The Strange and Otherworldly Rite of Communion: Thoughts on 1 Corinthians 11 and John 6

Last updated on: September 6, 2009 at 7:35 pm by Owen Strachan

The Strange and Otherworldly Rite of Communion: Thoughts on 1 Corinthians 11 and John 6 2009-09-06T19:35:09-06:00 Owen Strachan

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

communion From 1 Corinthians 11:23-26–

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

This passage struck me this morning as I ate the Lord’s supper. It’s one of those passages that Christians know pretty well, and that makes it possible to miss the obvious significance of it. Paul likens Christ’s body and blood to bread and wine. (Image: SundaySchoolCourses)

Jesus does this elsewhere. In John 6:35, He calls Himself “the bread of life.” Needless to say, this is not the typical designation leaders take upon themselves–“I AM BREAD! Hear me roar”–but it is evocative. I would love to look more into the cultural and historical significance of this statement, but at just the plainest level, it tells us something huge. Jesus is the bread we need. He is the wine we must have.

Perhaps this sounds obvious. It is obvious. I’m not telling you I have some massive insight here. I don’t. I have merely the plain truth in mind: Jesus is of such basic importance to our lives that He is bread. He is drink. He is the fullness of the sustenance we need. To have Him is to have nourishment. To not have Him is not merely to not have bread, but to have no food at all.

So this illuminates what communion is. If we’re honest, we modern evangelicals, mostly severed in our religious lives from rituals and traditions, can admit that the Lord’s Supper can be a slightly odd experience. We’re not always exactly sure how to feel about it. Because we’re used to informal services largely devoid of the formal style so common to the Christian heritage, the sacred rite can feel strange.

Track with me–we’re in the middle of the service, trying to calm our kids down or take notes or ignore our hungry stomachs. Suddenly, this rite pops up and we’re supposed to suddenly feel really spiritual, really connected to Christ. We look around and other people are praying and crying and generally seeming to be very close to God. We, on the other hand, are trying not to think about movies or basketball or paninis. As the ceremony unfolds, we eat little crackers and drink grape juice and sometimes, if we’re honest, feel disconnected from the symbolism of the event. We’re supposed to be thinking about Christ’s death, but instead we’re drawn to wonder why communion crackers are always so weird.

There’s much more we could say about all of this–about how we and our churches could prepare us better for communion, about how we could better approach the Sunday service itself, about whether we low-churchers may have lost something in stripping our services of all trace of formalism. We could think more about all of this stuff, and we probably should. But for now, the point of the matter is this: communion is not, most fundamentally, about achieving an evangelical high. It is not necessarily about tears on your face. It is not about spiritual levitation away from the realities of life. It is about receiving Jesus Christ of Nazareth as the bread of life. It is acknowledging in the midst of life’s realities–as the kids wiggle or the neighbors distract us–that Jesus is Savior and Lord.

If this is true, then communion is most fundamentally not spiritual levitation. Communion is fundamentally an acknowledgement to God, the church, the world, and ourselves that we take Jesus Christ as the bread of life. While the world starves itself, choosing to wander through life without food or drink, we are those whom God has chosen to feed on Christ. We live–literally, we survive–and we experience fullness and nourishment because of the God-man. That’s what we do in communion.

Communion, then, is a confession. It is a remembrance, but it is an ongoing confession to the principalities and powers that we are Christ’s. It is not merely a personal zen moment in the midst of the corporate gathering, but is a gathered confession by 10 or 25 or 100 or 500 or 1000 or 5000 or 10000 people that they eat the bread of life. It is a galactic press release to the watching angels and the lurking demons that we love and live by Jesus the Messiah. This is what communion is; this is what we do in taking it.

I’ve been a little punchy here in trying to think this all through. The Lord’s Supper often draws tears from my own eyes; I often perceive the grace of God mediated through remembrance of the broken body of Christ in powerful ways during the sacred rite. I have absolutely no problem with those who do the same and in fact hope that my fellow believers do experience special closeness to God in taking communion.

But I am aware that the Supper shows two key things that I often forget or just don’t think about: 1) that I feed on Jesus Christ as bread every day that I live, and 2) that communion is fundamentally a corporate confession of the called-out saints of God that they have been bought with a price.

