for recognition?

Whom have I failed to see or honor?

Where have I used freedom without love?

Where have I protected my portion rather than given myself in love?

Where have I made even Christianity about me?

Where am I fighting for glory that belongs to God?

And maybe even:

**Where have I been more interested in defending what I already believe than allowing Scripture to examine me?**

[45–60 SECONDS OF SILENCE]

Holy Spirit…

show us anything You want to heal.

Anything You want to change.

Anything You want us to surrender.

[PAUSE]

Paul's warning here is serious.

We should let it be serious.

But judgment is not the final word for those who belong to Christ.

God's discipline is not abandonment.

Paul actually says that He disciplines us so that we will not be condemned with the world.

In other words:

**God loves us too much to leave Corinth inside us.**

He loves us too much to leave us grasping.

Competing.

Comparing.

Protecting our portion.

Fighting for glory.

Because He is forming the life of Jesus in us.

And that brings us to this Table.

[PRAYER]

Jesus,

forgive us for bringing the world's competition into Your church.

Forgive us for grasping after glory that belongs to You.

Forgive us for using freedom without love.

Forgive us when we have used even Your Word to defend ourselves rather than allowing Your Word to examine us.

Holy Spirit, teach us to discern the body.

Teach us to wait for one another.

Teach us to receive everything as gift.

Make us a people shaped by Your presence, Your goodness, and Your cross.

Amen.

[TAKE BREAD]

Paul tells us:

“The Lord Jesus, on the night when He was betrayed, took bread…”

And He said:

“This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

Corinth asks:

**“What is mine?”**

Jesus says:

**“This is my body, which is for you.”**

[PARTAKE TOGETHER]

[TAKE CUP]

“In the same way also He took the cup…”

“This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

[PARTAKE TOGETHER]

[PAUSE]

Church, the answer to Corinth is not less freedom.

It is freedom surrendered to love.

The answer to status is not pretending nobody matters.

It is discovering that all glory belongs to God.

And the answer to grasping is not shame.

It is receiving.

Because…

**all things are from God.**

And when you know that everything is gift, you do not have to fight for your portion anymore.

You do not have to fight for the best seat.

You do not have to establish your importance by diminishing someone else.

You do not have to grasp for glory.

You are free to become like Jesus.

Receiving from the Father…

and freely giving to others.

We belong to Christ.

And because we belong to Christ…

**we belong to one another.**

And after all of this—

headship and glory,

creation and authority,

freedom and status,

the body and blood of Jesus—

Paul gives the Corinthians an instruction so ordinary that we could almost miss it:

**“Wait for one another.”**

[PAUSE]

Wait for one another.

That is what the cross looks like when it reaches ordinary life.

See the person beside you.

Make room for them.

Stop needing to be first.

Honor them.

Receive from God.

Give yourself in love.

And let Jesus get the glory.

Because this…

[PAUSE]

**this is what the cross looks like when it reaches the table.**

Amen.