Holy Communion

So what’s all this about? I was sitting through a communion service the other day when suddenly the thought hit me “is this really what Jesus meant?” It was a service much like any other. There was nothing out of the ordinary. There was little in the means of any interaction between members of the congregation, it was all very formal and kid of impersonal, we could all have been in little Perspex cubicles cut off from everyone else. The minister told us we were doing it as Jesus commanded us to in remembrance of him and still all I could think was - is this really what Jesus meant?

Let’s have a little think about what Jesus could have been asking of us.
He was sharing the Passover meal with his closest followers - closest friends. He was showing them more of who he was and what they should be like, especially after his departure from them. It was a lavish feast and as part of it, as with most meals at that time, there would have been bread and wine. So this was a time of fellowship, intimacy, sharing, familiarity, comfort. If a friend of theirs had walked in they would have understood the situation. It was a culturally normal thing to be doing. They would have recognised much of the symbology used in the context of the meal. The breaking of the bread and the drinking from the cup may have been new symbols but were created out of things found at every meal table.

Was Jesus not taking two very ordinary, everyday items to say, when you eat together, when you have fellowship with each other, remember me and what I mean in your lives. Remember the extraordinary when you do the very ordinary. When, each day, you eat bread and drink wine remember the sacrifice I have made for you. In this, the sacrifice of Christ is remembered in the ordinary everyday stuff that we do and especially in our time of fellowship together. It is not something set apart, formalised, done with great pomp and ritual. Wasn’t he saying, that just as we as Christians say grace at meal times, share this symbol to place me at the centre. Did Christ really mean that we should only specifically focus on his sacrificial death once a month in a formal, quite bizarre, ritual. Or was he taking the things of everyday life and saying - when you eat, when you drink, when you meet with fellow believers - I am there with you - remember me - acknowledge my presence - commune with me, let me in on your conversations, remember that the power that raised me from death is available to you now, here, today - use it. What I did, who I am, is relevant to your everyday lives. I want to be at the centre of everything you do. I want you to remember me, remember what I stand for in your lives, not now and then but as regularly as you eat and drink. So remember when you eat and drink just as you are being fed physically, remember, I want to feed you spiritually. As you remember me I want you to remember who you are through me. What I have called you to be. So, eat and drink and remember and go and do.