Re-Member Me

“So anyone who eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily is guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. That is why you should examine yourself before eating the bread and drinking the cup. For if you eat the bread or drink the cup without honoring the body of Christ, you are eating and drinking God’s judgment upon yourself. That is why many of you are weak and sick and some have even died.” 1 Cor. 11:27-30. No matter what your doctrinal viewpoint on communion/Eucharist is, one thing stands true, none of today’s celebrations are exactly the same as those in the earliest church, 33-150AD.  Scholars agree, that when the “church” gathered for worship, the people began by sharing an actual  meal, just like Christ did so many times with his friends.  This agape or love-feast, brought the first Christians together in their mutual love of Christ, as well as human fellowship. After the feast, teaching, singing, worship, and finally at the end, bread and wine were shared in remembrance of  Christ.  Eventually, as the church grew, the feast was dropped, and the emphasis was put on the Eucharist. Paul, in speaking to the church at Corinth, strongly reminded everyone to examine themselves before partaking of the sacred emblems, for physical as well as spiritual reasons.  How do we do that?  What, then, is the body and blood?  At the end of the last supper, a full Passover meal, Jesus took the bread and wine, blessed them, and shared the blessed food with those present,  telling them to remember him whenever they shared a meal, not strictly communion. The idea of eating flesh and drinking blood, is horrendous, especially to devout Jews, to whom it was strictly forbidden.  Let’s look at it this way; Jesus promises that he will never leave us, and that he longs to make his home inside our bodies, so how can this be accomplished?  We all know, that no matter how filling a meal is, our bodies will take the nutrients it needs, and rid itself of the rest. When we “eat” his body, he is asking us to fully “take in”, the knowledge of his humanity.  Yes, he was one of us.  The blood is the precious life force of any living thing. In his blood-drinking request, Jesus asks us to assimilate his life, making it our own.  This is powerful, supernatural information, dear friends, that must be understood fully before we partake. To do anything less, we risk dishonoring Christ, and calling down God’s judgment on our lives, and no one wants to go there!  If we consider his human flesh and blood, as members of his body that were separated on the cross, he is simply asking us to put those pieces back together, in essence to “re-member” him. Never forget, He is alive,  re-membered seated at the right hand of God, and in all those believers who truly eat, and drink  him in.