Holy Communion has always been a wonder and a bit of mystery to me. I really love the way we pause and focus so intently on Jesus and the great price He paid with his life and through His death. Today as we participated in the Communion service I was reflecting on the meaning and it occurred to me that there is truly such significance in taking the elements that represent Christ's body and blood into our bodies. Look at 1 Corinthians 11:23-25 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” Of all the ways the Lord could have asked His disciples to remember Him, He chose the symbolic picture of taking His very body and blood into our being.
What this says to me is that we don't remember Jesus primarily for His power, His wisdom, His wonder-working miracles. We don't celebrate primarily the superiority of His truth over all other religions. We don't primarily recall Him as magnificent teacher or even as maker of all we see.
Jesus asked that we primarily remember that the body that was broken for us and the blood that sealed His redemption promise has actually entered our individual lives. He is Emmanuel ("God with us") not only because He lived among us in the flesh. He is Emmanuel because He still lives within our flesh as we have welcomed Him, individually, within.
blessings in remembrance of Him,
Rob Smith
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