Reflections of a Variant

“Then He also said to him who invited Him, “When you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back, and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. And you will be blessed” – Luke 14:12-14

Communion is my favorite sacrament.

A sacrament is a sacred ceremony or ritual as an outward demonstration of the internal work of grace in our lives and an acknowledgement of what God has done.

In most Protestant churches, we perform communion by consuming bread and juice together, representing the bread and wine Jesus shared with His disciples on the night He was taken to be crucified, using it as a time to reflect on the work of the cross. Here is the account of that event from the Gospel of Luke:

And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He said, “Take this and share it among yourselves; for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes.” And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.” – Luke 22:17-20

What is the New Covenant and what does it have to do with this cup they shared that night?

Covenants were a special kind of relational contract between two parties in the Ancient Near East that included oaths and the shedding of animal blood. God made covenants with Noah, Abraham, Israel through Moses, and David. But throughout the Old Testament, God’s people repeatedly broke their covenant with Him by worshiping idols and mistreating the marginalized, costing them land and nationhood. After the devastation of that loss, God comforted His people through His prophets Jeremiah and Ezekial with promises of a new covenant:

“Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them and on their heart, I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” – Jeremiah 31:31-33

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.” – Ezekiel 36:26-27

Although the new covenant was made with God’s people in exile, the restoration it brought would be made available to all mankind (Romans 5:18). The signs given for this covenant are God’s spirit dwelling within His people (Ezekiel 37:14) and circumcision of the heart (Romans 2:29). I love walking through the covenants and reflecting on the way each builds on the next, pointing to the ultimate resolution for mankind: The coming of Christ.

So on that night when they were celebrating the Passover feast, and Jesus was about to go to the cross as the sacrificial Passover lamb for the forgiveness of sins for all mankind, He passed the wine to his disciples and said, “Drink from it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.” (Matthew 26:27). Then He told them to do this in remembrance of Him.

A group project

As an introverted, perfectionist, autistic with control issues, I’m not a big fan of the group project. But I love it when it comes to God’s kingdom, and one of my favorite parts about communion is that it is most definitely a group project.

The sacrament of baptism in an individual statement of dedication to following Jesus, but communion is taken with others because it’s a communal statement. It says, we are saved by grace through Christ’s blood. It says, we are his body; brothers and sisters together with all who share this meal. That’s why Paul’s instructions on the Lord’s table focus heavily on interpersonal reconciliation rather than the mechanics of how to perform it.

The sacrament God chose to represent His salvation, the ritual Jesus said to do as the thing to remember Him by, the act that represents His blood and broken body on the cross, and that he chose to announce the fulfillment of His new covenant for us requires others. It is a shared meal between followers of Jesus. That’s why the term “breaking bread together” holds so much weight, especially after wounds or betrayal. Because it doesn’t mean “I follow Jesus, and you follow Jesus” it means “We follow Jesus together”.

“Examine yourself”

The early church observed communion much differently than we do today.  They didn’t have cute little juice cups and pre-cut bread slices. Communion happened over a full meal. In the Greco-Roman world dinner hosts portioned the elements according to the status of the guests because honor was important. But it wasn’t supposed to be that way at the Lord’s table. The church in Corinth began dividing themselves into worldly hierarchies:

Haves and have-nots

Cool-kids and dorks

Self-righteous and those who enjoyed a little more liberty.

And these divisions become evident in their communion. Some people ate their fill while others went hungry, others were given preferential treatment, others got hammered. The Lord’s supper started to take on the very social structures it was meant to tear down. So, Paul had to send a word of correction and instruction (1 Corinthians 10-11).

A portion of that instruction includes examining oneself before participating. We’re often told that means to spend some time reflecting on any areas of personal sin and repenting before we participate. That’s a very individual way to look at something that is supposed to be a group project. How do we reconcile our worthiness to come to God solely being determined by His grace, and receiving judgment for taking communion in an unworthy manner? I used to have fear that I had sins I didn’t even know about and might anger God if I didn’t repent first…. That’s a burden we weren’t meant to carry.

Reconciliation

In context, Paul was correcting the Corinthian church for how they were treating each other. One of the foundational ethics of the kingdom of God is no one is better than anyone else and we follow Christ’s model of seeking the interest of others above our own. Right from the beginning of man’s story when sin entered the world (Genesis 3) the two immediate effects were:

1. Man hides from God
2. Man blames each other

Broken fellowship with God included broken fellowship with His image: One another. Restored relationship with Him must also include unity with people. Here’s some ways Jesus uses shared meals to correct broken views of how people see one another:

“Then He also said to him who invited Him, “When you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back, and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. And you will be blessed,” – Luke 14:12-14

“Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. ⁴ So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” ⁶ So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.” – Luke 19: 1-10

“As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples”. – Matthew 9:9-10

Communion with others was chosen to represent Christ’s act of salvation because reconciliation with God goes hand-in-hand with reconciliation with the bearers of His image.