I love celebrating communion.  In my faith tradition it only happens once a month or if I am available during an evening, twice.

We are told that we do not want to take it for granted or turn it into a religious practice and I laugh because how can my relationship with God – prayer, meditation, intercession, Bible reading, singing, worship, quiet time, listening, obeying, following, trusting – be taken for granted or turned into a religious practice.

“This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

What am I remembering?

Most of us remember the beating, the stripes, the crown of thorns planted into His head, and of course, the cross.

Maybe there is more.  Most of the Old Testament prophecies concerning Jesus’ punishment stated quite a few promises. Those are things we can remember too.

Remember that by His stripes we are healed, He takes our burdens on His own shoulders and gives us peace, He sets the captives free, He heals the brokenhearted, He comes with good news, actually He is the Good News and there is so much more.

“This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. But behold the hand of him who betrays me is with me on the table. For the Son of man goes as it has been determined; but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed!”

This sentence was given in a full breath and has been shortened elsewhere, especially with Paul’s rendition, and I left it here because there is significance to me in it.

The new covenant is awesome – one of grace and mercy making the old covenant effective.  One that takes me, with all my filthy rags, and makes me white as snow.  One that enables God to look at me through the lens of Jesus, my Saviour.  A gift offered to all, not capable of being purchased, loaned or borrowed, and comes with no strings attached.  God who comes to reach done to people and once and for all destroy the concept of religion in exchange for a relationship.

So the second part dealing with betrayal…I find it fascinating that remembering His body and blood is crucial to keeping us from betrayal – from being embarrassed to tell others that we are followers of Jesus, from being embarrassed to die to ourselves, from being so convinced that we need to do it alone, go our own way, and only meet up with God on Sunday.

Remembering Jesus, every day…that is communion…spending time reminding myself of who He is and thereby remembering who I am.

Related articles

• Taking Communion for Granted (dailybibleplan.com)
• What’s up with Communion? (christical.wordpress.com)
• “Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ…” (mysaviorspeaks.com)
• Communion for the Simple (redspoonphotography1.wordpress.com)