[Most of my most popular posts are communion meditations. And for some reason, their popularity peaks on Saturday nights.
I try to be very brief — contrary to my nature — because I know that I’m not the point of the communion. My job is to point away from myself and toward Jesus or even toward his bride, the church.
But then again, because so many communion meditations are trite, cliché, or even self-indulgent, I try to pick out a single, well-worded thought to share. And so I usually write it down and read it, knowing that it’s my nature to speak too long and extemporize too much.]
The scriptures speak of the Lord’s Supper in terms of “breaking bread.” For example,
(Act 20:7 ESV) On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight.
Ponder for a moment why “break bread” became an expression for the Lord’s Supper. It’s really an expression for eating a common meal.
A typical First Century Jewish meal would have a course of unleavened bread, flat bread made with flour and oil, not unlike a soft tortilla. The bread would have been baked fresh in a brick oven and brought in hot and steaming.
The host would say a blessing and then tear off piece of the bread, passing the remainder to his guests. The tearing of the bread to divide it among guests was the “breaking” of the bread.
You see, you can’t break bread alone. You can only break bread by dividing the bread among other supper guests. To break bread is to engage in table hospitality.
You can sing praises to God alone. You can pray alone. You can listen to recorded sermons alone. You can write a check to the church alone. But you can’t break bread alone.
One of the purposes of the communion is to remind us that we are a body. This is something we have to do together. And that’s because we are most like Jesus when we are together — because together we form the body of Christ.
(Eph 4:15-16 ESV) 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
Therefore, as we break this bread, remember that this is not just between you and God. You are, as God wishes, breaking bread with fellow believers, members of the same body, united in Christ to be built up in love.
And you can’t be united in Christ and built up in love alone.
This bread is represents the body of Christ sacrificed — because we are the body of Christ sacrificed. We are “sacrificed” because we’ve committed to the form of sacrificial love that Jesus showed us on the cross — doing for others knowing he was getting the raw end of the deal. He knew it wasn’t fair. And he loved us so much he did it anyway.
Have you considered an Ebook of just communion meditations?
Perhaps there should be some in that book that should not be used. The one that I remember was a reminder that we do it every week unlike some other churches. It was said with a bit of bitterness and a “we’re more correct that you” attitude. That is no way to present the Eucharist. This was done in what I would call one of the “flagship” churches.
One of my “pet peeves” is the comment between the Supper and the Offering: “Now, separate and apart from the Lord’s Supper, we use this as a convenient time to make an offering….”
What if anything in our service to Jesus is “separate and apart” from what He told us to remember in this Supper? And what was that? He did not say, “Remember my death,” though that is certainly a part of what He included. Rather, He said, “As oft as you do this, do it memory of me.” It is the total package, of who He is, how He lived, His death, His resurrection, His ascent, His sending the Spirit, His current reign from the right hand of the Father, and His promise to return for us. It includes the promises and prophecies of the Old Testament as well as all that is said about Him in the New Covenant Scriptures.
Soi, why do we so often limit ourselves to thinking of the gory details of His suffering and death instead of also including these other items that are all important as well – and without which His death loses much of its significance.
BTW, Jay’s post is an excellent reminder that in the Supper we are reminded that we are “one body” in Him. It is not to be taken in isolation, but in the community of disciples.
Our unfortunate and seemingly immutable habit of silent, internal, personal reflection as the environment for the Eucharist is, in fact, entirely inconsistent with the idea of “breaking bread” and with the manner in which Jesus instituted the observance himself. Our penchant is to encourage people to shut each other out and, if possible, to mentally picture (as graphically as we can) the agony of Jesus on the cross. Truly spiritual people may weep or become vaguely depressed at the recollection. This we could do much more effectively alone, at home, in our closet. For a congregation to bring people together every week and insist doctrinally that they gather for this purpose, only to insist that they not interact with each other while they do it, reminds me just how foolish we can be when we focus on the “how” of things, and not the “what” or the “why”.
“We have to be together so we can ignore each other so as not to be distracted by each other while doing this as individually as possible.” Oy.
I once told a congregation that our penchant for insisting on not being distracted could be satisfied by a simple expedient of replacing pews with isolation booths. Needless to say, I was soon moving on.
I have wondered, especially since we were taught to visualize the scene of his death, were we really supposed to discern his existence within the body (the assembly) around us? Realizing that his Spirit is there within each of us.
(1 Cor 11:27 KJV) Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. 28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. 29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.
(1 Cor 11:27 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. 28 A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. 29 For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself.
1Co 11:26 (ESV) For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. 27 Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.
Paul’s rebuke of the Corinthian church in 1 Corinthians 11:17ff centers on their neglect of the unity of the body. Some were getting drunk while others were going hungry. In 10:17 he had said that because there is one loaf, we who are many are one body. Chapter 11 speaks of how that church was, by their actions, abusing this principle. To interpret “not discerning the Lord’s body” as referring to the physical body of Jesus on the cross ignores this context. While it may include that, the primary reference is to the church as the body of Christ and to the unity of its many members.
For some, this is far more a loving, moving, Jesus mental thing than an obedience to form thing.
I have enjoyed the Lords Supper using regular bread or a cracker and some kind of juice, even water, with friends when none of the other must be used items were available. Felt it was best to enjoy the closeness and thinking that went along with this observance than the form is.
Felt it would be a shame to want to think about Jesus and not be able to do as close to what he asked than to not do anything because of anything not being available.
Doing this under duress was some of the most memorable Lords Supper experiences ever.
The Corinthians had turned the Lord’s Supper into a divisive, self-centered, unholy meal. Paul had to sharply rebuke then. For they had turned The Love Feast into a Hate Feast! Going against the very essence of this memorial. Christ’s Sacrificial love!