The next time you take Communion, remember the high price Jesus Christ paid for this banquet of abundant grace.
Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada and this past Sunday, we celebrated Communion and here’s a song for just the occasion.
(Joni sings:)
Let us break bread together on our knees
Let us break bread together on our knees
When I fall on my knees
with my face to the rising sun
O, Lord have mercy on me.
This past Lord's day, this past Sunday when we took Communion, God gave me such a special insight. We always celebrate the Lord's supper the first Sunday of the month, but this time, our pastor used some interesting language before we took the bread and wine. When he blessed the cup and bread, he spoke of it as “the Lord's feast”, or “a feast of the Lord.” And he used 1 Corinthians 5:8 where it says, “Therefore let us keep the feast.” Now, I don’t know why, but the phrase struck me as odd, because “The feast of the Lord” sounds, well it sounds like a, a little like the buffet Ken and I recently enjoyed in Santa Barbara at a fancy hotel. There was this smorgasbord, room after room of roast beef, lamb, turkey, sushi, Mongolian barbecue, shish-kabobs, pizza, lasagna, Swedish meatballs, sweet & sour pork, bread pudding, pies, cookies, and so much more. It was so way over-the-top, a sumptuous and extravagant buffet. And that is what I usually think of when I hear the word “feast” – something big, something abundant.
Now, contrast that hotel buffet with the teensy piece of bread and little cup of juice you hold in your hand on Communion Sunday. It’s barely enough to swallow. The elements are so small; it doesn’t look like a feast. But that word “feast” is a great way to describe it, because the Lord's Supper is a means of grace, when we come to him in humility, acknowledging our sins and looking for help, and when we take the bread and wine, he imparts his strength, his own strength and spiritual life and he does so with extravagant abundance. Communion really does represent something big and abundant, because when Christ offered himself as Passover, he poured out his mercy in a huge way. His is a banquet, a buffet of grace, where you find joy, and peace, and kindness, and courage, and compassion, goodness, gentleness, self-control, patience, tenderness; and how about perseverance, and long-suffering, and endurance, and contentment, and pleasure and so, so, so much more; never ending. Friend, when Jesus gave himself, he gave absolutely everything, there was no more left he could give. And this is what we should think of when we hear Communion described as the feast of the Lord.
But one more thing. 1 Corinthians 5 says, “For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast.” Friend, sometimes this month you’ll probably celebrate Communion. And it is a sumptuous buffet of abundant grace, but please remember the high-price that Jesus Christ paid for this plentiful smorgasbord of heavenly blessings.
© Joni and Friends