I write Istoria Ministries posts for your inspiration, not for any correction.
Your agreement with my biblical views is unnecessary to me. Our mutual appreciation for the Good News does inspire me.
If my writing draws you closer to Jesus, pay attention to it. If not, pay it no attention.
I hope to show you in this post how the Lord’s Supper is not a special religious ceremony, but an encouragement to remember Jesus every every time you eat or drink.
THE INSTITUTIONAL LORD’S SUPPER
In most churches, what is called either communion or the Lord’s Supper is a sacred, ritual ceremony. An unleavened wafer and a cup of wine (grape juice in some settings) are distributed by ordained men who alone may administer the ordinances of the church (e.g., baptism and the Lord’s Supper).
In many evangelical churches, ordained men wear Hawaiian shirts and jeans on regular Sundays but dress in jackets and slacks when they serve on communion Sunday.
Before communion, pastors warn about harboring sin before serving the Lord’s Supper, appealing to Christians to confess their sins before they eat and drink, lest they take the Lord’s cup “unworthily” and receive the just punishment for their sins.
The ceremony causes an uninformed follower of Jesus to think communion Sunday is more special or sacred than any other Sunday, much less other typical days of the week.
Some evangelical youth groups have attempted to have the Lord’s Supper without ordained men serving the elements. Those unsanctioned youth events have split some churches. In addition, if anything other than a flat, unleavened wafer and a small cup of something other than Welch’s grape juice is served, church members can work themselves up into a tizzy.
The formalism and traditionalism surrounding the Lord’s Supper, including unleavened bread and wine, come from the mistaken notion that Jesus ate the Seder or “Passover Meal” with his disciples the night before He was crucified.
The Last Supper Was Not Passover
Jesus’ last meal with his disciples was not a Passover meal or Seder.
The Passover lambs for the Seder Passover meals would not be killed until the next day at 3:00 pm when Jesus, the Lamb of God, died at Calvary.
Therefore, the meal Jesus shared with His disciples the night before He died on the cross is correctly called The Last Supper by Leonardo Davinci.
The Hebrew Passover meal of the Old Covenant had specific requirements, including the use of unleavened bread.
Some evangelicals, confusing the Passover with the Last Supper, are offended if anything other than unleavened wafers is used in the Lord’s Supper.
These Christians hold to a mystical, ritualistic view of the Lord’s Supper.
They want ordained, “authorized” men with “spiritual authority” to guard the Eucharist against corruption. These traditionalists are the ones who caution communion takers to ne’er “eat nor drink unworthily” lest they be damned.
In the Baptist circles where I grew up, the altar call before the Lord’s Supper was when people really thought about their sins. Usually, it was once a quarter (every three months). A weekly review of one’s sins occurred in very circumspect congregations, for the Lord’s Supper was solemnly served every Sunday.
The Last Supper Was a Normal, Typical Meal
The meal Jesus shared with His disciples the night before His death was a normal meal of everyday bread and wine that people in Jesus’ day ate and drank daily.
The injunction that Jesus gives His followers, then, becomes extraordinarily meaningful.:
Every time you eat or drink, remember Me”
Jesus meant what He said.
If you argue with your spouse on Monday morning and you happen to go get a drink of water at the office water fountain later that same morning, pause and “remember Jesus.”
If you go to the cafeteria to eat something for lunch, don’t take a bite until you pause and “remember Jesus.”
Don’t let any drink pass your lips or any food enter your mouth without remembering Jesus and what He did for you.
Eating and drinking become the actions that trigger the remembrance of Christ.
You are to use the act of consuming our daily food and drink to “focus on Christ,” to remember His authority in our lives, and to recall everything He teaches us about how we are to live.
“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by EVERY WORD that proceeds out of the mouth of God.”
If you think of Jesus and what He teaches you before you eat or drink something, He’ll bring to your mind those harsh words you said to your spouse earlier in the morning and remind you of HIs Royal Law which is “to love one another as I have loved you!”.
You’ll then go and make to the person you’ve not loved in the way Jesus loves you before you eat or drink.
The Lord’s Supper doesn’t mean you examine yourself and “remember Jesus” quarterly – or even weekly – but every time you put food or drink to your lips.
