Mark: Communion

When I was growing up, mealtimes were always a special time in my household. It was a chance to gather, slow down, share about our day, and look forward to what was next. In our culture, there are also special meals — different times where we get together with family and friends to celebrate, give thanks, and remember. If you stop and think about it, much of what we do centres around food! It shouldn’t be a surprise that one of the main celebrations and activities that the Christian church takes part in on a regular basis also centres around a meal — Communion, or the Lord’s Supper.

Communion itself finds its roots in a Jewish meal celebration, the Passover. That meal commemorated the Jewish people’s exodus from slavery in Egypt into the promised land of Canaan. Each part of the meal plays a symbolic roll in telling the story, from the bitter herbs that remind the Jews of how they were enslaved, to the Passover lamb that reminds them of how they were spared because of the blood from a sacrificial lamb. In the same way that Jesus takes all of the teaching from the Old Testament and summarizes it into two laws (love God with everything you’ve got, and love your neighbour as yourself [see Mark 12:28-34]), the Passover is also condensed into two elements, the bread and the wine. The bread represents Jesus’ body, broken for us, given as a sacrifice. The wine represents His blood, the sign of a new covenant between us and God, and shed for our sins (look at Mark 14:12-26 and 1 Corinthians 11:23-26)

As Christians we are called to celebrate the Lord’s Supper on a regular basis to remember what Jesus has done, and to remind ourselves that He will one day return. Until He does return, we are instructed to continue celebrating Communion as the church. This Sunday at our gathering we will do this and look at the symbolism and significance of what this memorial means to us today. We gather at 4pm — hope you’re able to join with us.

Pastor Mike