Communion: Partaking in Christ
- James Collazo
- Jul 18, 2022
- 6 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
Introduction
Food and drink unite people more than anything else in life. That is why Jesus taught us to pray for "our daily bread" (Matt. 6:11; Luke 11:3). The Hebrew word lechem (H3899) means more than bread; it includes both physical and spiritual nourishment.
A powerful example of a simple meal bringing peace amid hatred took place during World War I. On Christmas Day in 1914, soldiers from Britain, France, and Germany laid down their weapons to celebrate together. They longed for home, family, and the comfort of peace. Their officers had not sanctioned the truce, but after five months of unrelenting battle, the soldiers were weary. Most came from the working class and had endured harsh conditions, constant danger, and the loss of friends. The truce became a brief yet radiant moment of humanity and hope—just as communion today unites believers in peace and challenges the world's social and economic divisions with the steadfast love of Christ.
Communion in the Early Church
The first Christians did not see communion as a ritual detached from daily life. It was an authentic meal of fellowship, thanksgiving, and love. The Didachē—written late in the first century by Jewish Christians in Syria—described how believers blessed bread and wine, thanked God for the vine of David, and shared food in unity (Did. 9). Ignatius of Antioch (c. AD 35–108) later referred to communion as "the medicine of immortality" (Letter to the Ephesians 20; Letter to the Smyrnaeans 7–8), underscoring the early church's view of it as participation in Christ's life rather than mere remembrance.
By the second century, the apologist Justin Martyr (c. AD 100–165) explained that Christians received bread and wine with thanksgiving, believing these elements—sanctified by the Word—became a means of grace (First Apology 66–67). Communion thus united worship, community, and ethics. It reminded believers that salvation was not an escape from creation but its restoration through Christ.
Love Feasts and the Lord's Table
Paul rebuked the Corinthian church for corrupting the Lord's Supper. The wealthy flaunted their privilege while the poor went hungry (1 Cor. 11:20–22). In the first century, communion was not a symbolic wafer but a love feast (Greek: agapē, G26; cf. Jude 1:12). The meals Christians share today reflect that original intent more closely than the ritualized form that later developed.
Paul called the church to repentance, not for neglecting ceremony, but for violating love and hospitality. Communion compels believers to move beyond ethnic, racial, and economic divisions. It does not promote class warfare but embodies Christ's command to share freely according to need (Acts 2:44–46). The very word communion includes the suffix –union—a sign that believers work together for a common purpose.
Paul warned that those who partook unworthily faced judgment because they denied reconciliation (1 Cor. 11:27–32). He was not speaking about abstract confession but about repairing relationships. Communion calls the church to a holy realism: unity must be lived, not imagined. To share the Lord's Table while harboring division is to eat the symbols of grace without embracing the life they signify.
Body & Blood of Christ
Many people grow up hearing the phrase "body and blood of Christ" as familiar church language, but in the ancient world, it was shocking. Roman critics accused Christians of atheism, cannibalism, and incest because they misunderstood both the language of communion and the family terms "brother" and "sister." Outsiders thought believers rejected the Roman gods and held secret feasts where they consumed human flesh. In truth, Christians worshiped the one true God and celebrated a sacrament of love, not violence—using symbolic language to express their union with Christ's life, death, and resurrection.
Why then do we speak of Christ's body and blood? Scripture teaches more than a mere memorial. Jesus declared that those who seek eternal life must eat his flesh and drink his blood (John 6:48–58). His words scandalized his hearers because they pointed to a mystery: through faith and thanksgiving (Greek: eucharistia, G2169, "Eucharist"), we share in his life.
When Jesus took bread and wine at his final Passover meal, he transformed them into signs of a new covenant: "This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me . . . This cup is the new covenant in my blood" (1 Cor. 11:24–25). The language is hyperbolic but holy. In Jewish and biblical thought, "body" and "blood" represent the whole person—the fullness of life offered to God. To share the cup and bread is to enter that covenant life together.
John's gospel describes the Last Supper as a Passover seder (H5468, "order") yet omits the lamb, because Jesus himself is the Lamb of God who takes away the world's sin (John 1:29). As Israel ate the Passover (Hebrew: Pesach, H6453) meal before deliverance from Egypt (Exod. 12), so we eat in remembrance of the cross and in hope of the kingdom to come.
Communion and the Future
Communion is not only a memorial of the past but a preview of eternity. Jesus told his disciples, "I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God" (Luke 22:15–16). He also promised, "For I tell you I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes" (Luke 22:18).
During the Passover, Jews drink four cups of wine. Jesus drank the first two but passed over the third—the cup of redemption or thanksgiving (cf. 1 Cor. 10:16). He gave that cup to his disciples, symbolizing that redemption belongs to them, not to him. When we share the cup today, we drink in remembrance of the Redeemer who needs no redemption.
After his resurrection, Jesus revealed himself to two disciples on the road to Emmaus. They recognized him only when he broke bread (Luke 24:13–35). This moment of recognition shows that Christ remains truly present in the act of communion—not physically bound to the elements but spiritually known in fellowship and hospitality.
Every communion meal points forward to the "marriage supper of the Lamb" (Rev. 19:9). Each table of bread and wine becomes a small foretaste of that future feast where creation is made new. Communion joins heaven and earth, the now and the not yet.
Conclusion
Jesus knows our need for tangible signs to understand spiritual truths. He gave us the Scriptures and the sacraments of baptism and communion as visible revelations of invisible grace. The word sacrament comes from the Latin sacramentum, meaning "a sacred oath," which corresponds to the Greek mustērion (G3466)—a divine mystery revealed through outward signs. The Word is not ink on parchment but the living Scripture written on our hearts (Rom. 2:15; Heb. 10:16).
Luke records parables of the wedding banquet and the great dinner (Luke 14:7–24). Each reveals God's radical hospitality. The tragedy in these parables is not refusal to attend a meal, but refusal of divine fellowship. Communion pictures God's will to make the world right again. If we cannot share thanksgiving now, we will not share it in the resurrection of the living and the dead (1 Thess. 4:16; 2 Tim. 4:1; 1 Pet. 4:5).
Prayer
Blessed are you, LORD our God, King of heaven and earth. As you made Jesus known to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, make him known to us in Word and sacrament. Warm our hearts, fill us with love, and guide us by your Holy Spirit. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Bibliography
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