|
Communion means intimacy or feelings of emotional or spiritual
closeness. It is a relationship in which something is
communicated or shared. This takes place when we accept Christ
as our Savior. We enter into communion with God.
Communion is also the word used to describe the Christian
sacrament that commemorates Jesus Christ’s last supper. The
service containing the sacrament of communion is often explained
to us as a time of remembrance.
What are we to remember? Remembering means that we have had
this event take place in the past. The simple and easy answer is
the moment in which we accepted Christ as our Savior. It is the
time in which we realized that we were sinners and that we were
forgiven by the blood that Jesus shed on the cross for us. We
are to remember this event.
When we first accepted Christ as our savior we may not have
realized all the wonderful significance God attached to this
communion with us. We look at the Old Testament to realize how
important covenant relationships are to God.
God made covenants with many righteous and holy men. His first
covenant was with Noah (Gen 9: 8-17). He made other covenants
with Abraham and David. These covenants had physical displays.
For Noah, God displayed the rainbow as a sign of the covenant.
For Abraham, God made circumcision as a sign of the covenant.
For David, God made an everlasting covenant in which his
descendents would be on the throne. Jesus Christ was born
through the line of David.
Communion is a sign of the covenant God has made with us as
believers. If we are children of God, He has designed a time in
which He asks us to remember what Jesus has done for us.
Often times when we have Communion in church, we are reminded of
Jesus’ painful and agonizing death. Although no one can dispute
that Jesus’ death was gruesome, it was not the physical death
that brings us to our knees. The perfect Lamb of God, which is
Jesus Christ, sacrificed Himself for our sins and was rejected
by God.
We have all known people who have died of cancer,
which slowly and insidiously destroys a body, is not only
painful but can be a long term process. Almost inevitably most
long term illnesses completely annihilate quality of life, death
seems to be welcomed. We have also known deaths in which people
are mentally tormented or physical tortured. These
egregious deaths seem to be appalling so what makes Christ death
more horrendous? In the grand scheme of life, Jesus’ death was a
relatively short exposure to physical pain and discomfort.
Jesus Christ suffered the worst death
possible. The true suffering was not the physical pain inflicted
on Jesus; it was true suffering when He was forsaken by God.
There is nothing more painful. No one has ever felt that before
or since unless by choice. Jesus loved God more than anyone or
anything and God forsook Him that day. That is the true heart
break. When we are reminded of Jesus’ death and resurrection, we
need to remember the true suffering of Jesus which was the lose
He felt that day in which God turned His back on Him. His
physical death was nothing compared to his true spiritual
anguish of being separated from God.
We
have all experienced the death of someone we love. We have felt
that sense of separation. Jesus died and felt the sense of
separation from God and God felt that since of separation from
Jesus. Next time when you take communion in the church realize
that the sense of separation you felt when someone you loved
died. Then compare this great loss to the loss or separation endured by God and His
only begotten Son. They both suffered for you. God loved you so
much that He gave His only Son. This is what should bring us to
tears each and every time we partake in communion.
The reason God had to forsake Him was
the sin which Jesus took on for us. God cannot look at sin nor
can He tolerate sin. He had to look away and this was
devastating to Jesus. The greatest gift we were given was the
resurrection of Christ and that through the shedding of His
blood on Calvary we are cleansed from our sin. We can approach
the throne of God through the blood of Jesus Christ.
If you have gone to church all you
life, have you ever asked yourself “why does blood have to be
shed?” I know that they always say that it must be shed for sin
but why. In the Old Testament they had sacrifices and in the New
Testament they had Jesus, so what does the blood mean?
The blood is the covenant. God is holy
so holy that no one is allowed in His presence unclean. The
blood covers our sin. Jesus’ blood is powerful and redemptive.
He was the perfect sacrifice for our sins. Jesus is the perfect,
acceptable Lamb of God. The blood of Christ is the sign of the
new covenant with God. When we eat the bread we are to remember
His body that was broken for us but when we drink the wine we
are to remember His blood which is the new covenant with us.
|
