The "LORD'S SUPPER" - "COMMUNION" - What Does It All Mean?

The Church down through the ages has called the “Lord’s Supper” or “Communion” a sacrament. Catholics even call it the Blessed Sacrament. The word sacrament has been defined as an outward expression of an inward spiritual reality.

I would like to enlarge your perspective on what I believe Jesus meant at the Last Supper when He did that thing with the bread and wine – “This is my body… This is my blood.” What was He really instituting?

Much is made today about the ability to remember things, Books are written about memory techniques. Courses are given to teach how to remember what you see and hear. The ability to remember names and faces is a great factor in business success. We all wish that we could remember other people’s names and things about them better.

Practically every memory technique that you hear about involves the subject of “association”. People who have extraordinary talent at remembering names and other things mostly speak of their use of association. When they first hear about something which they wish to remember, they associate the name, the face, the event, with some other common thing or event. This way, they are able to recall the thing that they want to remember much more easily.

Some of these talented “rememberers” seem, to many of us, to use some very complicated associations at times, but for them it seems to work very successfully. Whether complicated or simple, associations do work for memory recall.

Well, I believe that Jesus Christ understood the principles of memory association very well. And this is what the “Lord’s Supper” is all about.

The event of the Lord’s Supper is described in three of the four gospels by Matthew, Mark and Luke. (John’s gospel, for some unknown reason, does not make mention of the event of the disciple’s partaking with Christ of the bread and wine.) There is a little different wording among the three gospels, Matthew 26:26-28, Mark 14:22-24, Luke 22:19-20. But Paul, in First Corinthians Chapter Eleven, covers everything mentioned in the three gospels.
“For I have received of the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which He was betrayed, took bread. And when He had given thanks, He broke it, and said, ‘Take and eat. This is My body, which is broken for you. THIS DO IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME.’
In the same way also, He took the cup (of wine] when He had finished supper, and said, ‘This cup is the new testament in My blood. As often as you drink it, DO THIS IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME.’
For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are showing the Lord‘s death until He comes.” (I Cor. 11:23-26)

Much has been made of this event by Christians down through the centuries. But what are we to really see in the message Christ was giving to His friends?

I believe the key words of His purpose are the words: “in remembrance”. Jesus knew how easy it would be for Christians to temporarily forget Him because of their involvement in daily activities of the world. No one can keep his mind squarely on Christ at all times throughout the daily grind of life. Jesus knew that, and wanted Christians to play the game of “association” in their common daily routine of living.

Everyone has to eat. Every day. Everyone has to drink. Every day. Jesus figured that these times would be good times to associate with Him. I believe that the above quoted scripture could be paraphrased something like this:

“Okay, guys, you know that I‘m not going to be eating with you, living with you, teaching you much longer. But I want you to remember me. You are going to get busy with things of the world and tend to forget everything I mean to you. I don’t want you to forget. I am going to die. And my death won’t be very pretty, but everything about it will have a purpose.
Look at this bread. You are going to be eating some of this every day of your life. When you take it into your mouth daily at mealtimes, think of my body, broken in death. Remember me as your Lord. Associate eating the bread with my body death, for you!
Look at this wine. You are going to be drinking some of this at your mealtimes also. As you raise that cup to your lips daily, and swish that wine into you mouth, think of my blood being spilled in death, for you! Associate your daily wine with my blood.
This is the best way that I can think of to keep you IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME.”

I believe that this is the basic theme. The event was meant by Christ to be a simple memory association. It was just Jesus’ way of getting Christians to remember Him, in the confusion of the world, at least three times a day!

The custom of saying “grace” or “blessing” the food at mealtimes is quite common among Christians. It is good to thank God for what He has given us. And Jesus was saying to remember Him at mealtime by association. When you eat and drink your breakfast, your toast and coffee, remember His body and blood. When you eat and drink your lunch, for instance a sandwich and fruit juice, remember His body and blood. When you eat and drink dinner, a dinner roll and wine with your entree, remember His body and blood. This will be a constant recall to us at mealtime of what Christ did for us in our place, and what He does for us on a daily basis as He guides our life from within us.

It is certainly good, proper and uplifting to assemble together as a church for a “Communion Service”, Worshipping God in music and prayer together, and then partaking of bread and wine or juice together is a fine way to increase our awareness of our new birth in living union with Christ. The Holy Spirit deals with our intellect, emotions and will (our human soul) in a mighty way when we assemble together. Man, on a human level, knows the power of a “Memorial Service” in honor of a person or an event. Man keeps annual remembrances by services for people and events such as Pearl Harbor, Martin Luther King, Memorial Day services for all the war dead, etc. Man has found that the assembling together enhances the remembrance and the meaning.

But I really believe that Christ had in mind a DAILY association of food with Him. “Think about Me often,” He seemed to say. And this was to be done, not to enhance His image and glorify Him, but rather for OUR benefit. The best way for us to stay in constant awareness of and TRUST in Christ‘s guidance is to REMEMBER HIM!

Isaiah 53 is recognized as a prophetic description of Christ’s suffering and death. And we are given there a twofold meaning to the Cross. “By His stripes, we are healed.” By Jesus’ broken body, we are to recall the promises of healing power available to a Christian. “For the transgression of my people was He stricken.” By the blood of Jesus, we are to recall the whole purpose of the Cross: to pay the penalty of sin for us. These are worthy considerations for a Christian to keep him aware of who he is.

Back in I Corinthians 11, the Corinthian church seemed to be making a “party time” out of the Lord’s Supper service. And Paul had to give correction on what communion was all about. He said that it was fine to come together for communion, but that it was not meant to be a giant feast. Paul said in verse 22: “Have you not houses to eat and drink in?” I believe Paul was saying that they could take the Lord’s Supper every time they ate at home. But to assemble together for it required a certain dignity of expression. This is what they were lacking.

