In Christianity Today, James Allen Sparks tells the story of how one church found a creative way to commemorate the Lord's Supper each week. The members had grown weary of preparing fresh bread every Sunday, so they recruited a lady in the church to knead one last loaf of bread from real flour. With a mother's loving touch, she baked the special loaf in a red-hot oven until it rose to perfection. She then took the bread, lacquered it into permanent staleness, and set it out on the communion table, where it presided over the Lord's table for over a decade! The loaf was handled with great care, and from time to time members dusted it so as to restore its luster.
But then one Sunday, mysteriously, people noticed that the loaf had disappeared. Someone had replaced the lacquered bread with a vase containing wheat spikes! Well this hardly satisfied the members. They had come to appreciate the imagery that the lacquered loaf of bread had offered them through the years. People began to demand an explanation, and one was provided.
Evidently, in the early service during communion, an overly conscientious guest preacher gave a communion devotion, stepped down in front of the table, and mistakenly took the mummified bread into both hands, blessed it in the ancient tradition, and with two hundred pounds of preacher power, tried to snap the bread into two pieces. The crisp shell of the bread instantly vaporized with a thunderous explosion before the now startled, but solemn assembly. And the lacquered bread was no more!
The Lord's Supper.
Today we conclude our study on how to become a Christian by spending some time talking about the Lord's Supper, otherwise known as communion or the "eucharist." The Lord's Supper is not a step we take in order to become a Christian. It is not a step we take to begin a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. In fact, just the opposite is true. The Lord's Supper presumes a vibrant relationship with Christ.
If you punch up the word communion in a thesaurus, some interesting words appear. Empathy, close association, union, and relationship are used to symbolize communion. The Lord's Supper, or communion, is synonymous with relationship. It is all about having empathy with our Lord and savior, understanding his passionate love for us, understanding his sacrifice, his forgiveness, his life, and his death. The Lord's Supper is all about our close association with Jesus Christ. We are God's children. Jesus is our life, our identity, our hope, our future, our destiny, and our purpose. Communion is about being proud of the name we bear. The Lord's Supper is about our union. In baptism, we are clothed with Christ. We become united with him in his death, burial, and resurrection. Communion reminds us that we have been united with someone eternal who transcends this life, who has conquered death, and who promises us an eternal hope.
A Mother's Day analogy.
I have always enjoyed Mother's Day. Mother's Day is all about relationship. On Mother's Day we come alongside our mothers and celebrate. We say thanks. On Mother's Day we put ourselves in our mothers' shoes and empathize with all the pain they endured first through that whole childbirth thing, and then through all those sleepless nights when we screamed and cried and wanted fed and changed, and then through adolescence when we struggled for independence, and in high school when we learned to drive. Mother quickly learned the art of backseat driving.
On Mother's Day we proudly embrace our mothers and say, "This is the one who gave me life. This is the one without whom I wouldn't exist. This is the one who has nurtured and cared for me, who loves me, who sacrificed so much, and who always wanted the best for me." On Mother's Day we acknowledge our union through birth to the one of whom we bear her name. We honor our father and mother, our relationship!
In the very least, Mother's Day gives us a point of reference to understanding what it means to be vitally linked or indebted to the life of another. Without our mothers none of us could have or enjoy the life we live. Without Jesus none of us could have or enjoy eternal life with God in his kingdom. Without our mother's sacrifice we would not exist in this life. We'd have nothing. Without Jesus' sacrifice we would not exist in eternity. We would be lost. Through our mother's nurturing and love we've become what we are today. Through Christ's nurturing and love we are becoming all that God intends us to become. Mother's Day gives us a point of reference for celebrating communion and for celebrating our relationship with Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ's presence.
But let's talk a moment about the nature of our relationship with Jesus Christ. Our desire on Mother's Day is to celebrate with our mothers physically present. I think of Lara. She is celebrating Mother's Day with her mother. But even better. Lara's mother Margaret and her aunt Marion are celebrating Mother's Day with their mother, Lois Powless.
