Holy Communion
Introduction
Most contemporary believers lack a clear sense of personal/covenantal covenant identity. This is clearest in our common attitude to the Holy Communion/Lord’s Supper. Whilst Scripture sees this sacrament as uniting us with God in Christ. “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?” (1 Cor 10:16; cf. 2 Pet 1:4), the infrequency of our taking communion is a sign we are not grasped by the revelation that community is the goal of creation. “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship/communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” (2 Cor 13:14), is a promise for eternity. We are dwelling within eternal beatitude because our new life in Christ is “in God” (Col 3:3; 2 Thess 1:1 cf. 1 Thess 1:1; Jude 1:1). Christ’s High Priestly prayer, “The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one” (John 17:22-23) was answered in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost flowing into the profoundest celebrations of the Supper, “they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread (i.e. communion Acts 20:7) and the prayers…all who believed were together and had all things in common.” (Acts 2:42, 44). Likewise, the Protestant missions movement was launched out of an ecumenical communion meeting in Moravia in 1727 when the Spirit moved in sovereign power fusing the congregants together in a love igniting prayer that continued unabated for over 100 years (https://romans1015.com/moravian-revival-2/). Today the “the Spirit is saying to the churches” Rev 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22), in unison with the greats of the past, Calvin, Luther, Cranmer, Wesley etc, “take communion more regularly”.
Unstoppable?
The communion we enjoy with Jesus through his Supper will be consummated in a face-to-face relationship in heaven (1 Cor 11:20; Rev 19:9; 22:4). This is imaged to us through Israel’s ongoing identity as people of God (Rom 11:1; 15:2) celebrated in the “the unstoppable feast” (Mitch Glaser) of Passover. A feast kept by faithful Jews for millennia, despite even the Holocaust, Scandalously, whilst Christ is “our Passover lamb” (1 Cor 5:7), many churches fail to be faithful to the Lord’s command, “Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”” (1 Cor 11:25-26). Whatever our theology of the Lord’s promised presence, we are quenching the Spirit of communion (1 Thess 5:19) and robbing God of the fulness of his gladness in the blood-bought Bride (Acts 2:46; Jude 24). At the heart of our confusion about the practice of the Supper is a deficient understanding of who Jesus is (Heb 13:8).
Which Jesus?
To ask, “which Jesus are we communing with in the Eucharistic celebration?”, is to ask a question about “God with us” (Matt 1:23; 28:20). The Jesus who presides and presences himself in all the suppers across the world is no longer, “the bearded sandaled one of the Gospels”, (https://crossingtheriver.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/livingwithjesustoday.pdf.). The Lord of the Supper is the one in whom humanity has been “taken into God” (Athanasian Creed). The ascended Jesus has forever returned to the glory he enjoyed in the Father’s presence “before the foundation of the world” (John 17:5). The body and blood we receive in the Lord’s Supper cannot be measured by the limits of space-time, but perfectly communicate “the breadth and length and height and depth of love of Christ that surpasses knowledge” (Eph 3:18-19). They lift us up in the Spirit’s power to Jesus himself in heaven. “(God) raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:6). Through Christ indwell the bond of love in the Trinity (Augustine). As the dynamic relationships inside the Trinity flowed “out” making the first world, in God’s love (John 3:16) we are now “inside” the measureless “new creation in Christ” (2 Cor 5:17). The Lord presiding over his Supper offers us the energy of his all-victorious glorified life (1 Cor 15:45). The Holy Communion unites frail sinful mortals with the eternal life of God through Christ’s once shed blood and broken body. For this to become real in us we need an infusion of the Spirit.
Spirit Testimony
As the Advocate of Jesus, the Holy Spirit works to create a community that lives like one that will reign forever. This community was birthed through the Spirit’s power released at Pentecost. ““And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread (i.e. communion Acts 20:7) and the prayers….all who believed were together and had all things in common.” (Acts 2:42, 44). All the social categories that had divided humanity since the Fall lost their power in this new end-times community, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal 3:28). The baptism of the Spirit immerses us in a community of this majesty (1 Cor 12:13). Seen in the Spirit, the ultimate transformation in the Supper isn’t in bread and wine, or in the stirred-up memories of participants, but in God renewed hearts (Ezek 18:31). The Lord seals the reality of the sacrifice of his Son to faith through our reception of his life in the Supper. Christ’s command, “do this in remembrance /anamnesis/ ἀνάμνησιν (Luke 22:19, 1 Corinthians 11:24-25) must be understood in light of its use in the Passover. Passover involved a trust that God brought the congregation of Israel into the holy power of the original saving events in Egypt every time it was celebrated (Ex 12:14; 13:8, 14; Deut 5:3; 6:20 ff; 16:3). Christians believe our “remembrance” of Jesus, now beyond space-time, stimulates God’s memory to connect us in the Spirit with the sacred space and power of Jesus’ original crucifixion and resurrection. “Were you there when they crucified…when the stone was rolled away” must be answered with a definite YES!! We are slow to realise this power.
Missing Out
As the one true LORD judged the “the gods of Egypt” through Israel’s exodus (Ex 12:12; Num 33:4), so he moves to expel “the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Eph 6:12) through the gospel preached in Holy Communion. It is time to repent of our squeamishness concerning what was clearly symbolised to all first century cultures, a violent blood-soaked atoning sacrifice (Rom 3:25; Heb 2:17; 1 John 2:2; 4:10). We must allow the Spirit in the blood (John 19:34) to speak through the Supper of the mighty deeds that “cleanse our conscience from dead works to worship the living God” (Heb 9:14). The “blood testimony” which dethrones the devil (Rev 12:11) is not a sentimental memory of Jesus gruesome death but a re-actualising of the one perfect unrepeatable action of the cross (John 19:30). The truth that “the blood communion revival cannot be stopped” (Dean Briggs) hinges upon our willingness to joyfully suffer with Jesus (Matt 5:12 Acts 5:41; 1 Peter 4:13–14, 16; Col 1:24).
Conclusion
“I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.” (1 Cor 15:50). Only those called to die with Christ and be raised with him by faith (Rom 6:1-14) can be properly assured of a heavenly inheritance. This is an essential part of our covenant identity, signed and sealed in the Holy Communion (Rom 4:11).