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.
Lead Pastor
CrossWay Church
www.crosswaygt.org
