Remember: Reflections on Communion, the Cross and Good Friday

The Roman Emperor Tiberius is said to have preferred crucifixion as a method of punishment precisely because it prolonged the victim’s agony without granting relief of death. He believed death was an escape, so in his view execution was really no punishment, unless the victim had as much mortal agony inflicted as possible before death.

Death normally came through slow suffocation. The victim’s body would hang in such a way that the diaphragm was severally constricted. In order to exhale, he would have to push up with his feet so that the diaphragm would have room to move. Ultimately, fatigue, intense pain, or muscle atrophy would render the victim unable to do this, and he would finally die from the lack of oxygen. One thing was certain. Blood was all over the crucifixion experience.

Blood is hidden under our skin and we like it that way. Blood causes all kinds of emotions. Some of us faint at the sight of blood. If a movie is violent, but does not have blood, it can get a PG-13 rating. But if they add blood to the violence it moves up to an ‘R’ rating. Blood moves us in a powerful way.

Jesus died and shed his blood on the cross and it was not pretty. It was rated ‘R’ and ugly. But it was necessary and in its deeper truth, beautiful, and life-giving. Before dying, he inaugurated the remembrance of his bloodshed and his body broken on the cross at the Last Supper.

Blood, and of course the body which contains the blood, are central to the  Communion table and the faith we have as followers of Jesus Christ.

CONFUSION

Communion is one of those issues that have caused much division and confusion in the church through the centuries. The Scriptures do not answer most of these divisive questions. There are no instructions on how often we should take Communion. There are no indications about who can or cannot administer it. The Bible does not give us a systematic theology of what actually occurs when we take the bread and the cup. But what we have in the Scriptures is what I believe is central to what Communion is all about, and how we need to participate in Communion. As we read Scripture, what we see is that in Communion there is something more occurring. It is like a person gazing at the moon through a telescope. We know that the moon is always present. When it is daytime or on a cloudy day, even if you can’t see the moon, it is present. On a clear night during a full moon, you can gaze at the wonder of the moon and see some of its characteristics. But when you look through the telescope, the moon seemingly comes near. You begin to see attributes of the moon that without the telescope, remained unseen. It brings the wonder and power of the moon closer in a very real way. That is what occurs in Communion.

Any time we gather together as a community of faith in the name of Jesus, He is with us and we experience him. But in Communion we have the opportunity to see and experience him in a clearer way. There is something more. One of the best definitions I have found regarding what occurs in Communion is by NT Wright:

“We don’t need elaborate metaphysical theories with long Latin names to get the point. Jesus - the real Jesus, the living Jesus, the Jesus who dwells in heaven and rules over earth as well, the Jesus who has brought God’s future into the present - wants not just to influence us, but to rescue us; not just to inform us, but to heal us; not just to give us something to think about, but to feed us, and to feed us with himself. That’s what this meal is all about.”

Communion is when the past events of God’s story in human history, and the death of his son Jesus Christ, come forward to live again in our experiences right now to meet us in our current condition. And it is when the future hope of Christ’s return comes backwards to challenge and encourage us.

In his letter to the Corinthian church by the Apostle Paul, we discover how we are to participate in the Communion table.

Division is a theme in the Corinthian Church. Paul is not naïve; he understands that there are going to be moments of division in church life. That is normal and part of the creative differences of God’s creation. But these differences of preferences and differences of gifts should never create division in the church that is called to be unified. In fact, the only thing Jesus prayed for regarding the future was unity, in John 17.

The Corinthian church experienced destructive division over several issues. A cult of personality had occurred in the church over who was the best teacher, causing division. In addition, differences over food offered to idols, and dietary laws were also creating disunity.

