I would think the most apparent and reoccurring Christian practice in preparing for that day is the Lord’s Supper,
“For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.”
– 1 Corinthians 11:26 NASB
So how do we, as believers, proclaim His death until that day by partaking of this New Testament Sacrament?
Foremost, the Lord’s Supper itself proclaims His death. The Greek word, kataggellō, translated as “proclaim” in this passage, appears as several different words 17 times in the New Testament. Yet, in that variety, it is always used in the Scripture as a spoken action—except here. Here the Sacrament does the speaking; the Eucharist itself is the preacher and we, as believers, complete the message through our obedient participation.
In that participation, in our uniting with His command “as often as you eat…”, we become part of Him, He becomes part of us, and we become one with another. All of which proclaims of His death until He comes again.
It is also interesting to note,
“No passage in the whole New Testament is of greater interest than this. For one thing, it gives us our warrant for the most sacred act of worship in the Church, the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper; and, for another since the letter to the Corinthians is earlier than the earliest of the gospels, this is actually the first recorded account we possess of any word of Jesus.”[1]
It is of no coincidence that the first recorded account of Jesus’ word, as the invisible Word made visibly flesh, points to a visible action of an invisible word.
Just how Jesus is that!?
And that proclaims His death until that day!