But many aren't able to celebrate Mother's day with their mothers or grandmothers. Does their physical absence make Mother's Day any less significant? Absolutely not! Mother's Day has just as much significance whether our mothers are physically present with us, or whether they are absent. Neither death, nor infirmity, nor physical separation can make this day any less special for us. In this sense, Mother's Day transcends time, space, and even death.
In communion, it is not necessary for the Lord to be bodily present among us. Sure we would love for the Lord to be physically present with us. But does his physical absence take away from or diminish the significance of communion? Absolutely not! Instead, the physical elements, the broken bread and fruit of the vine, remind us of a relationship that transcends time, space, and death.
In communion, we become acutely aware of our relationship with Jesus Christ. In communion, Jesus Christ's presence becomes very real to us, just as if he were sitting in the seat next to us, physically present, walking with us, talking with us, sharing with us, or calling us by name. In communion, precious and vivid memories are conjured up of a life that was sacrificed on our behalf, in another time and place some two thousand years ago. In communion, we break out into spontaneous laughter and praise and celebration, knowing that the Jesus who gave everything for us out of an abundant heart and deep love is here with us in spirit and in truth.
In every way, communion is a gift from Jesus Christ to the Church. Let me recap what I have just illustrated about the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper is communion. The word communion is synonymous with words like relationship, empathy, close association, and union. The Lord's Supper presumes the existence of a relationship between the one who partakes of the elements and the Lord of the universe that the elements represent. In the Lord's Supper, Christ's physical absence versus physical presence is irrelevant. This is because Jesus is spiritually present with us in every way as we partake of the broken bread and fruit of the vine that symbolize his broken body.
1 Corinthians 11:23-25 (NIV) says, "For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, 'This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.' In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.' "
The Lord's Supper reminds us that we are vitally linked in relationship to Jesus Christ. He is Lord. He is our savior. Without him, eternal life is impossible. 1 Corinthians 10:16 (NIV) says, "Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?"
How often?
One of the questions people frequently ask of independent Christian churches is, "Why does your church participate in communion every single week?" There are a lot of groups who reserve the celebration of the Lord's Supper only for special occasions or for a special monthly communion service. The reasoning is that by celebrating the Lord's Supper too frequently, a Christian will wear out its significance and reduce communion to a mere ritual.
Of course this was never an issue for the early Church. The description of the early Church in Acts 2:42-47 (NIV) says, "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved."
The early Church participated in the Lord's Supper daily! Every day! Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. And not only did they participate in the Lord's Supper every day, but they did so with glad and sincere hearts. Far from diminishing the significance of communion, the frequency of the early Church's communion celebration actually deepened the Church's devotion. It provoked heartfelt worship and praise. It caused the Church to grow evangelistically and numerically! Lives were transformed.
Growing tired of partaking of the Lord's Supper is like growing tired of gazing at the sunset each evening or looking at the sunrise each morning. I suppose it is possible for someone to grow tired of the breathtaking handiwork of God, but that has to be the exception and not the norm! The Lord's Supper, the breaking of bread, the sight of the fruit of the vine, takes our breath away as we consider the handiwork of God's salvation through Jesus Christ's death on the cross. These visual emblems are a reenactment of God's saving work on our behalf through Jesus Christ. These emblems represent our life in Christ and our hope. The visual emblems confront us with the ultimate purpose of our existence. We exist to commune with God and to be vitally united with Christ in relationship.
If you can partake of communion without the hair on the back of your neck standing up, or your toes tingling in your shoes, or your blood pressure rising, or a smile of gratitude breaking across your face, or your heart skipping a few beats, or your stomach sinking within itself, then the frequency of communion is not your problem. Your heart is the problem!
No true believer can yawn during communion. No true believer can participate in the broken bread and spilt blood of Christ without at once being taken back to the violence of the cross and the joy of our salvation. Those who begrudge the Lord's Supper, those who shrug off its significance, are really spiritual orphans. Just like those who begrudge Mother's Day, who shrug off its significance, are really physical orphans. An orphan is someone who has no sense of being vitally connected in relationship to another. They take life for granted. They live without gratitude, with a sense of entitlement, and feeling victimized. There is no joy or praise or hope.
