Communion

Foundations / Matthew 26:26–29

I have a certain rhythm that I take when I mow my lawn. my backyard is larger than my front yard so I will will often begin with the backyard to get it over with. I mow the backyard in different configurations each time and then do a little bit of our side lawn and then get to the front.

Now before I mow the lawn I always make sure the gas tank is filled. And for the most part I can do the entire yard on one tank. But there are times, when the lawn is at it’s peak and growing quickly that to cut it takes a little more effort on the mowers end.

And so there are a number of times when I’m just finishing up the front lawn, I have two swipes left, just a little patch of uncut lawn and that is the moment the mower dies. It runs out of gas. It runs out of gas at the worst time, right when I’m almost done.

We live like this all the time. We run the engines of our lives to the brink, we empty ourselves, forgetting that we have to fill up.

We often believe we can just make it to finish that last strip of lawn. But then, just when we take the last turn we run out. We are a people living on empty.

We will often be empty vessels needing God to refill us. The good news is that we don’t have to wait around some day for God to fuel us up. God has done an incredible unrepeatable work in the person of Christ through His death and resurrection.

And it is easy when we live on empty that we need something more to fill us up. And we forget that God has already done the work to fill us up. God has already made new what we couldn’t make new ourselves. He has already forgiven what we couldn’t fix ourselves. He has given us eternal life, more than enough, so that we do not have to live on empty.

But sometimes, living on the edge of empty we forget. And we need a reminder.

This morning we are going to talk about why it is necessary and good that we have the reminder of communion this morning. That communion reorients us back to where life actually is and back to what sustains us.

We are going to look at this idea this morning

No matter what we face, the celebration of communion says that in Christ, all will be made well.

When we come together and take of communion we are saying to each other and ourselves that we need something more than we can provide ourselves.

We are contingent and dependent people. Communion is the reminder that we will always need to be filled up. We will always need to celebrate the death of Christ because it’s promise is life giving in a way that offers a life we can’t otherwise get on our own.

Communion is offered because what is emptied needs to be filled

To understand communion we have to look at how the Scriptures talk about communion.

So this morning we are going to trace the Scriptures in understanding communion to know why it matters, not just for this morning, as the gathered church, but also why it matters for the very place you are going to be tomorrow morning, work, home, school, otherwise.

Communion has been the place where Christians have gathered for over 2000 years. Some practices come and go in the church. Some practices are celebrated in some churches and not others. And while communion is celebrated differently (eucharist), it is still true that Christian churches that center on Christ all celebrate communion. The Lord Jesus Himself inagurated it. It was His idea. And usually if Jesus begins something, we should continue it.

It is the celebration of His body being broken for us and His blood being spilled for us.

Communion is necessary because not only do we forget why we do things like communion, we often also forget who we belong toAnd who has gone before us. Communion a reminder for all the times that we forget that everything that we need is found in Christ, a reminder when we forget that we belong to Christ, that he is the one who has paid for secured salvation for us. Because we so easily forget it’s necessary to remember and to remember together.

Communion is offered in less than certain circumstances

Matthew 26:17–25 ESV

Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Where will you have us prepare for you to eat the Passover?” He said, “Go into the city to a certain man and say to him, ‘The Teacher says, My time is at hand. I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.’ ” And the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the Passover.

When it was evening, he reclined at table with the twelve. And as they were eating, he said, “Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” And they were very sorrowful and began to say to him one after another, “Is it I, Lord?” He answered, “He who has dipped his hand in the dish with me will betray me. The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.” Judas, who would betray him, answered, “Is it I, Rabbi?” He said to him, “You have said so.”

The setup for the Lords supper is one of betrayal and mistrust

Not all is well in the context of this specific meal. Jesus was with His disciples. But the ice breaker is that “one of you will betray me.”

They have a conversation on it and Jesus details just how bad it is to betray the Son of Man. And Judas owns it. Judas betrays Jesus because Judas seems to think that he knows better than Christ about Christ’s own mission.

Judas believes in the mission (Christ to rule) but doesn’t agree on the means to get there (crucifixion or assent to power). And so Judas comes up with his own idea to catalyze Jesus mission, to bring an uprising to Christ’s work. But it is betrayal because Judas trusts in his own work more than Jesus’ work.

It is a necessary detail in this crucifixion account but I appreciate its inclusion in the communion account. There is a recognition that Communion is not celebrated when everything is put together and right. IT is not partaken of when there is reconciliation. It is partaken of because we need reconciliation.

The Context we find communion in is that not all is well.

The celebration of communion says that in Christ, all will be made well.

Not all is well. But all will be made well.

Not all has to be well to understand all will be made well.

