Spirituality Column #802

March 29, 2022

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Whenever …

By Bob Walters

“This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” – 1 Corinthians 12:25

It was the first “Lord’s Supper” – at “The Last Supper” – where Jesus shared with His disciples the bread and the cup as His body and blood.

That was the night Jesus was betrayed into the hands of those who would kill Him.  Jesus emphasized at the supper, when handing the disciples the bread to break and the cup to share, “Whenever you do this, do this in remembrance of me.”

On that evening Jesus labored mightily, one last time, for the disciples to understand not only that He was the Son of God, but that He was God and that their continuing faith in Him and witness to His truth would light a path of salvation from sin into God’s Kingdom for all mankind. “This is my body … and this is my blood.”

We think – maybe too much – of the broken body and blood of Jesus on the Cross.  We see our sin, experience our guilt, and sense our salvation in the perfect sacrifice of Jesus. But the bread and the cup as death?  Let’s think that one through.

As Jesus says “this is my body,” He is breaking the bread in fellowship with the disciples.  This is the fellowship we as Christians come to know in Christ and with each other.  The cup as “the new covenant in my blood” communicates the promise – a covenant – with His blood, and Jews recognize blood as the source of life.

I’ve come to believe that the battered and bloody Jesus on the cross is not the remembrance Jesus had in mind at the Last Supper.  The bread was the symbol of His love and fellowship with them, and the cup was the symbol and promise of life.

The cross is much more than a picture of Jesus’s sacrifice and suffering.  It is a picture of us … of me, of humans … and sins we commit in human fallenness.  I think the cross is a picture of the ugliness of the fallen world, and shows the infinite resolution and love of Jesus to complete His mission to bring humanity back into fellowship with God – back into Eden, back into God’s Kingdom, and into eternal life.

At the Last Supper, Jesus knew that the greatest challenge to the disciples after His death would be their staying together in fellowship and in faith.  He used the bread and cup to do that: “Do this in remembrance of me,” as if to say, “Stay together, persevere.  Your fellowship will be critical to your mission ahead: to share the truth of God’s love and my eternal life with a hostile and doubting world. I am with you.”

Obviously, the resurrection – Christ’s return – and all that subsequently happened made clear much that was murky as the disciples struggled to understand these last instructions of Jesus.  But the world remained and remains hostile, and all believers benefit from the communion of the bread and the cup as we take the focus off of ourselves and our sins, and remember the promise and truth of the Son of God.

Jesus remains our savior always; regardless of what we think.  Our belief or non-belief doesn’t affect His truth or love one way or the other.  But they sure affect us, and we can have the joy and hope of Jesus as we remember His body and blood.

That’s when we have His fellowship and His life.  And it is ours … whenever.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) suggests we encounter the communion elements – the body and blood, bread and cup – knowing Jesus remembers us, too.

Spirituality Column #366
November 19, 2013
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville

By Bob Walters

I still wear a tie to church most Sundays.

My church’s “traditional” (read: Old Folks) worship crowd is mostly cured of the coat and tie habit.  Open collars and sweaters are de rigueur.  In the contemporary services, Colt’s jerseys or possibly the first t-shirt out of the closet seem the sartorial statements of choice.

Not me.  I grew up with a father in the 1950s who was always in a tie – he’d wear a tie for a long car trip … on vacation.  He taught me to tie a Full Windsor knot before I was old enough for school.  I like ties.  Sundays, weddings and funerals are about the only chances I have to wear one.  Interestingly, I was once fired from a pretty good job for not wearing a tie.  But that’s another story.

As for church, I feel good making the effort to dress up a little bit for God.

God doesn’t care what we’re wearing, I get it, but He can’t mind a tie and shined shoes any more than he minds a t-shirt and sandals.  So I’ll go with the tie … for now.

Regardless of wardrobe, going to church implies more than encountering in worship God the Father, our Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.  We also are meeting our Christian brothers and sisters in fellowship.

So consider: Are we at church to see, or to be seen?  By God?  By others?  What do our hearts hope to accomplish?  Am I there to get some help for me?  Am I there to love God and love others?  Am I there to strengthen my faith; to worship, praise and glorify the Lord Jesus Christ in communion with fellow believers?

Some churches and TV shows just preach “God” and, let’s be clear, that’s not a Christian message.  It’s a God message, maybe, or an idolatrous “god” message, but most likely it’s a push-marketed “See what God can do for you!” message.  That makes church about the glory of me, not the Glory of God, and that takes salvation off the table (Matthew 6:1-4, John 3:17, John 14:6).  If I don’t hear the J-word – Jesus – or anything about the Father-Son-Holy Spirit, then I’m at a self-help lecture or fund-raiser, not Christian worship.

Jesus preached God’s Glory.  He demonstrated selflessness dying on the cross.  He instructed us to love God, to love others, and to bear our own cross.  With humble, resolute faith in Christ, we are delivered from death and sin.

But the purpose of worship is defeated if we ever leave church thinking, “Hey, I’m glad you got to see me.”

No matter what we are wearing.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) wears Polos and button-downs in the summer.