Reflection 2.

 

How best to we remember Jesus in Communion.  The most obvious way is to

1.      LOOK BACK.  Some Christians call this the Lord's Supper and it is possible to go back to that upper room where Jesus first takes bread and wine. Mark tells the story vividly of a group of disciples blind to impending disaster, bickering about self-importance, with Judas right there just thinking this is another Passover meal, when Jesus takes bread and says: This my body, This my blood.  But this supper table is not the place to look, for when Jesus takes bread and wine he is taking us to the Cross. As though we must climb up the sides of the hill called Golgotha to see a hideous sight where the best man who ever lived, hangs in agony, rejected by the crowds,  with a gash in his side and thirst in his throat, separated from his Father (Father why have you abandoned me) with an unimaginable burden crushing him. The man who said: Greater love has no man than to lay down his life for his friend. You are my friends if you do what I tell you. He is giving us everything by sacrificing his life as a Lord who offers friendship in relationship with him as Lord.  

It is an overwhelming spiritual truth that nobody could put us right with God unless he helps us.  And he does it his way giving his only Son to take away the sin that separates humankind from God by the power of love sacrificed in death.  And he does it for me and you.   Remember me says Jesus because I am suffering to win new life for you. 

In my ministry occasionally people have said: I can’t take communion at the moment. I am in a bad place and it doesn’t feel right. But there never is a right place. None of us deserve this.  The most amazing truth is that when we truly grieve, truly with repentance that looks to the cross…this is precisely where Jesus wants to meet us.  It’s profoundly serious and personal. 

The old spiritual goes Were you there when they crucified my Lord. Well, of course not. Yet Jesus did this once for all for all of us. So yes, I was there.  Because God so loved the world, this death has cosmic reach.   Let’s quietly hear the words in Stuart Townend’s song that we shall sing;

Behold the man upon a cross

My sin upon his shoulders

Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice

Call out among the scoffers

It was my sin that held Him there

Until it was accomplished

His dying breath has brought me life

I know that it is finished.