Do you remember the last Communion Message you heard?

An extended version of author-led communion message - Bloomsbury, London, Sunday, May 12, 2019.

Prologue

11 May 22:55. Incoming call, 1 min 3 secs.

I was preparing to sleep, the above call came, and I was asked if I could give a 10-minute communion talk the next morning from 10.15, to a group of Kids Kingdom teachers (including myself). It was the big, London church-wide service with a travel distance of 61.2 km from my abode – meaning I must sleep late and wake up early. Though I was tempted to decline - with a ‘genuine’ excuse of being informed very late - I submitted to the Counselor resident in me, who reminded of the admonitory part of 2 Timothy 4:2 namely, “… be prepared in season and out of season…”

So, I accepted the request despite the challenges – short notice, short message, anticipated desired impact and resonation, etc. After having spent so much time scouring several Bible passages, my ‘research’ surprisingly, led me back to the book of John, which was my Quiet Time (QT) book at the time. How do I view the QT and why have it, when Acts 17:28 assures that I live and move and have my being in God? If Jesus often spent time alone with God in prayer (Luke 5:16), who am I not to emulate Him? It entails conversing with God - listening for His voice through reading the Bible and speaking to Him through prayer. I was therefore led by God to the passage below (Thompson Chain-Reference Bible NIV):

John 6: 53 – 57

53 Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.

Exegesis It is worth noting that of the four gospels, only the Gospel of John captures Jesus' extended teaching on himself as the Bread of Life. Why would Jesus say, “I tell you the truth”, when falsehood was never found in him? Interestingly, our Lord Christ made the expression several times in the gospels – some say, 78 times. Did he want his listeners to understand the importance of the statement he was about to make? Another way of looking at this could be, “while this is hard stuff, it is unequivocally true!”

But in no less than eight passages of the Torah was the eating of blood forbidden (Genesis 9:4; Leviticus 3:17; Leviticus 7:26-27; Leviticus 17:10-14; Leviticus 19:26; Deuteronomy 12:16; Deuteronomy 12:23-24; Deuteronomy 15:23)! Do we remember what happened after the Israelites had struck down the Philistines from Mikmash to Aijalon (1Samuel 14:31 – 33)? They were exhausted and pounced on the plunder, which included sheep, cattle and calves. After butchering the livestock, they devoured the meat, together with the blood. However, somebody saw this and reported it to king Saul, claiming they were sinning against the Lord by eating meat that had blood in it. It should also be noted that at some point God disempowered the Israelites for eating meat with the blood still in it (Ezekiel 33:25)?

The seriousness attached to this matter can also be found in Acts 15:22-29, when apostles and elders, as well as the entire church chose and sent Judas (called Barsabbas) and Silas, with Paul and Barnabas to Antioch with a warning to the congregation “to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality…” Understandably, God had threatened to ostracize anyone who ate any blood for the reason that the life of the flesh is in the blood (Leviticus 17:10-14). So, why would Jesus refer to blood-drinking? Jesus is not here speaking literally of his own flesh and blood but using hyperbole to make his point in a powerful, impactful and unforgettable way – as I remarked in a previous post, Jesus’ use of shock value got him attention. You would have been deeply offended if you took his words literally. But guess what, that (exactly) was what Jesus intended. By resorting to shock value Jesus here creates a unique and powerful teaching on faith and eternal life.

According to Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary, eating Jesus’ flesh and drinking his blood mean partaking of Christ by faith. We live by Christ, as our bodies live by our food - because he lives, we shall live also. These metaphors connect because of their reference to eating and nourishing. We are redeemed, and our sins have been pardoned. The way to the throne of grace, the identification with promises of the covenant, and the retention of hope of eternal life are assured through the broken body of our Lord Jesus as well as the shedding of his blood. Whereas Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary notes that Jesus’ death may not be the only thing of value, we cannot forget that we will have no spiritual and eternal life at all without partaking of these spiritual acts of worship- this is the only way we are able to attain the life and nourishment of our inner selves.

This is corroborated by Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible, which reminds us of the meaninglessness of eating and drinking in the absence of faith. Once these acts are rooted in faith, there will be an inseparable connection with eternal life. The question therefore is, “Do we really believe in communion?” Through partaking of the communion, do we believe that we are assured of Jesus' death for/and, forgiveness of our sins; do we trust that the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead will give spiritual life to us and ultimately raise us from the dead on the Day of judgement?

Concluding Thoughts The 21st century World preoccupies us with overloaded/supersonic lifestyles. We have career ladders to climb, businesses to establish and run, children to raise, further academic/professional qualifications to attain, etc. While mobile devices keep us constantly connected, working and busy – including social media - Christ is constantly at risk of being crowded out of our lives. As we step back out into the ‘21st century World’ this week, are we going to allow ourselves to be pulled away from the presence of Christ? Note that the communion which we are now observing, serves as remembrance of, reflection on, and belief and trust in our Lord Jesus Christ. Communion MUST re-energize us as food to our souls and life to our faith. The communion MUST be for us, actual feeding on Christ in our hearts, which in turn increases our faith in Him.

Epilogue A subtle deception employed by Satan is to keep us perpetually ‘busy’ – ours is an incredibly fast-paced world where it is seamlessly easy to stay perpetually ‘busy’. He has structured society such that the average person is consumed by activities of which he/she ‘has no control’. Whereas some ‘distractions’ may not be inherently wrong, but they could potentially divert our attention from more important matters, e.g., planning our church services. We must realize that Satan is very happy when we are distracted from things that really matter. We therefore must constantly reflect on how to make God our top priority – this is easy to know, e.g., are our closest friends true Christians, and who do we prefer to spend most of our time with? Maybe our time – if not expended at work – is largely spent on watching television or movies. Maybe we spend considerable time talking on the phone, chatting with work colleagues or visiting Web sites. Maybe we accumulate daily hours playing video games, sending text messages or using social media sites. We need to ask ourselves if these ‘distraction’ hours are more/less than the hours we spend studying the Bible – including relating with our brothers and sisters in Christ, thinking about/planning church activities, etc. Are we purposively scheduling our church activities (services, etc.) or are we just letting things happen?

I was caught off-guard by this unplanned communion talk, but as a Christian, God (and His things) MUST be my Number One priority. It would have been easy for me to decline the request and blame those charged with organizing and planning the service for my decision. However, I remembered too that I was no better in many other aspects of spirituality. It would have been self-deception to conclude that I could not do the talk because it was not my fault for being informed “very, very late”, and also that “God would understand”. Can we honestly say that we think about Christ, the cross and God’s kingdom every day? Do we pray for growth in God’s righteousness every day? What do we spend most of our time thinking about every day?

If we fail to start each day with prayer and Bible study as well as meditating on God and the cross throughout the day, then Satan will distract us without our realizing it. May we never traverse the 21st century world focusing passionately on all its trappings and losing sight of that which is most important to God. May we never derail from our heavenly track even as we pray that our spiritual trajectory moves us towards God and His kingdom.