One of the most severe divisions was between the rich and poor. It was common for the church to gather in homes. They would come together and eat a full meal as part of the church activity. This was called the “Love Feast,” at the culmination of which, the bread would be broken and the cup taken in remembrance of the cross, as Jesus had commanded. The message of Christ reached all levels of society, and rich people who usually hosted the gathering because of their house size, would have poor brothers and sisters in Christ at the meal. But what they would do was to continue a custom of the day. The rich people got the eight-course meal in the dining room, and the poor people would get the day-old McDonald’s Happy Meal in the basement. You can see that this would create great division in the church and shamed those who had little.

The people had completely lost sight of the leveling of the field at the foot of the cross. Rich and poor, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, male and female, educated and uneducated - all of us are sinners saved by grace.

In verse 20 of Corinthians 11, Paul says, “When you come together it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat, because you are more concerned about satisfying your own desires.” When you are stoking the fires of your own prejudices, you are not in tune with the truth of the cross. The cross brings unity to those who are in Christ.

Communion is not just about a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. It is about the community that we have entered into because of Christ. Communion, the Lord’s table, is wrapped up in community and is connected to how we engage the community of the church.

In Communion we engage the past: The Old Covenant prepared the way for the New Covenant. In the Old Covenant, the Israelites followed the sacrificial system. They participated in the shedding of the blood of animals as an atoning sacrifice for their sin.

This was an incredibly detailed and important ritual for the high priest on the most important day of the year. To “atone” in Hebrew, means “to cover.” Sacrifices during the rest of the year merely covered their sins, but not on this day. With these goats and the rituals of this day, their sin and guilt were taken away. There were two goats, each representing how God deals with sin. The high priest would place his hand on the goat - a picture of all the sin of the people being passed onto the goats. One goat was the scapegoat and was sent into the wilderness. The guilt of the people was removed and placed on this goat, never to return. The other goat was sacrificed. The sin of the people was forgiven by God.

New Covenant: We continue to look to the past in the New Covenant established on the cross. Jesus Christ crucified, pouring out his blood for the forgiveness of sins, is the final sacrificial act. That which is ugly - the shedding of blood on the cross - becomes the path of hope and healing. The sacrificial system is no longer necessary. Jesus is the perfect sacrifice.

Jesus is our High Priest. He has taken all of our sins - the sins of the world - upon himself. He is both the sacrificed goat and the scapegoat all in one. And because of his death on the cross, we are forgiven and we can stand without guilt before God. This is the new covenant and it is the past that we are engaging when we take Communion.

Look Toward the Future

When we participate in the Communion table, we proclaim the death of Christ until the day he comes. It’s not just about what Christ did, it is also about what he will do. That someday he will re-appear and usher in a New Heaven and New Earth. That the pain and discomfort, the evil and discouragement, the division, and loneliness of life will ultimately be washed away for all those who know Christ. That we will be together in perfect unity and community forever. Because of his shed blood this is possible, life forever becomes a reality and death itself has lost its sting.

In preparation for Communion, we don’t just engage the past and look toward the future, but we also look inside ourselves, which leads us to look toward community.

Look Inside

The Corinthian church needed to do a gut check. Paul is not talking about perfectionism but self-evaluation. Is there an area of my life that is not congruent with the message of the cross? If there is (usually there is for me), I can then recognize that fact, see the forgiveness of the cross and commit to engage change in the power that is available because of the shed blood of Jesus. Often, this area of change has to do with our interaction in community. We have a relationship that needs to be mended, or we are hoarding like the Corinthians and not meeting the needs of those around us. We are prejudiced, we are self-focused. The commitment of self-evaluation is a commitment to enter into the transformation of the communal table. Jesus committed the ultimate act of sacrifice, remembered in the Lord’s Supper. He considered himself nothing, he took upon himself our sin, he died for all humanity, he took the first step and engaged us while we were still sinners. Considering what Christ has done, what excuse do we have to not engage the community around us with love, healing, humility, forgiveness, service and care? That is what blood, His blood has done. That is the story of Good Friday. 

Jason Esposito

Lead Pastor

CrossWay Church

www.crosswaygt.org