We come to the table in need. We come to the table broken because it is the very death of Jesus that gets us to redemption and restoration.

Our lives can be sideways, turned upside down. You can be seated with the very people that betray you. none of that diminishes Christ’s work on the Cross.

We are reminded, at the table, that it is Jesus work on the Cross that matters.

2 Corinthians 8:9 ESV

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.

We come to the table to remember that brokenness is restored in Christ.

Which means that sometimes we come to the table as broken.

But at the table, brokenness in hand we remember that we are gathered up back into Christ.

Communion is offered by Christ Himself

Luke 22:17–21 ESV

And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he said, “Take this, and divide it among yourselves. For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. But behold, the hand of him who betrays me is with me on the table.

We are told two things about communion. The bread represents the body of Christ. The wine (or juice) represents the blood of Christ.

Jesus is the one who sets the table. He is the One who makes the offer. He is the one who invites us in

And that when we come to the table, we come to the table that has already been offered. Our work in participating with Christ is the work of remembering in community. We remember that Christ work on the cross is larger than whatever we’re facing is more important than whatever isn’t right in front of us.And that it is enough to sustain us.

Communion is offered to us is a means to remind ourselves that we are found in Christ and belong to him

Communion is offered so we don’t have to grab for it or demand it.

It is going to happen whether we want it to or not. It is going to happen regardless of whether I’m here or you’re here or not. It’s going to happen here. It’s happening in Toledo OH. It’s happening in Burkina and in Guinea and in Uruguay.

Communion is a reminder that there is nothing that can diminish God work on the cross through Christ. History has tried and societies have tried. People with power have tried. Governments have tried. Authors have tried. Theologies have tried. But nothing diminishes or removes what Christ has set up.

And because it happens with or without us, we are not initiating anything, we are invited into it. It is already offered.

That means, What you need has already been given.

When we come to the table we come to what has already been offered. Before you had a need, Christ’s work has been offered. That means whatever you face, Christ has already been at work.

Tomorrow you may face something beyond you, past your ability to solve. You can be reminded that God has already made an offer. Communion is the reminder that we come to the table that has been prepared. Christ has made an offer, and we participate with Him in His already established work.

But we participate together

Communion is offered in community

communion is also celebrated in community, as the church. God is gathering up ourselves back to Him in Christ but it is also a reminder that we are gathered up as a community.

Communion reminds us that we come together, one as individuals, bringing all of our needs, and two as a church community, carrying one another.

Paul addresses the need to pay attention to one another in 1 Cor 10. Because the church was celebrating communion as a meal but they were doing so independently of everyone else. Paul even says

1 Corinthians 11:20–22 ESV

When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not.

The church in Corinth would gather as a meal and people wouldn’t wait for others to begin, they would start when they wanted to. They would eat the food before everyone arrived. People would arrive drunk. They celebrated the ritual but they didn’t include one another.

They Celebrated the ritual but they didn’t celebrate it with one another. They celebrated the ritual, but they didn’t celebrate Christ.

If we are truly going to understand Christ’s work through Communion then it means that all of our parts, all of ourselves and all of the church is gathered back into Christ. We take the bread together. We take the cup together. No one who has trusted in Christ is left out.

We are often distracted and anxious. Often alone and scattered. In Christ, as the church, we are reminded that we are gathered into Christ.

Have you ever walked into a room and completely forgotten why you were in that room? You initially walked in to get your keys or phone but as soon as you enter the room, it’s like the twilight zone. You know you are in the room but you can’t remember why you are there. This is called the doorway effect. Where our short term memory forgets its context because you just entered a new room.

This is how our brains organize things though. It is common because it can’t be helped. When we shift from one environment to the next, we forget what we were doing.

We navigate our world in a series of disconnected steps and how we can make sense of things. But it often feels like we are just entering a new room every five minutes asking for our keys.

So we need reminders of who we are and what is most important. Participating in communion is the reminder of where you are in reference to Christ and who He is in our lives. It is the reminder that we don’t stand alone. we have each other. It is the declaration that we belong to Christ, that He has given Himself to us.

And that all of life revolves around that reality.

In the next few minutes we will practice that reality. We will, as a church, revolve around the table.

But take some time to reflect before participating in communion.

Maybe this morning you have tried to carry too much. Do too much yourselves. Maybe it feels like you are holding up the world. If you are holding up the world, it is very difficult to hold onto the cup and the bread. In a few moments you will have the bread in one hand and the cup in another. That is sufficient. You don’t need to be holding onto anything else so long as you hold onto Christ. Reflect on what you need to let go in order to let God take hold of you. Nothing can diminish the work of Christ. The Cross is the reminder of the truth that God will make good on all He says.

Transition into communion