It’s Sunday and if your church is like ours you will also celebrate the Lord Supper today being the first Sunday of the month. I found this Communion mediation. This is so true and I’m using it in our church here as I lead the Communion.
When we take communion we look back….
We remember each time we take communion that we are part of a wonderful tradition stretching back to that first Passover, when the people of God saw Him deliver them from a desperate situation. We also look back to the nearer past, to the Last Supper, when Jesus made His solemn promise to make us His covenant people, and to the events of betrayal, torture and painful death that allowed this New Covenant to be established.
Looking back makes us realize that our God keeps His promises. He promised deliverance to the Children of Israel – and provided it. He promised a Savior, not just for the Jews but for the whole world – and He provided it. Looking back strengthens our faith and encourages us to hold fast to all the promises God has given us. Each time we take communion, we are ‘raising an Ebeneezer’ like the prophet Samuel of old. We are putting down a marker saying, “Hitherto the Lord has led us….the Lord will provide.”
When we take communion we look around….
Communion is not an individualistic act. The word communion means a ‘joining together’. As each of us takes the elements we are saying to each other: “I, like you, am a sinner saved by the grace of God. I, like you, love Jesus. I, like you, need the continuing renewing power of the Holy Spirit in my life. Let us serve the Lord, together.”
Communion eradicates all our ideas of status and importance, all our values, all our pride and prejudices about each other. We see that, together, before Jesus, we are all equally worthless, but equally loved and treasured by Him. And we are called to take His values, His love for each of His people out of our communion service into our daily lives.
When we take communion we look forward….
There are three great feasts ordained in the history of the people of God. Two of these already occurred: the Passover of Moses and the Last Supper of our Lord Jesus Christ. The third great feast event has yet to happen: it is the Marriage Feast of the Lamb. Each time the children of Israel took the Passover they were affirming their belief in the coming of a promised Savior. Each time we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, we are affirming our belief in the return of the glorified Lord Jesus.
Each communion we celebrate is one communion closer to the Marriage Feast of the Lamb (the second coming of our Lord Jesus). It is a reminder of the promise that one day we will celebrate the ultimate Feast with all those whom we have loved and who have gone before us to be with Jesus. What a feast it will be! What reunions will take place! Yet, on that day, all these wondrous things will pale into insignificance, for on that day, we shall see Jesus.
