Communion… a participation with Christ.
1 Cor 10:16 16 Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?
The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.) (1 Co 10:15-16). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
The emphasis I want to place on this text is first of all: 1. Christ’s participation with us; and 2. Our Participation with Christ (in the “cup” and “bread” of communion.)
Through-out the entire ministry of Jesus here on this earth with his disciples he made it very clear that HE was participating with us in our humanity! In every aspect of our lives, He was there to experience our joys and sorrows and even death itself. In Hebrews 4:15-16 we find:
15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. 16 Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.) (Heb 4:15-16). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
Jesus knows all about our human suffering and intimately knows his own as a shepherd knows his sheep. Jesus experienced the sadness of losing a friend to death… he sympathizes with us as well. Jesus experienced the greatest temptations (Matt. 4) that all of us experience in kind. Jesus sympathizes with our weaknesses. He sees us fail… and loves us still. He truly participated in our human experience… and still to this moment participates with you in the struggles that you and I face.
The second thing to see is that this passage (I Cor. 10:16) talks about our participation with Him! Partaking of the cup and the bread in the service of Communion is not just a remembering of what Jesus did for us. It is an actual, act of our will to participate with Him in the ongoing life of the child of God. By this I mean that we live our lives with a conscious awareness that our Lord Jesus Christ is right here with us as we seek to face the challenges of daily life in a broken world.
The meaning of this “particiption of the body/blood” of Christ is emphasizing the reality of the living Christ’s presence in our daily experience. And the Communion Service is one way to be reminded of that fact. When we partake of the elements of the “Lord’s Supper,” we are declaring that Christ is MY savior and Lord, and I recognize that there is a ‘higher calling’ on my life. Paul said it this way – ‘you are not your own, you are bought with a price’… and that price is the precious body and blood of the Savior!
An end note on this is that when we partake together, we realize that is more than simply the physical crucifixion (burial and resurrection) of Christ that we are talking about, it is a daily, moment-by-moment experience of knowing in our hearts that the Lord is near, and we can live confident expectant lives, because not only does He participate in our lives… we participate in His!
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