Remember the time when communion was the most boring part of Sunday morning service--the time when everyone would get awkwardly pensive and start speaking in seemingly cryptic language? At least this is how my 7 year old mind remembered it. Somewhere between praise and worship and the sermon, the service seemed to come to a halt. The music would soften, everyone would stand (if they weren’t already), the fidgeting would stop as all eyes and ears would fix on Pastor’s every word. Clueless of anything that was going on, I often amused myself searching for the cup filled with the most juice and selecting the biggest cracker possible as the elements were passed. The communion message was given, we partook of the “body” and “blood” of the Lord and everyone would go back to acting like their normal selves again.
Sounds funny, but unfortunately still rings true for so many believers today! The overwhelming lack of understanding concerning the gravity of communion has cheapened its power in our lives. Nowadays what should be a memorial of Jesus’ eternal sacrifice most worthy of celebration, has been reduced to a widely misunderstood, solemn, rather perfunctory, ritual. Churches all over the world gather together in “reverence”, without having the slightest clue as to why.
It’s about His boundless love for us consummated in an eternal self-sacrifice. It’s about the unfathomable lengths that He went to just to make us His own possession! Although the liturgy of communion is manmade, the substance is His very own flesh and blood shed for us. The great chasm that once separated us from fellowship with the Father is no more. Though our sin demanded the just reward of eternal judgment, condemnation and death, Jesus stepped in as the offering and payment necessary to satisfy the plight of justice. He did the unthinkable--completely satisfying the wrath of God, all while justifying us entirely in spirit, soul, and body.
It was personal! In fact, everything He does is personal! He Himself bore our sins in His own body according to 1 Peter 2:24. No one could else could carry the weight of our judgment that was rightfully ours to bear. He became everything for us that we couldn’t even become to save our own selves! His flesh was torn into, marred more than any man, so that we could walk in divine healing. His blood was poured out to wash away the revolting stain of our sin. It was the great exchange—His body and blood for our wholeness, righteousness, and justification! Who would have thought that our partaking has more to do with His love for us than our ceremonial oblation to Him!
No longer is it about our performance or our work(s), but His finished work. In symbolically partaking of His shed blood and broken body we now have new body to consider; we have a new covenant to remember! Get excited and shake off the solemnity! It’s as holy as it is celebratory; as sacred as it is ours to engage! From now on let’s start proclaiming the Lords’ death and the victory that this proclamation affirms, but now, with the true reverence that comes only from knowing why.