Communion Thoughts - Feb 3, 2008                           Pastor Tom Colburn

The Lord's Supper was ostensibly a gathering to celebrate the Passover. This was a long standing tradition of the Jews of which Jesus and his disciples were members. It was also a Jewish tradition for the master of the house to break the bread, bless it and pass it around. Jesus was the master of that Last Supper gathering.

In like manner the master would take the wine, bless it and pass it to those in attendance. Jesus and his disciples celebrated the Passover in the manner of the Jews. This wasn't a new celebration. It was an old celebration. What Jesus did was to place a new focus on this tradition.

While the original Passover celebrated the Angel of death "passing over" the houses marked with the blood on the doorway, Jesus asked his disciples to remember his life and his blood that would soon be shed. 

The blood of the Passover lamb wasn't in and of itself efficacious. It was what that blood represented that mattered. That mark on the doorway signaled to the angel of death that the people inside had heard God, believed God and obeyed God. Jesus asks the same from us today.

Let us not be hyper focused on the literal blood that was shed; neither of the Passover lamb or of Jesus. Let us focus in on what that blood represents. It represents hearing God, believing God and obeying God. Jesus did that to perfection.

Thus his sacrifice beat the devil, beat the grave, overcame death and created a path to freedom for all those who come into communion with him and by extension with his Father and our Father, God.

Consider the words from the book of John, chapter 6:

Verses 41-42 -  Manna was said to have come down from Heaven, but literally, as we can read in Scripture, it sprouted up from the earth. It came down from Heaven to the extent that it came forth by the will of the God of Heaven.

The same is true of Jesus. He didn't literally come down from Heaven. Again, we can read in Scripture how he came into existence by the supernatural impregnation of his virgin mother by God via the Holy Spirit. Jesus came down from Heaven to the extent that it was the will of the God of Heaven that Jesus come forth on the earth.

Verses 47-54 - This was declared by Jesus before the Last Supper. There was no accompanying command to celebrate the Lord's Supper with this admonition spoken to the Jews here by Jesus.

Jesus spoke here the truth that needs to be understood and adhered to irrespective of the commemoration of the Lord's Supper. At the Passover meal which was to be his last with the disciples prior to his crucifixion, Jesus simply asked them to use this as an occasion to remember the truth about him (Jesus) and his purpose.

So it is appropriate that we too take time to reflect upon the truth that Jesus Christ is indeed as he said, "the bread of life."

"Truly, truly I say to you that unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood you have no life in yourselves." What we do here today is a symbolic celebration of this truth spoken by Jesus.

We are called to take the life of Christ inside our very beings and allow God and Christ to live through us. In so doing we commune with God and Christ.

Let us now read from 1 Cor 11:23-26 and then we will pray over and distribute the elements.