Jeanie and I went to our second Tres Dias team meeting today in preparation for the October retreat that we will be serving at, and were once again blessed in many ways. We began the day with praise and worship followed by communion as we did with the first meeting. Today however I learned a truth about communion that I had not previously realized.

Now I’ve taken communion, or the Lord’s Supper as it is also known, umpteen times over the years, and always recognized much of the significance of the broken body of Christ in the Bread and the blood of Christ in the wine (or juice if you prefer). I’ve taken it in the Baptist traditional well as the Methodist and have read much about other denominations ways of taking communion and their interpretations of not only the significance of communion but of the substance of it as well. I also understand the significance of the old covenant passing away and the beginning of the new covenant. This morning, however, Pastor Jim quoted some scripture and said a couple of things about The Lord’s Supper that really cemented at least a portion of the importance of communion for me.

Pastor Jim read through 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 and then focused on verse 26 where Paul states, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.” Jim then paused to re-emphasize how we are proclaiming Jesus’ death with communion and all that His death signifies.

Now, too often, we as Christians concentrate on the risen Jesus and don’t think as much about the crucified Jesus or more importantly, exactly what occurred at the moment of His death. After all, Easter is probably our most important day in commemorating Jesus and after that, Christmas. But many of us give little thought to Good Friday. Don’t get me wrong here, the risen Christ is what our religion is all about and without that Christianity wouldn’t exist. I just think that many Christians don’t reflect as much about what happened when Jesus died, or at least I hadn’t until today.

After Pastor Jim finished and while I was waiting my turn to take communion, I reflected back on exactly what did happen when Christ died. In Matthew 27:50-51 we read that “And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split.”

Now when the veil in the temple leading into the Holy of Holies was rent, that is when the barrier that had stood between us and God since the Fall of Adam was removed. The pathway for our sins to be cleansed and for us to be able to “come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need”, as we read in Hebrews 4:16, occurred at the exact moment of Jesus sinless death. According to Paul, what occurred at Jesus’ death is what we are proclaiming when we take the bread and the cup.

Now, there is much more that can be said about communion but I just wanted to write about this portion of it and how I will always look at it little differently and be a little more thankful of it when I have the opportunity to take it. I think that many churches don’t emphasize communion nearly enough nor take it as often as they could. From near as I can tell, the early church took it every week. That would be fine with me, especially from looking at communion in the new light that I gained of it today