It is Thursday and my thoughts are still turning to this past Sunday and Communion. The Interim Pastor said, “Jesus broke His body so we would not be a broken Body.”
Jesus, at the Passover Feast He celebrated with His disciples, says these words to them:
“Mark my words – I will not drink wine again until the day I drink it new with you in my Father’s Kingdom.” (Matthew 26:29 NLT)
Several years ago, while reading those very words, they fell in such a way causing Communion to take on an entirely new meaning for me. Those words pierced deeply in my soul and have stayed there since. The very thought of Christ waiting, for me, since the day He spoke those words is mind boggling. He is waiting for me. At this very moment. Until that very day –
Jesus is waiting for the day He will partake with me in His Father’s Kingdom.
Once those words pierced me, I was unable to approach Communion in the same way. Never again was Communion a tradition done once a month, on the first Sunday of the month.
Communion became sacred.
Communion was now something I was able to partake of while Christ was choosing to not. Communion became a constant reminder that He was waiting for me to join Him where He was – with His Father. It became more than the piece of bread and the small glass of grape juice. Jesus knew the bread would always take us back.
Why does Communion matter?
Food is a reminder of our humanity, our fragility, our createdness.
The sacraments are tangible ways to represent intangible ideas: new life becomes something we can feel and smell and see when we baptize in water. The idea of a Savior, of a sacrifice, of body and blood so many centuries ago, fills our senses and invades our present when our fingers break bread and our mouths fill with wine.
(from Bread & Wine, page 250, by Shauna Niequist)
Jesus presented these elements because He wants us to remember Him daily –
We don’t experience this connection, this remembering, this intimate memory and celebration of Christ, only at the altar. We experience it, or at least we could, every time the bread and wine are present – essentially, every time we are fed.
Jesus wants us to realize sharing The Table is important to us, for each one of us –
When you offer peace instead of division, when you offer faith instead of fear, when you offer someone a place at your table instead of keeping them out because they are different or messy or wrong somehow, you represent the heart of Christ.
The Table becomes the place of healing. The very place where as a whole, we each can receive that which we are in need of most. It is the very place where we all are equal. It is the place where shame recedes. Where hope is birthed. Where the truth roots a little deeper each time we come and partake.
The Table is the very place where we are reminded we matter to Him.
He loves us with a love so deep that He is yet waiting.
Waiting for me.
Waiting for you.
Today I am joining … Moments of Hope and Tune In Thursday and Booknificent Thursday.
This is a lovely and very true post, Joanne! A few years ago, this sacrament took on a deeper meaning in my heart as well. Our kids were in a season of being sick throughout a long winter, and we often had to stay home from church. We did “church” at home instead, and something beautiful was birthed from it. We often took communion together at home. The simplicity of it and the reminders of Christ’s sacrifice were just so pure there in the dining room with the kids. Thanks for bringing these words to light today!
I love the descriptions here of what communion really is. It is helpful for those that are new to the faith or maybe non-believers trying to understand the concept. And it is helpful to us as believers because we all too easily make communion that tradition – or just another part of our to-do list. Thank you, friend! I always leave here smiling, encouraged, and challenged ♥