The Holy Eucharist

Tuesday morning, September 21, 2008 [clear skies and 73 degrees!],

The Holy Eucharist, eating the bread and drinking the wine, really has become a true passion that runs deep within my spirit, and this passion has caused me to wonder if our own Protestant tradition hasn’t robbed us of something that is very dear to God’s heart.
In the Old Covenant, the bread of the Passover was a reminder of Israel’s trying to make provision for their physical nourishment as they rushed to leave the slavery of Egypt and find the freedom of Canaan. From that time forth, the bread that was eaten during a Passover meal served to remind the worshipers of their hurried exodus from Egypt. Unfortunately, the generation of Jews who actually left Egypt never saw Canaan. They simply wandered in the wilderness because they never accepted the true significance of the True Bread.
In the New Covenant, the bread of the Eucharist serves, not as a reminder of our physical nourishment, but as a reminder of our ultimate and perfect spiritual nourishment. Jesus made this very clear: And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, he broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me” (Luke 22:19; emphasis mine). The bread of the Eucharist is our reminder of the life that He gave in order to give us life—eternal life. There is no better nourishment; there is no better food than the Bread of life! The words are very clear: Remember Me.
In the Old Covenant, the wine of Passover was a reminder of the blood of the sacrificial lamb that was sprinkled on the door posts of the houses of each Jewish family just prior to their exodus from Egypt. It was the blood that would protect their firstborn from the hand of the death angel, whose divine mission was to strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt. Although the blood of those sacrificial lambs did serve to protect Israel’s firstborn from that death angel, it did not protect them from death. It could not because the blood of bulls and goats cannot take sins away.
In the New Covenant, the wine of the Eucharist has NOTHING to do with the blood of bulls and goats—animal sacrifices. The wine of the Eucharist is our reminder that Jesus, the sacrificial Lamb of God, shed His blood in order to take our sins away, in order to make us perfect in conscience, in order that we might enjoy intimacy with the Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The wine we drink at this supper is our reminder that God DID strike Jesus’ life, that God DID kill His firstborn Son, in order that we might truly be free!
Could it be that this supper is much more powerful than we have ever believed? Could it be that this supper brings us into a level of intimacy with God that we would otherwise never experience? Could it be that this supper nourishes us far more than all the songs we sing and all the sermons we hear? Could it be that this supper is a genuine expression of the Word of God who became flesh and dwelt among us? Could it be that the fellowship that is shared with Him during this supper is the most precious fellowship we will experience this side of Heaven? Could it be that, in our search to find intimacy with God, we have overlooked the key?
MY PERSPECTIVE: Unless we eat His flesh and drink His blood we will not have His life in us. Actually, that is His perspective!