Communion Is a Time for Meditation

Taking part in the Holy Communion is a fixed ritual in the Christian religion, part of a glorious tradition that stretches back to the first Passover of Moses recorded in the Bible. During the first communion, the people of God trusted in Him to deliver them from a desperate situation, and then praised Him for that deliverance. Taking part in communion today should remind us of that long ago demonstration of the grace of God. We should also look back to the more recent past of the Last Supper, when Jesus Christ vowed to make a new covenant with people, and we should remember the betrayal, torture, and agonizing death He paid for us to allow this new covenant to be established.

The act of celebrating communion should allow us to meditate and look back, to realize that God delivers on His promises. He promised to deliver the children of Israel, and he provided that deliverance. He promised a Savior for the whole world, to save us from our sins, and He provided one. Using communion meditation to look back at the events that led us to that moment both strengthens our faith and encourages us to embrace all of the promises God has given us. Every time we take communion, we are renewing our beliefs and our faith that no matter what challenges and despair we face, the Lord has led us through so far and He will provide for the future.

Communion is far from being an individualistic act. The act of taking communion reduces all of us to the same level—removing all of our notions of status and importance, all of our pride, and any prejudices or conflicts we have with each other. In fact, the word "communion" means "joining together," so the act itself should serve to unite all of those participating in the meditation. As each of us takes part in the elements of the ritual, we are saying to each other that we are all sinners saved by the grace of God. We acknowledge to ourselves and to others that we love God and need the continuing renewing power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We see that together, before God, we may all be worthless but we are treasured by Him anyway. And as a result of this knowledge, we are called to take His love for us with us when we leave the communion service, and spread it into our daily lives. We renew our pledge to serve the Lord together.

The meditation of communion also allows us to look forward. In the history of the people of God, two great feasts and worship celebrations have already occurred—the Passover, and the Last Supper. The third great feast, the Marriage Feast of the Lamb, has not happened yet. When the children of Israel took the Passover, they were affirming their belief in the promise that one day a Savior would be delivered to them as God promised. Each time we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, we proclaim to ourselves and others that we believe in the return of our Lord Jesus who died for us. And now with each communion we celebrate, we are one communion closer to the Marriage Feast of the Lamb.

Each communion, and the time for meditation it gives us, is a reminder of God’s promise that one day we will celebrate the ultimate Feast with everyone we have loved and everyone who has gone before us. What a feast it will be, being reunited along with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and all those whom we have loved. On that day, every moment of our lives, every challenge we have faced, and every sadness we have experienced, will all be washed away and replaced with pure joy. For on that day, we will see Jesus. Communion meditation should be a remembrance of the past, but should also be treasured as an opportunity to look forward. We should remember this with each communion we take, and use the time to meditate on the glorious future we will all share as Christians.