Daily Encouragement: the Lord's Supper

As we draw closer to Good Friday and Easter Sunday, I think it's quite appropriate to consider the topic of the Lord's Supper or communion.

I've been in several different church congregations when they were "taking communion," and it seems it's done differently in every place. Sometimes you pass a plate of broken crackers and tiny cups of grape juice (our kids were always dying to participate because it included juice!); sometimes we are called to come up to the altar and take it up front; and sometimes it's at a table elsewhere in the room that you go to "when you are ready." The thing is, it's not really the ritual itself, it's the meaning behind it that really matters.

For those of you who are new to the body of believers, eating "Christ's body" and drinking "his blood" seems a little morbid and even cult-like, so why would we be doing something like that?

I'm going to pull my answer from Paul's letter to the Corinthians which we find in 1 Corinthians 11:

"For this is what the Lord himself said, and I pass it on to you just as I received it. On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, 'This is my body, which is given for you. do this in remembrance of me.' In the same way he took the cup of wine after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant between God and you, sealed by the shedding of my blood. Do this in remembrance of me as often as you drink it.' For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord's death until he comes again." (1 Corinthians 11:23-26)

It's a symbolic act that is not just a ritual, but it helps us to remember--to remember how Christ suffered and died on the cross to give us life--true, eternal life. We take the bread and the cup in gratitude for his sacrifice knowing that it was the shedding of his blood that cleansed our hearts--not the grape juice in the cup. I think Jesus knew, though, that some of us understand better when we do something "hands on," and it becomes more real to us.

So the next opportunity you have to take the Lord's Supper, remember what it was like when you first understood Christ's sacrifice for you, what it did for you, and give him your heart for that is what He truly wants from you.