Why Communion
Why Communion
By Dennis Huebshman
Today, Communion, or the Lord’s Supper as it’s sometimes called, is celebrated in numerous ways in different religions. To most people, it’s getting a wafer or piece of bread followed either by grape juice or wine. The communion leader usually explains it’s a memorial to honor Jesus because He was crucified. Then everyone participates because it’s just the way it is. They go on with their lives as if all is normal.
In some religions, they actually believe the bread and wine become the real body and blood of Jesus when taken by the priest or other official. Congregation usually doesn’t get to take these.
I would like to go back for a moment and share my feelings of that night in the Upper Room and show why the Communion is so important. Jesus had told His disciples to prepare the traditional Passover meal which had been done annually from the time the Israelites left Egypt and up to that very year. It is still celebrated by Jews around the world.
It has always been a solemn occasion because of what took place on the first one. (Exodus 12 for reference) But this night, Jesus tried to impress on His disciples they would be witnessing a part of something that the Lord knew had to happen from the beginning of time. What took place in Egypt was of extreme importance to the Israelites, but what was about to happen would affect the whole world from that time on. Jesus knew they would not fully understand or appreciate what was happening right at this moment, but after His resurrection and assentation they would be given all they needed to believe.
Picture our Savior, probably on cushions on the floor with a low table in the center of the room, and all the apostles gathered around it. These 12 had been with Him from the beginning of His ministry and for about 3 years. He had personally picked each one of them, and knew them intimately even thought they did not fully understand their roles at this historical moment.
His heart was heavy, and the human side of Him was very apprehensive as to the physical pain and humiliation He was to suffer. This was echoed in the Garden of Gethsemane later that night. It did not stop His resolve to follow through.
Deeper still, and beyond our ability to understand, His divine side was in agony. He knew He would soon take upon Himself every sin that ever was committed up to then and every sin that would take place from that moment on. However, as the Perfect Lamb of God , His blood had to be shed to cover all those sins. The extreme agony of this was He knew He would be separated from the Father for the first time ever because God could not accept or look at all that sin.
Looking ahead just for a moment, when Jesus cried out, “MY GOD, MY GOD! Why have you forsaken Me?” that would’ve been the moment He was apart from the Father. He saw what those who were to go to the Lake of Fire would see, total horror of not having any Hope. This is the point of separation from the Father. In just a very short while, He finally said, “IT IS FINISHED”. The debt would have been paid in full, and there would have been a Glorious Father/Son reunion.
Getting back to the Passover night, Jesus took bread and broke it and passed it to the others. He told them it “represented” His body being given as a sacrifice for them – and us. Then, He passed the cup and said it was His blood shed for them (representative, not the real blood). He then told them that as often as they break bread and share a cup, to do so in remembrance of Him.
He was also at the point of despair that one of them would be His betrayer, and all the rest would desert Him at the appointed time. He knew He would be alone. This was not new. He knew when He called for Judas to follow Him Judas would be the one to betray Him.
Biggest issue at this time, the apostles still didn’t get the message. They didn’t believe the Messiah would actually die Their thoughts were that Jesus was about to reveal He was Lord of Lord and King of Kings, and they would all go into the Temple when He took over and rule and reign with Him over all the world. They didn’t grasp the significance of Him being the Sacrificial Lamb of that particular Passover. He was the only perfect sinless sacrifice that the Father could accept. They would not fully understand all of this until Pentecost when the Holy Spirit entered them all.
Please understand, Jesus could’ve called it off at any moment, but He relented His will to the Father. At any moment all He had to do was call out and Legions of Angels would’ve come to His rescue. But He didn’t.
Now, after all of this, do you maybe have a better picture of why the Father is so adamant that we accept His Son? Do you see the importance the Father has placed on His sacrifice? It was absolutely the most important event – after the virgin birth – ever to have taken place on this earth. If one doesn’t accept the Free Gift, God will honor their chosen view and allow them to be separated from Him in the Lake of Fire forever. After all, the Creator of the Universe was about to GIVE HIMSELF so that we could once and for all be relieved of having to offer a blood sacrifice for our sins, which were never adequate anyway.
Paul went so far as to say if you don’t have the right frame of mind to not take communion. It was that significant!
By accepting Jesus as our Savior, we get the reward for His agony; we get eternal life because of His death, burial and resurrection; we are the total winners because “God So Loved”……
L’Chaim Tovim Ul’Shalom – For good life and peace