Communion - A deeper look

Communion - A Deeper Look

The Eucharist /ˈjuːkərɪst/, also called Holy Communion, the Sacrament of the Altar, the Blessed Sacrament, the Lord's Supper, and other names, is a Christian sacrament or ordinance. It is reenacted in accordance with Jesus' instruction at theLast Supper, as recorded in several books of the New Testament, that his followers do in remembrance of him as when he gave his disciples bread, saying, "This is my body", and gave them wine saying, "This is my blood."  

The term Eucharist itself means simply "Thanksgiving" translated.  

Today we are going to receive Communion.  This is one of the most treasured of our traditions within the Church itself.  It's one of only a handful of traditions and observations that Christ himself put into practice and enacted with the Disciples personally.  

For many of us - taking the sacrement was something we simply grew up doing.  Maybe even without fully realizing the implications of the action.  I want to talk some today about that.  Before we go too much further let me read to you the story of "The Last Supper".

The Last Supper (Mark 14:12-26)
12 On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed, Jesus’ disciples asked him, “Where do you want us to go to prepare the Passover meal for you?” (Notice "YOU" - the disciples were not sure what to think of this.  They didn't see themselves as receiving the passover WITH Christ.)
13 So Jesus sent two of them into Jerusalem with these instructions: “As you go into the city, a man carrying a pitcher of water will meet you. Follow him. 14 At the house he enters, say to the owner, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room where I can eat the Passover meal with my disciples?’ 15 He will take you upstairs to a large room that is already set up. That is where you should prepare our meal.” 16 So the two disciples went into the city and found everything just as Jesus had said, and they prepared the Passover meal there.
17 In the evening Jesus arrived with the twelve disciples.18 As they were at the table eating, Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, one of you eating with me here will betray me.”
19 Greatly distressed, each one asked in turn, “Am I the one?”
20 He replied, “It is one of you twelve who is eating from this bowl with me. 21 For the Son of Man must die, as the Scriptures declared long ago. But how terrible it will be for the one who betrays him. It would be far better for that man if he had never been born!”
22 As they were eating, Jesus took some bread and blessed it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, “Take it, for this is my body.”
23 And he took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it. He gave it to them, and they all drank from it. 24 And he said to them, “This is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and his people. It is poured out as a sacrifice for many. 25 I tell you the truth, I will not drink wine again until the day I drink it new in the Kingdom of God.”
26 Then they sang a hymn and went out to the Mount of Olives.

Jesus built a "Jesus Culture" into an existing one right there in front of the Disciples.

Lets start by looking at what the Passover Feast was actually.....Feast of Unleavened Bread. 

The Jewish people celebrate Passover as a commemoration of their liberation over 3,300 years ago by God from slavery in ancient Egypt that was ruled by the Pharaohs, and their birth as a nation under the leadership of Moses.

It commemorates the story of the Exodus as described in theHebrew Bible especially in the Book of Exodus, in which the Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt.

In the narrative of the Exodus, the Bible tells that God helped the Children of Israel escape from their slavery in Egypt by inflicting ten plagues upon the ancient Egyptians before the Pharaoh would release his Israelite slaves; the tenth and worst of the plagues was the death of the Egyptian first-born.

The Israelites were instructed to mark the doorposts of their homes with the blood of a slaughtered spring lamb and, upon seeing this, the spirit of the Lord knew to pass over the first-born in these homes, hence the name of the holiday.[7] There is some debate over where the term is actually derived from.[8] 

 

When the Pharaoh freed the Israelites, it is said that they left in such a hurry that they could not wait for bread dough to rise (leaven). In commemoration, for the duration of Passover no leavened bread is eaten, for which reason it is called "The Festival of the Unleavened Bread".[9]Thus Matzo (flat unleavened bread) is eaten during Passover and it is a symbol of the holiday.


I want to point out something up front here today.  We have been talking about how best to go about injecting a "Jesus Culture" into the things we do and say.  Take a look at something in verses 22-25.  Do you notice anything odd?  That phrase "as they were eating" stuck out to me this morning.  What was happening here?

Passover meal had been going on since the time of the Exodus from Egypt for the nation of Israel.  When the meal began it was simply another annual observation of an event that this particular culture had been observing for some time now.  In other words - nothing new here.  To the disciples it must have seemed like any other passover meal at first - but then Jesus did some remarkable.  Didn't he?

