This past Sunday, we celebrated the “Lord’s Supper” at our church. Some congregations call it “Communion”; others the “Eucharist”; still others yet a different name. But whatever you call it, this meal commemorates the “Last Supper” instituted by Jesus Christ on the night before He was crucified.
Aesop once said that familiarity breeds contempt. If this this true, then it is perhaps arguable that, for far too many believers, this unique component of Christian worship has become so commonplace that it has lost much of its meaning.
And this in spite of the fact that it involves the commemoration of the central component of our faith – the vicarious death of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ leading up to His glorious resurrection! It is in remembrance of our Lord’s broken body that bread is eaten and it is in remembrance of His spilled blood that the fruit of the vine is drunk.
Years ago, while serving as assistant editor at Moody Monthly Magazine, Jeanne Doering published an article in Leadership Magazine (Volume 2, Number 1) titled The Passover Potluck: Returning Meaning to the Communion Service. In it, she states:
“When a jeweler displays a fine diamond, he often puts it on black velvet. There, it catches fire from the lights of the room, its beauty is multiplied, and its value becomes more apparent.
The Lord's Supper is like that diamond. Sometimes it needs to be pried from traditional settings and thrown against the black velvet of the blackest night in history: the night it was instituted - the night before Christ was crucified.”
Wow! Let that soak in. Never was there a night so black as that night. And never was there a day so black as the one that followed. Indeed, although it is often referred to as “Good Friday”; a better name might well be “Black Friday”.
Why? Because on that day, Jesus Christ, the perfect, Only Begotten Son of God, the one “Who knew no sin”, became sin for us! The blackness that hung over the earth as He hung on the cross symbolizes the weight of the darkness and the wickedness that hung on His shoulders. And those dark clouds began gathering the very moment that the Judas the traitor left the table to betray the Savior.
In light of this, how bright, how beautiful, how brilliant does the grace of God shine when placed up against such blackness! Little wonder, then, that Christians celebrate the observance of the “Lord’s Supper”.
For, each time we undertake its observance, we are reminded afresh and anew of what was foretold by the Old Testament Prophet Isaiah (in chapter 9, verse, 2), “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.”
For we know that when he said this, he was speaking, at least in part, of us!
SOURCE: http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/1981/winter/81l1038.html.
Aesop once said that familiarity breeds contempt. If this this true, then it is perhaps arguable that, for far too many believers, this unique component of Christian worship has become so commonplace that it has lost much of its meaning.
And this in spite of the fact that it involves the commemoration of the central component of our faith – the vicarious death of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ leading up to His glorious resurrection! It is in remembrance of our Lord’s broken body that bread is eaten and it is in remembrance of His spilled blood that the fruit of the vine is drunk.
Years ago, while serving as assistant editor at Moody Monthly Magazine, Jeanne Doering published an article in Leadership Magazine (Volume 2, Number 1) titled The Passover Potluck: Returning Meaning to the Communion Service. In it, she states:
“When a jeweler displays a fine diamond, he often puts it on black velvet. There, it catches fire from the lights of the room, its beauty is multiplied, and its value becomes more apparent.
The Lord's Supper is like that diamond. Sometimes it needs to be pried from traditional settings and thrown against the black velvet of the blackest night in history: the night it was instituted - the night before Christ was crucified.”
Wow! Let that soak in. Never was there a night so black as that night. And never was there a day so black as the one that followed. Indeed, although it is often referred to as “Good Friday”; a better name might well be “Black Friday”.
Why? Because on that day, Jesus Christ, the perfect, Only Begotten Son of God, the one “Who knew no sin”, became sin for us! The blackness that hung over the earth as He hung on the cross symbolizes the weight of the darkness and the wickedness that hung on His shoulders. And those dark clouds began gathering the very moment that the Judas the traitor left the table to betray the Savior.
In light of this, how bright, how beautiful, how brilliant does the grace of God shine when placed up against such blackness! Little wonder, then, that Christians celebrate the observance of the “Lord’s Supper”.
For, each time we undertake its observance, we are reminded afresh and anew of what was foretold by the Old Testament Prophet Isaiah (in chapter 9, verse, 2), “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.”
For we know that when he said this, he was speaking, at least in part, of us!
SOURCE: http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/1981/winter/81l1038.html.