Communion Elements – a Blessing in the Present
When we come to the Lord's Table for Holy Communion, the bread and wine help us to remember what Jesus did, for us to look back and be grateful for His amazing sacrifice.
But Communion is not just about the past. It's about the present! Specifically, it's about meeting Jesus here and now as you receive the elements.
Christ's Mysterious Presence
You see, most churches teach and believe that Christ is specially present in the elements of Holy Communion. How He is specially present is a hotly debated topic.
There are those who believe that the elements become Christ's actual body and blood. Their logic comes from John 6, where Jesus said this: "Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. For My flesh is real food and My blood is real drink. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood remains in Me, and I in them." (John 6:53-56)
When He said that, John tells us, many people left Him, because they thought He was a madman. In early church history, the Christians were at one point thought to be a cannibalistic cult, because the story went around that this group would gather and eat the flesh and drink the blood of their leader.
However, we Nazarenes and most other Protestant churches of our day believe that the bread and wine remain bread and wine once we have blessed them.
But we do believe that Jesus becomes specially present in the bread and wine in a way that is mysterious and, in the end, unexplainable.
Meeting Jesus at the Table
Coming to the table and receiving these elements is a way of getting close to Christ. Just like those disciples were gathered with Him around the table, so, we with bread and cup in hand, are close to Christ in that moment in a special way.
This is not to say that He isn't close to us anywhere we are. Certainly, Christ is omnipresent because of His divine nature. But when we receive Him in this way something deeper happens, something special happens:
We are reminded in a tangible way of His love for us in the way He gave His life for our forgiveness
We are reminded again that He is a God of mercy
We are strengthened in our hearts as we take Him in!
We are given new hope as we remember… He hasn't separated Himself from me, but He has drawn near.
Don't just come to the table to look back at what He did. Come to meet Him in a mysterious way now!
I believe, in the words of an old song, that at the table "He comes to cleanse and heal, to minister His grace".
What happens when we receive the Communion elements? Christ is specially present, in a mysterious way.