I see communion not as a doctrinal requirement of Christ but as a prudent recommendation of Christ toward His Church. If you want to keep from drifting into independent thinking and the ways of the world, remember Jesus Christ by association with eating and drinking.

What do others say?

I have many Catholic relatives and friends and I hope that this article does not cause friction. Real Christianity contains many devout Catholic and Protestant people. But the Roman Catholic Church insists that when the wine and wafer is consecrated by a priest, it becomes the actual flesh and the actual blood of Christ. This is known as “transubstantiation”. But does a piece of bread or a cup of wine really become the flesh and blood of Christ? Is this what our Lord meant?

I believe not. He simply meant that these elements represented or were symbols of His flesh and blood. Such symbolism is often found in the Bible.

One time three of David’s friends heard him express a strong desire for water from the well at Bethlehem. In spite of extreme danger, these men broke through the host of the Philistines and brought the water to him. When David found out that these men had risked their lives in this way, he refused to drink the water saying, “Is not this the blood of the men who went in jeopardy of their lives?” (2 Sam. 23:17). No one would suppose that David meant this water was literal blood. No, he used the expression in a figurative sense.

Likewise, the Bible gives references to eating a book, hungering after righteousness, etc. - all of which are shown by the context to be figurative expressions. Jesus once said, “I am the door” (John 10:9). Surely no one would suppose that Jesus was or became a literal door! On another occasion, our Lord said, “I am the vine, you are the branches” (John 15:5). He had not become a literal vine. The scriptures speak of our Lord as a rock, “and that rock was Christ” (I Cor. 10:4).

Even the scriptural wording of the event suggests that the bread and wine do not change substance. If the elements of the communion become the actual flesh and blood of Christ, how could we take it “in remembrance...until He comes” if He thus becomes present in body, blood, soul and divinity?

If the wine becomes literal blood during the mass ritual - as in claimed - then to drink it would be forbidden by the scriptures (Acts 15:20, etc.)

The Council of Trent officially defined the doctrine of transubstantiation and made it required thinking of the church. And the Council said that not only did the elements of the mass contain Christ’s body and blood, but they were the WHOLE Christ. Then when the priest offers it up, he is believed to be actually sacrificing Christ AGAIN! Thus it is referred to as the “Sacrifice of the Mass” and as “a renewal of the sacrifice of the Cross.“ But the Bible says that Calvary is a finished work, once for all, In Hebrews 9:25-28, we find a comparison of the ONE sacrifice of Christ with those numerous sacrifices of the Old Testament. “And as it is appointed unto men ONCE to die...so Christ was ONCE offered to bear the sins of many”. In the Old Testament, sacrifices had to be continually offered because none of them was the PERFECT sacrifice. But with the perfect sacrifice of our Lord Himself, there was no longer any need for repeated sacrifices.

There is not one verse in the Bible that even hints at the idea that the sacrifice of Christ had to be continued. In fact the Bible stresses just the opposite.

By the end of the Eleventh Century, lest someone should spill God’s blood, the Catholic Church began to hold back the cup from the people. (But was it not also possible that the early disciples could have spilled some of the cup? But Christ did not withhold it from them on such a basis.) Finally, in 1415, the Council of Constance officially denied the cup to laymen. This practice continued until the 1970’s with the “modernizing” of Catholicism.

Why not keep it simple?

Why did the Catholic Church make such a big deal out of the “Sacrifice of the Mass”? Not being content with the simple, sincere, memorial taking of bread and wine, the Catholic Church attempted to compete with the elaborate rituals of the peoples around them. And this mixture of ritualism and the Lord’s Supper produced the ceremony known as the Mass,

But if Christ was instituting a new special doctrinal ceremony at the Last Supper, would we not have more about it than just in three gospels and Paul’s Corinthian letter? We should find reference to its requirement throughout the New Testament. But we don‘t. The apostle John, Jesus’ closest friend, makes no mention of the event at the Last Supper.

Many do use one of John’s verses to validate transubstantiation. John 6:53 says: “Then Jesus said to them, ‘Truely I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man arid drink His blood, you have no life in you. “

But this verse must be considered in the context of verse 35: “And Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life; he that COMES TO ME shall never hunger; he that BELIEVES ON ME shall never thirst.” This shows that Jesus was using symbolism in verse 53 above. Jesus just stated the basic requirements for conversion and new birth - coming to Him in repentance and believing on Him for salvation. And in verse 53, He emphasized, with figurative flesh-eating and blood-drinking, the requirements of verse 35 to satisfy the “hunger” and “thirst”.

The bottom line

In the light of the above stated analysis, and the little mention of the “Lord’s Supper” in the New Testament, I have arrived at the following conclusions.

1) Jesus was not instituting a ritualistic ceremony but rather was giving His disciples a useful “tool” of remembrance by association.

2) This remembrance can and should be done at any meal, at home, public restaurant or church assembly. Jesus used bread and wine because they were available. But any food elements for eating and drinking can be used for remembrance by association.

3) Eating for your hunger reminds you of coming to Jesus for healing of body and soul by His broken body.

4) Drinking for your thirst reminds you of believing on Jesus for salvation by the blood of His death.

5) Galatians 2:20 says that Christ is present in my human spirit in a living union. I do not have to take “communion” to have His Life inside of me. It is there already.

6) The church “Communion Service” is a beautiful way to involve all the elements of the soul - intellect, emotions and will – into A REMEMBRANCE OF JESUS CHRIST.

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