Hi, I’m Joni and for many of us, this Sunday will be communion. And don’t you love taking communion? Ken and I do. On our way to church on the drive we always pray, pause, reflect. And in sitting there before they pass the elements, I just love enjoying meditating on what Jesus has done for me. And often I will find myself singing in the quiet of my heart: 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.
You know when we took Communion in our church God gave me such a special insight. I was listening to our pastor, and he was using some interesting language before we celebrated the Lord's Supper. When he blessed the cup and bread, he spoke of it as “the Lord's feast”, or “a feast of the Lord.” He was speaking from I Corinthians 5:8 where it says, “Therefore let us keep the feast.” Now, I don’t know why, but sitting there in the quite his phrase struck me as odd. Because “The feast of the Lord” sounds like, well it sounds a little like the buffet that Ken and I recently went to up in Santa Barbara at a fancy hotel. There was this huge feast, 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, fruit, cheese and cake and so much more. It was way, way, way over-the-top -- a truly sumptuous and extravagant buffet. That’s what I would think of when I hear the word “feast” – something big, something over abundant.
Now, contrast that hotel buffet I just described with the little teensy piece of bread and little tiny 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 or even taste like a feast. But that word “feast” is a great way to describe Communion, because the Lord's Supper is a means of grace – when we come to Him in humility, acknowledging our sins and looking to Him for help, and when we take the bread and wine He imparts His own strength, He gives us His 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 a feast of His mercy. His is a banquet of grace, a buffet where you find joy, peace, kindness, courage, compassion, goodness, gentleness, self-control, patience, tenderness; how about perseverance, long-suffering, endurance and contentment, pleasure and so much more. Friend, when Jesus gave Himself, He gave absolutely everything – there was no more He could give. This is what we should think of when we hear Communion described as the feast of the Lord. When you taste of the cup and eat of the bread, you are acknowledging all that His death and resurrection has purchased – and I tell you what, it is grace, big and buffet-like, abundant!
Finally, I Corinthians 5:7-8 says, “For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast…” Friend, if this coming Sunday you will be celebrating Holy Communion, remember that it is a celebration of grace. And please remember the enormously high price Jesus paid for this abundant buffet of heavenly blessings. And as you remember, as you feed on Him in your heart, I know God will pour out grace-upon-grace upon grace – grace that will really strengthen your faith.
© Joni and Friends
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