Communion is communing with Christ in relationship. Can we ever do this enough? There is a magnetic pull to these elements. They draw us into the gospel story. They at once remind us of the severe penalty of sin, but also remind us of the limitless grace of God. They remind us that God conquered sin and the grave because he valued a relationship with us so much that he sent his one and only Son to die on a cross to achieve the restoration of that relationship. These elements remind us of a relationship that has been purchased for us. This isa relationship that transcends time, space, death, and that spans far into eternity. Communion is participation through relationship in the divine eternal nature of God. It's but a foretaste of eternity.
Honoring Christ's body.
But there is something else that we must remember about communion. Communion is not just about being in a right relationship with God through the broken body and spilt blood of Jesus Christ. Communion is also about being in right relationship with the body of Christ on earth, which is the Church, which is each of us.
Jesus Christ is spiritually present with us during communion through his Holy Spirit. But Jesus Christ is physically present with us during communion in the face of those who are members of the body of Christ. Collectively we are Christ's physical body on earth. We are his hands, his feet, his eyes, his nose, his ears, and his very life. In this sense, Jesus Christ is literally sitting in the seat next to us, walking with us, talking with us, sharing with us, and calling us by name. To be in right relationship with the spiritual Jesus Christ is to be in right relationship with his physical body, the Church. Our vertical relationship unites us in horizontal relationship one to another.
In 1 Corinthians 11 the Corinthians thought that they could honor the spiritual body of Jesus Christ with God in heaven while forsaking the physical body of Christ, the Church. Members of the Corinthian Church participated in the Lord's Supper while turning an unforgiving, cold, partial shoulder to their brothers and sisters in Christ. There were divisions. There were quarrels. There were factions. Members of the body of Christ were enemies, one against the other.
But listen to Paul's strong words of rebuke in 1 Corinthians 11:27-32 (NIV)."Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment. When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world."
The Lord's Supper is not playtime for the Christian believer. The Lord's Supper is not a time for traditionalism or blind ritualism. The Lord's Supper is not a religious formality that we subject ourselves to in order to appease God or to fulfill some obligation or duty. The Lord's Supper is not an isolated act of worship that constitutes the full requirement of all God's desires for our lives. The Lord's Supper confronts us with both the horizontal and vertical dimensions of our relationship with Jesus Christ.
Communion first forces us to ask, "Where am I in relationship with Jesus Christ? Am I saved by faith in Jesus Christ's work on the cross? Am I a believer? Have I repented of sin and turned to God? Have I pledged my life to Christ in the waters of baptism? Do I confess him as Lord and savior from my heart? Am I living in obedience by his Holy Spirit day after day? Do I know Christ's forgiveness? His unconditional love? His mercy? His grace? Are me and God cool? Do I have a clear conscience? Do I have the assurance of salvation? Do I have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ? Do I have confidence? Do I have peace? Do I have hope? Do I have joy? Do I have a sincere heart?"
But communion forces us to also ask, "Where am I in relationship to the physical body of Jesus Christ on earth? Am I forsaking his body by skipping times of worship, by neglecting times of fellowship, or by avoiding my brothers and sisters in Christ? Am I holding grudges? Am I promoting divisions and factions? Am I injecting disunity in the body through gossip, malicious slander, idle chatter, etc.? Am I being judgmental of others? Am I being inconsiderate? Am I being harsh? Am I harboring an unforgiving, ungracious spirit toward the mistakes of others? Am I showing favoritism? Am I only associating with people I like? Am I looking down on those who are poor? Needy? Racially different? Or broken? Am I examining my heart toward others? My attitudes? My thoughts? My lusts? My passions? My emotions? My inklings? My impulses? My desires? My motives? Am I judging myself? Are my relationships being transformed? Am I loving the physical body of Christ, the Church, in practical acts of obedience, or am I just living as if the spiritual body of Christ is all that matters?"
I take communion twice a week, once in first service and once in second service. In both services communion forces me to scrutinize my relationship first with the spiritual body of Christ, and second with his physical body, the Church. We can never overdo such meditation and reflection. If anything, we err on the side of not recognizing Christ's body enough.