We have all done it countless times. Often at the end of the worship service, maybe once a month, or every other week, or perhaps every week, your church probably partakes in communion, also known as the Lord’s Supper.
Perhaps you know the basics surrounding the story of why we do the Lord’s Supper, or perhaps you do not and have been wondering why your church keeps having that weird snack during service. Either way, this article is for you! Today, we are going to explore the rich and meaningful history behind communion, its implications, and what that means for us as Christians today. It is one of the sacred and God-glorifying duties of the believer to practice communion.
Jesus Tells People to Eat Him?
Picture this. You are one of Jesus’ twelve original disciples. You have just crossed over to the other side of the Sea of Galilee with him, and he takes you to a hilly area, where a great crowd of people follows you because they know of Jesus’ miraculous deeds.
The crowd gets hungry. You start to wonder how on earth you are going to feed five thousand men, plus women and children. Jesus has you take some little boy’s lunch of bread and fish, and all of a sudden you’re serving this vast multitude of people a satisfying meal with food to spare afterward. The crowd is amazed. Jesus is glorious. It’s a good day. You go to bed in awe of what you just experienced.
The next day, a crowd of people come to Jesus, and you begin to wonder what wondrous sign he is going to perform today. You are lost in your daydreaming when all of a sudden, you hear Jesus telling the crowd that they must eat his flesh and drink his blood.
That would be quite a rollercoaster of events, wouldn’t it? Well, as you may well know, I am not making that story up.
“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. 46 No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. 47 Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. 50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”
John 6:44-51
We will pause right here. At face value, what Jesus just said is…well, it’s pretty weird. You don’t get to tell someone to eat your flesh without things getting kind of awkward. That sounds like something out of a cannibalistic horror movie.
However, Jesus is not one to say gross, nonsensical things. There is a higher meaning behind what he is saying. And believe it or not, as grotesque as it sounds, it is a wonderful meaning. The Jews listening to him, however, did not pick up on this.
Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 53 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”
John 6:52-59
Maybe what he’s saying is starting to make a bit more sense to you. If not, I’ll explain. Without Christ, we are spiritually dead, left under God’s wrath and enslaved to our sinful nature. Furthermore, we are on the fast track to eternal separation from God.
It is only through the loving sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who bore the sins of mankind on the cross, that we can be reconciled to a holy God and enjoy life-sustaining, intimate relationship with him and the Father.
This is why Christ says “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” He is saying that unless we accept the gift of salvation, made possible by the piercing of his flesh, the spilling of his blood, and the brokenness of his body, we will not have abundant life in the here and now. Moreover, we will suffer eternal death in the next life. Nobody who does not place their faith in the sacrifice of Christ’s broken body can truly live.
In this sense, he is like the ultimate manna from heaven. Christ was sent from heaven as manna was to the Israelites in the wilderness, and eating his flesh provides everlasting life: “Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”
The Last Supper
This theme of Jesus’ flesh and blood being our saving grace continues later on in the Gospels. Fast-forward to the Passover night Jesus was betrayed. How precious these final moments with his followers must have been, made even more so by what he said.
4 When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. 15 And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16 For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.” 17 After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, “Take this and divide it among you. 18 For I tell you I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” 19 And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 20 In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
Luke 22:14-20
This passage, which has not failed to bring tears to my eyes as I read it, is Jesus’ loving commission to begin the sacred practice of the Lord’s Supper, which is a remembrance of his atoning sacrifice.
Communion is a powerful picture of what Jesus did for us. When we eat the bread and drink the wine/juice, we are doing so in remembrance of him—in remembrance of the perfect love he had for us. In remembrance of the unfathomable suffering he went through…for us. In remembrance of the fact that it is only through the broken flesh and the spilled blood of Jesus that we may be saved.
To participate in the Lord’s Supper is to honor and glorify Christ for the miracle of his mercy. It is not some boring ceremony to do out of habit or another hum-drum church event. It is one of the ways we glorify and enjoy Jesus.
With this in mind, there are some practical ways we can apply this in our personal and communal worship of Christ.
Application
Participate Joyfully
As previously mentioned, the Lord’s Supper isn’t another box to check off your spiritual to-do list. It is a commemoration of Jesus’ unparalleled servanthood. That’s not something to do mindlessly.
How precious it is to that Jesus died for us! And how precious it is to be able to honor him together in this way. We owe it to our glorious God to approach communion in the right spirit—in worship and awe and gladness. As his servants who live to honor him, that is truly the least we can do.
So next time you partake in communion, treasure the story of the Lord’s Supper in your heart. Do it in remembrance of him instead of absent mindedly eating a cracker or going through your mental list of everything that you have to do when you get home. This is a great way to grow more intimate with God.
Participate with Reverence
There is, or at least there should be, a certain weight attached to communion. I am not referring to a weight of sadness or despair. Rather, there is a sort of spiritual weight—a sort of reverence—that we should be taking with us as we remember his body, broken for us, and his blood, which was poured out for all mankind.
The imagery associated with communion, eating Christ’s flesh and drinking his blood, is intense. That is putting it mildly. But it is also powerfully beautiful, a reminder of what the almighty God of the universe did for us, and what he let us do to him so that we might live.
Communion is a reminder of God’s unparalleled, indescribable love, and we should approach it with every bit of worship and reverence it deserves.
Story of Grace 