HOW TO PREPARE A COMMUNION MEDITATION: EATING WITH GOD (Part 1)
As a former worship pastor and lead pastor I realized that it was my job to teach people why we do what we do in worship, as well as empower others to lead in worship. I came from a church background that included communion every week. Over time, I noticed there were some typical issues that arose around communion.
We’re saying the same thing over and over again, week after week, year after year.
We’re not paying enough attention to it and treating it like a slot in the worship order.
Some people are turning it into a second sermon.
It’s one thing to identify a problem. It’s another to figure out how to solve it. Which leads to that important little question “why?”.
Why do we take communion each week? Other than the obvious command of Jesus, what’s at the heart of this practice? If you drill down with enough “why’s” I think it’s pretty simple.
COMMUNION: GOD WANTS TO EAT WITH US.
I can’t take the credit for this thought process. I came across it in a book called Come To The Table by John Mark Hicks.
The very first words of the book are…
“God never intended an altar, though he planned for it. Instead, God intended a table to enjoy the communion of his people. While the altar epitomizes the atoning work of God in forgiving sin, the table epitomizes the experience of communion.”
What he is saying is that the cross is the altar where sin is dealt with through sacrifice and blood, and communion is the table where the family of God gathers to be with him and welcomes them as friends.
An early picture of this is when God delivers his people from slavery in Egypt and brings them to Mount Sinai. If you were to take Exodus chapter 24 and summarize it, it would look like this. (ABCDCBA)
A. God invites Moses and the elders into his presence (24:1-2).
B. The word of the Lord is spoken and the people affirm the covenant (24:3).
C. The words are written by Moses (24:4a).
D. The sacrifices are offered (24:4b-6).
C. The words are read by Moses (24:7a).
B. The people affirm the covenant and the blood is sprinkled (24:7b-8).
A. Moses and the elders eat and drink in the presence of God (24:9-11).
God desires to bring sinful people back into his presence. Sacrifices are made and applied to the people. God invites them to share a meal in his presence.
9 Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, 10 and they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness.11 And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank. [Exodus 24:9-11]
John Mark Hicks later on describes the differences between the various sacrifices that God commanded his people to make. Each sacrifice had a different purpose. His explanation is so good, I’m not going to paraphrase it.
The three major festive sacrifices are: sin offering, burnt offering and fellowship offering. Leviticus 9 provides the paradigmatic meaning of these sacrifices as they are offered when the Aaronic priesthood is inaugurated. The sin offering is the atonement offering; it expiates or removes sin (Lev. 9:8-11). The burnt offering represents the consecration or dedication of the worshipper to God; it is wholly burned up to God as the whole animal is given to him (Leviticus 9:12-14). The fellowship offering is an expression of the peace/fellowship or reconciliation that exists between God and the worshipper (9:18-21). In consequence of the three sacrifices, the glory of the Lord appeared to the people (9:22-24). Whereas the burnt offering is wholly burned up to God (the Greek translation of the Hebrew word is holocaust), the sin and fellowship offerings are eaten in a sacrificial meal while the fat is burned on the altar to God. The sin offering is eaten by the priests, but the fellowship offering is eaten by both priests and worshippers. The fellowship offering is the only sacrifice which the worshippers eat (the Passover is a form of fellowship offering; cf. Deut. 16:1-4). Paul alludes to this sacrifice when contemplating the meaning of the Lord’s supper.
Even the sacrificial system points to the fact that dealing with sin is not God’s primary concern, it’s about bringing his people back into fellowship with him and each other. We see this even more clearly in the life of Jesus.
JESUS USED THE TABLE TO TRANSFORM SINNERS INTO FRIENDS.
In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus is constantly either going to a meal, or coming from one. In Middle Eastern Culture, to eat with someone was to say that they are as good as family. You love them and count them as one of your own. That’s why it was such a big deal when the religious leaders found out that Jesus was eating with the misfits and the “notorious” sinners of the day. Didn’t Jesus know that God wanted us to avoid sin and sinful people so we could be accepted and allowed into his presence. Yet here is God himself walking right into the presence of the people who least expected or deserved it and treated them like family.
Jesus used this time around the table to show people how much God loved them and wanted to be close to them, and it transformed them. Levi becomes a disciple. Zaccheaus repents and gives away what he has stolen.
Even as he is preparing to die for them on the cross, Jesus gathers them around a table and says “I no longer call you servants, but call you friends.”
Around this table are people who would desert him, deny him, and betray him. Yet they are all invited to the table.
This is the meaning of the table. Jesus came to restore what was lost in Eden. The ability to be in the presence of God as family and to enjoy him and come together as a family. Instead of terrifying and glorious meeting with God on a mountain that required them to make sacrifices, we see God coming into a living room in intimate friendship and becoming our sacrifice.
Communion is where God meets us and eats with us as friends.
In the next article, we’ll cover practically how to practically turn people towards eating with Jesus by the way we talk about and facilitate communion.