Real Bread, Real Communion, Remembering Christ
To repeat for emphasis, only at the Passover Meal is unleavened bread consumed.
That’s why Jesus would have eaten normal, daily bread and consumed the normal, regular drink with his disciples during Wednesday night’s “Lord’s Supper” or “Last Supper,” just hours before He died on the afternoon of Jewish Preparation Day (Nisan 14).
Leaven in Scripture is a picture of sin or evil. After the Passover lamb died, the leaven was gone. All sin and evil disappeared in the Jewish homes (symbolically) as they brought the Paschal lamb into their homes and celebrated Jewish redemption from Egyptian bondage during the days of Moses.
Jesus couldn’t have eaten the Passover Meal (Seder) with His disciples because He had already died and was in the tomb (sweeping away our sins).
You must get this fixed in your mind:
The Lord’s Supper is nothing more, nothing less than remembering the Lord Jesus Christ every time you eat or drink.
This is consistent with the teaching of the New Testament.
“So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” – (I Corinthians 10:31)
Jesus is your LIFE.
As often as you eat or drink, remember Jesus Christ.
How can you get drunk if every time you drink, you think of Christ?
How can you sleep with your stepmother (as was the sin of a Corinthian Christian in I Corinthians) if every time you eat, you think of Christ?
How can you speak poorly to your spouse in the morning and not make it right by lunch if you “think of Christ every time you eat or drink?”
How can you continue in idolatry if you take every opportunity to eat and drink to think of Jesus Christ? Your LIFE is in HIM!
Living your life in continual remembrance of Jesus is the practice of New Covenant Christianity.
Next time you eat or drink, remember what Jesus did for you to give you life.
From the Holy Gospel of St. Matthew, chapter 28
” go quickly and tell His disciples, ‘He has risen from the dead”
“Jesus answered, “I am the bread of life.”
(from the Holy Gospel of St. John, chapter 6)
” Baruch ata Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, hamotzi lechem min ha’aretz.
Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe,
who has brought forth bread from the earth.”
It is also the genesis of a prayer before our meal. Many often wonder where this may have come from and it is a simple fulfillment of this request from the One Whose life would be given that we may be filled with the Holy Spirit as we would be filled with a meal for sustaining us. One sustaining us physically the other spiritually.
I read about everything you write on Istoria Wade. Have read most all of your posts for years. It’s always deep and thought provoking. I grow from the teaching. I enjoy the history posts too ! Your ministry has always been a blessing to me.
Wade,
You wrote: Every time you eat or drink, remember Me” Jesus meant what he said. Where is that in the Bible? I couldn’t find it.
Wade, we always pray before we eat. We thank the Lord for the food, and if the occasion arises, we ask Him to be with someone that’s sick or having problems.
I drink water often every day, but it doesn’t remind me of Jesus. Is that a sin? I think I’ll say to you what my father told me one time: “Rex you’re always right, but when you’re wrong, you’re dead wrong.”
Wade, you wrote:
“The Lord’s Supper is nothing more, nothing less than remembering the Lord Jesus Christ every time you eat or drink.”
That`s a true statement when the last six words are deleted.
Once our church forgot the “remembering” when it took four deacons to get the ‘stuck’ lid off the punch container. (We heard laughter.)
Wade, can you persuade the machine to let me tell a funny story?
Machine,
Let Rex tell a funny story! 🙂 There, Rex! I don’t know if it will work, but you can try!
thanks, Wade 🙂
Our parents taught school to American kids in Germany after World War II. My brother and I lived in a dorm. The lights were turned off at 10 P.M. with no warning.
Many years later, my wife Belle, was taking a college course to get her Master’s degree. It was scheduled 6 PM to 9 PM. I drove because of her poor night vision. It took an hour and a half to where I dropped her off and then I’d visit my brother who lived two blocks away. I worked a midnight shift and got off work at 7 A.M. I got most of my sleep in the morning, but a 30-minute nap before going to work made me feel fresh.
Everything was fine until the teacher started keeping them till 9:30 which cancelled my nap.
Wade, I’m almost half way.
Wade, I’m almost half way.
Machine, do you remember this:
Istoria Ministries on August 1, 2023 at 8:36 am
Machine,
Let Rex tell a funny story!
Are you going to let me tell it??