04/05/2018
Are you purified as a Heavenly thing? Do you acknowledge in communion that the blood of Jesus Christ has cleansed you of sin, but also that it purified you in preparation for a heavenly existence? How often do we take communion and casually remember Jesus? Even worse, how many times do we take communion without thinking at all? This is the danger of repetition, but if repetition is performed with the proper preparation, it strengthens our memory, and makes an act so natural to us that we can perform it, believe it, perfectly each time.
“And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them, and said, "Take; this is my body." And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. And he said to them, "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God."”
Mark 14:22-25 ESV
Some believe that the bread and the wine physically become the body and blood of Jesus when taken in communion, and some do not, but all should long equally to understand the meaning of this act. The body and the blood of Jesus offered once, but remembered always thereafter as His offering for our purification from sin. Recounting the words of Jesus as He offered the bread and wine only took Mark four verses, and yet we have marveled over this one act, and sought it’s deeper meaning in awe, and written volumes regarding it ever since.
“Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever."”
John 6:53-58 ESV
The bread that once symbolized the manna from heaven as offered in the desert now takes on new meaning in the hands of Jesus, it becomes the body of the sacrificial lamb... His body. What was once burnt and sprinkled as ash on the heads of sinners annually for the remission of their sin is now internalized by the consumption of the body of Christ, and purifies us once and for all. This is our remembrance; Jesus offering Himself bodily for our sins. Yet the body is a vessel for the blood, and His blood becomes the blood of the covenant...
“saying, "This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you." And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.”
Hebrews 9:20-23 ESV
So the blood of Jesus takes what was once sprinkled on whatever needed to be purified, and places it within us; purifying us forever. This is the covenant that God has made with us, just as the Sabbath, rainbow, and circumcision were to all covenants to Jews in the time of Jesus. This is what proclaims us to be heavenly things... no longer copies. By this act Jesus is announcing our transformation from a replica to a true citizen of heaven. Just as the Italian author, Carlo Collodi, wrote of Pinocchio being transformed from an imperfect wooden puppet into a living boy, we are transformed into heavenly creatures... no longer the incomplete shadows we once were.
Do you take communion in the full knowledge of what it means? Do you prepare yourself properly for this repetition so that you can perform it in perfect remembrance? Do you understand that Jesus not only purified you as the Jews purified symbolic items in the temple, but once and for all as a true heavenly resident? You are no longer Pinocchio the lying puppet, but Pinocchio the purified flesh and blood boy who loved, and lived in the house of Geppetto, the woodcarver.
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for the covenant established in the blood of Jesus, and the remembrance of that covenant each time we break bread and drink wine in communion. I thank you for the once and for all sacrifice of your Son that has transformed me from your creation into your child; the heir and joint heir with Jesus. What have I done Merciful Father, to deserve such grace, what have I done that would make you love me so? I love you in return Holy Father, and thrill at the warmth of your hand upon me. When I take the bread in communion and place it in my mouth, as the body of Christ, I remember His sacrifice upon Calvary, and when I drink the wine from the cup, I remember the purifying forgiveness of His blood for my sins. In this way I am quickened Father, for by your grace I have become a heavenly being, your child... dining at your table for eternity. No longer is bread simply manna, and no longer is wine just the drink of weddings, no longer is the body upon the altar simply a lamb, or the blood of the sacrifice merely sprinkled in ritual purification. Jesus has made all symbols real, and transformed me into the substance of eternity... the child at your feet, and at your table. Holy, Holy, Holy art thou my God and my Father.
“When one of those who reclined at table with him heard these things, he said to him, "Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!"”
Luke 14:15 ESV
Rich Forbes