Let's go a little deeper with what Communion really is today.  Let's see what Jesus wants to build into the culture of Mission SD.  Maybe He will do something here today "as we eat".  

Let's start today with some simple definitions.  

Communion (Christian)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The term is derived from Latincommunio (sharing in common).[1] The corresponding term in Greek is κοινωνία, which is often translated as "fellowship". In Christianity, the basic meaning of the term communion is an especially close relationship of Christians, as individuals or as a Church, with God and with other Christians. This basic meaning of the word, found in many passages of the New Testament as well as in secular Greek, predates its more specific Christian uses.
 
Communion in Christianity
New Testament
The Greek term κοινωνία (koinonia) appears in the New Testament, but nowhere in the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament known as the Septuagint. As a noun, or in its adjectival or verbal forms, it is found in 43 verses of the New Testament. In addition, the noun is found in some manuscripts (used for producing the English translation known as the King James Version, but not for more recent translations) in Ephesians 3:9.
There are really 4 uses for the word Kononia in scripture as it is applied.

I. Common life in general (only in Acts 2:42)
II. Communion between particular groups, the most remarkable instance of which was that between Jews and Gentiles
III. Communion in the Body and Blood of Christ
IV. Sharing in divine revelation and with God himself (1 John 1:1-7).[3]

Aspects of communion in Christianity:
In a special way the term communion is applied to sharing in the Eucharist by partaking of the consecrated bread and wine, an action seen as entering into a particularly close relationship with Christ. 
 

I want to focus on one one word for a moment - Koinonia.
The spiritual meaning of koinonia
The word has such a multitude of meanings that no single English word is adequate to express its depth and richness. It is a derivative of "koinos", the word for "common". 

Koinonia is a complex, rich, and thoroughly fascinating Greek approach to building community or teamwork. It literally means for the good of all. 

In Ancient Greek, κοινωνία could apply to a business partnership, to fellowship of life in marriage, to a spiritual relationship with divinity, to comradely fellowship between friends, to a community or society.

Koinonia embraced a strong commitment to "kalos k'agathos" meaning "good and good", an inner goodness toward virtue, and an outer goodness toward social relationships.

In the west - here in America - even our most altruistic terms don't even come close to this.  We are totally and uterlly broken where this concept is concerned.  We do life poorly according to the ancient Greeks.

 

In the context of outer goodness, translated into English, the meaning of koinonia holds the idea of joint participation in something with someone, such as in a community, or team or an alliance or joint venture. Those who have studied the word find there is always an implication of action included in its meaning. (Action implies that we are "doing" something together - not just in word but in deed).

The first usage of koinonia in the Greek New Testament is found in Acts 2:42-47, where a striking description of the common life shared by the early Christian believers in Jerusalem is given:

“
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the communion (Kononia), to the breaking of bread and to prayer...All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need…They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.

”
Communion itself was the breaking of bread and the form of worship and prayer. It was in the breaking of the bread that the Apostles "recognized" Christ and it was in the breaking of bread, called Communion, that they celebrated Christ's Passion, Death and Resurrection in obedience to his Last Supper instruction: "Do this in memory of me."

 

How does this tie into our tradition of communion?

Let's look at something in 1 Corinthians 10

16 The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion (Koinonia) of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion (Koinonia) of the body of Christ?
17 For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread.
That word "communion" in Paul's teaching to the church in Corinth is actually translated from Greek to English.  

In greek the word that was originally used was "Kononia".  AND it's the same translated meaning as what we see in the Acts reference we just looked at.  
The obvious goal of Paul when preaching this message to the Church in Corinth was to have them understand that the observation of The Lord's Supper was meant to create a sense of well being and teamwork among the body itself.  It was no accident that he used the word Kononia in this instance.  

So what does all this mean?  We need to have a full realization of what this "Communion" means.  Without a full realization of these things we have shorted the very purpose of it in the first place.  Jesus said "Do this in remembrance of Me".  He meant, I believe, to not only share in the Eucharist but also to do Koinonia in remembrance of him as well.  



- From the unstable mind of a dude that eats too many twinkies.