Every time we take communion, whether in an old run-down church building in the country, a high school gymnasium, or a slick and sparkling building in the middle of the city, we are together proclaiming to the powers and principalities of darkness and light that we no longer starve in the desert, but now feed on the body and blood of Jesus Christ the Lord.

devotional thoughts

bread of life

communion

jesus is the bread of life

lord's supper

Previous Post

September 5, 2009

Ministry Is About Faithfulness, Not Numbers: Gospel Growth 2009

Next Post

September 8, 2009 Owen's Story: A Life-Affirming Piece from Men's Health

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category "heaven is a world of love" 9Marks abortion academics Adam Sandler adoption adultery adulthood aesthetics aging ajith fernando al mohler alice walker America american education american shaolin apologetics architecture atheism atonement august rush barack obama baseball basketball batman beauty berry mauve or muted wine Bible biblemesh biblical studies biblical theology biblical womanhood billy wolfe blogging bob kauflin body book culture book reviews boston celtics boston college bowdoin college bowling alone boyce college boyhood Brooke Fraser Bruce Ware bullies bullying business business ethics C.S. Lewis calling calvinism canada Capitol Hill Baptist Church carl henry carl trueman carolyn mahaney cbmw celebrity Chicago child's play children Christ Christ and culture Christian education christian hedonism christian ministry Christian vocation christian womanhood christianity and culture church government church history church internships church life church matters blog church membership church planting cities CJ Mahaney colin adams college college admissions college life college ministry collin hansen complementarianism conferences congregational worship conservative thought consumerism conversion council on biblical manhood & womanhood council on biblical manhood and womanhood covenant life church creativity credo magazine credobaptism cross movement crossway books crucifixion culinary culture cultural engagement cultural theology culture culture shift d. a. carson dads daily mail dan barry dancing with the stars daniel dennett darrell bock dating David Barash davy rothbart death death of God debt desiring God developmental league devotional thoughts dick morris dining disability discipleship doug sweeney douglas groothius economics economy education egalitarianism eliot spitzer ella rose strachan enlightenment entrepreneurs entrepreneurship environmentalism Eric Metaxas ethics evangelical theological society evangelicalism evangelism extended adolescence extreme home makeover family fatherhood feminism fiction film flame food foodstuffs football four gospels frank miller friendship gay gay Christianity gender roles genderblog george marsden girltalk gk chesterton God gospel gospel of John gospel risk gq greek mythology guillermo del toro happiness harold ockenga Harvard health heaven height hell henry center herb london higher education hillsdale hip hop historical theology history holidays holiness Holy Spirit home-school homemaking homes homosexuality hope human dignity human flourishing human life image of God imagination intellectual Christianity intellectual life iron man Islam J.I. Packer james mcavoy James Q. Wilson jeremy lin Jesus Christ jim hamilton joe namath John Calvin John McCain john owen john piper john rockefeller jonathan edwards journalism justice justin taylor kairos journal keira knightlet la times leadership lesbian life of the mind Lifeway links literature Lord's prayer louie giglio love male sex drive mall manhood manners Mark Dever Mark Driscoll marriage mars hill martial virtue martin luther masculinity materialism matthew hall maureen dowd memoirs of an ordinary pastor mentoring military millennials ministry missional missions monergism moral argument morality motherhood music national review nba new atheism new england New Testament new york new york times new yorker newsweek nietzsche northeast notre dame npr obedience oprah oprah's big give orphan care overheated prose award owen wilson pain parenting Park Community Church pastor-theologian pastoral ministry pastors persecution philosophes philosophy political philosophy politics poverty prayer preaching presidency presidential race pro-life professors proverbs psychology public school public square public theology publications quebec quilting race racism radical womanhood rap music rc sproul rebecca walker Reformation 21 relevant magazine religious liberty resources revelation revival richard dawkins richistan risky gospel robbie george robert putnam ron chernow Russ Moore salvation salvo magazine sam harris same-sex attraction sanctification scholarship science scripture secularism seminaries seminary life sex sex drive sexual ethics sexuality sexualized culture shooting sacred evangelical cows shootings simple church singleness social justice social media social networking Southern Baptists southern seminary sovereign grace Spanglish spirituality sports sports illustrated sports injuries stanford steve mccoy suburbia suffering superhero t. suzanne ellder Tea Leoni technology television the darjeeling unlimited the gospel coalition the southern baptist theological seminary the wackness theological journalism theology theology of work thinking Thom Rainer tim challies tim keller time magazine titan Together for the Gospel tom carson tom wolfe tragedy transgender travel trinity trinity evangelical divinity school truth twitter ty pennington unashamed workman Uncategorized violence virtue vocation voddie baucham war wayne gretzky wayne grudem weddings wikipedia will smith williams winnie hu womanhood work world magazine worship writing youth sports

Select a Month August 2021 July 2021 May 2021 March 2021 December 2020 October 2020 June 2020 February 2020 January 2020 October 2019 August 2019 June 2019 May 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 October 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 November 2017 October 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What does Paul tell the Philippians to rejoice in always?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Their salvation The Lord All circumstances God's goodness