A couple of bank robbers hit a small country bank one lazy afternoon when the staff was
small. They herded everyone into the vault at gunpoint. Then they gagged the teller and
bound him hand and foot. They began to stuff the money into bags when they noticed the
teller squirming and trying to talk to them. After finishing their task one of the robbers
leaned over and pulled the gag off to the side. “Give me a break,” he pleaded, “And take
these books along with you. I am about three thousand dollars short.” Here was a guy who
saw a chance to solve a major problem and get some good out of evil. The good in this case
would be so that crime would pay for him.
The leaders of Israel were not in that same boat, but one that was quite similar in their
dealings with Jesus. They did not like the idea of killing anyone, but Jesus was a thorny
problem, and the best solution they could come up with was the cross. Eliminate the
problem by getting rid of Jesus. The teller wanted to get rid of the books, and the leaders
wanted to get rid of Jesus. In both cases these radical removals would solve their problems
and set them free.
The marvel of it all is that there evil schemes actually worked better than they could ever
have imagined, for the crucifixion of Jesus not only solved a problem for them, it solved the
major problem of all men for all time. It was the problem of sin, and of how a fallen sinful
creature can be reconciled to a holy and righteous God. The cross is the greatest example in
history of how God in His wisdom can use even the evil plots of men to accomplish His
glorious plan for men.
Jesus said, “Remember me,” and we are to remember the cross for the same reason.
The battle cries of our national history have been, “Remember the Alamo,” and “Remember
Pearl Harbor.” Why in the world should we remember great defeats? It is because, like the
cross, they become great defeats out of which came greater victories. Paul says here in verse
26, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till
He comes.” Partaking of communion is a form of preaching. It is our action sermon. It is
visible rather then verbal. It is directed to the eye rather than the ear. Augustine and
Calvin, and many others have called the communion service the Word made visible.
We portray the Gospel in action rather than by words. Paul says it is by eating and
drinking that we proclaim the Lord’s death. The very acts of taking the bread and the cup
and consuming these elements is a presentation of the good news of salvation. By so doing
we illustrate how the death of Jesus makes a difference in our lives. What He did two
thousand years ago has an impact on our lives now because we take the living Christ into our
lives. Eating and drinking illustrate this, for by eating and drinking we take into our bodies
that which becomes a part of us. So when we open our hearts and receive Jesus into our
lives, He comes in and becomes a part of us.
What we do in communion corresponds to what happens in the realm of the Spirit, and
it is a parallel with baptism. In baptism we also portray in a visible drama what is invisible to
the eye. By going under the water we show the death and burial of Christ, and by coming
back up we show forth the resurrection. Both of the ordinances that Jesus left to the church
are visible presentations of the Gospel, which every Christian is to act out, and by their
action bear witness to Christ and His power.
These symbolic acts only have power because they point to the living Christ who is
present in power, and who can and does forgive sin, cleanse us an guide us to victory over
evil. A symbol is only as powerful as what it symbolizes. Once when William MacKinley was
running for President of the United States he was traveling by train through the Midwest. A
small town in Illinois wanted him to stop there. Word was sent that the schedule was too
tight, and the train could not stop. The people of the town were not to be denied, however.
They knew the power of symbols, and so they stretched a large American flag across the
track and dared the train to run over it. It would have been easy to do so, but the flag
represented the nation, and so out of respect for that symbol the train was stopped and
MacKinley gave a speech.
The symbols of communion are nothing in themselves, and they have no power
anymore than a piece of cloth has power to stop a train. But because they represent the body
and the blood of Jesus they have power in the lives of those who trust in the body and blood
of Jesus for their salvation. The power of these symbolic elements is able to bring good out
of evil in at least two ways. First of all by preaching the Lord’s death by these acts we
remember that they cause of His death was our own sin. But we also remember that the cure
for our sin was His death. The forces of good and evil meet at the cross, and good comes
forth victorious, and the result were those who partake of these elements with faith is -
I. THE JOY OF RENEWAL.
We only need to be baptized once, for that is symbolic of our once for all trust in the
death and resurrection of Christ for our salvation. But we partake of communion over and
over for a lifetime. We do not need to be saved over and over, but because we are still in the
flesh and still sinners we need renewal over and over again. When Jesus said to do this in
remembrance of Him He did not mean to imply that Christians could forget Him. The
problem is that we forget Him in the sense of failing to practice His presence and allow His
spirit to dominate us. Christians can get so far removed from Jesus that nobody would ever
guess they are Christians. They forget what a Christian is to be and do, and they live on the
level of the world. We all do this to some degree, and that is why all of us need to keep
coming back to the communion table where we get our focus on the Lord again as the center
of our lives.
We proclaim the death of Christ and its victory over sin by confessing our own sin and
receiving His forgiveness. By this we demonstrate the power of the Gospel to change lives.
We submit to the Christ of the cross and let Him change our lives as we partake of the
elements. It is the Gospel in action, for we are to be experiencing the joy of renewal, and the
joy of seeing our sin forgiven. Communion is an illustration of how action can determine
feelings. If you want to feel right, you must act right. Often people wait until they feel to act.
It should be the other way around, for feelings follow actions.
The great minds in human psychology, such as William James, have long established
this truth. If you feel depressed, act cheerful and your actions can change how you feel. If
you are one who never does anything because you don’t feel like it, go ahead and do it
anyway, for your doing will change your feeling. We have all had the experience where we
didn’t feel like going somewhere, but we finally got dragged into it. Before the evening is
over we are delighted that we went because it was so enjoyable. It was the doing that made
the feelings change. Had you stayed home with your feelings your lack of action would have
let your feelings run your life, and they would have stayed negative. Do you want to feel
good? Do you want to feel brave? Do you want to feel well liked? The way to achieve all of
these feelings is to act good, act brave, and act friendly. When you partake of communion
you need to act as if your sins are being forgiven and cleansed by the blood of Christ. And
this can lead you to feel forgiven.
Jesus died that we might live a life of overcoming evil. The poet George Elliot went
beyond the plan of Christ when he wrote,
The saints were cowards who stood by to see
Christ crucified. They should have thrown themselves
Upon the Roman spears and died in vain
The greatest death, to die in vain for love.
That is not the ideal of Jesus, and that is why He stopped Peter in the garden. Peter would
have said amen to the poet’s view as he whipped out his sword and chopped off the ear of
Malchus. He was ready to die in vain, but Jesus commanded him to put his sword away, and
He healed the ear. Jesus wanted His followers to live and build their lives on His death.
Jesus does not want us to die for Him, but to live for Him. He wants us to find in His
death the source of life for restoration from sin to fellowship with God. He wants us to find
renewal from coldness and indifference to zeal in His service. Communion is designed to be
a time where we seek renewal by confusion. We are to talk to Jesus and tell Him where we
are, and why it is so far from we ought to be. Confess your sin and claim His promise of
cleansing. He gives His word that if we confess He will forgive.
Jesus declares me clean,
Then clean indeed I am,
However guilty I have been,
I’m cleansed through the Lamb.
His lips can never lie,
His eye is never blind,
If He acquit, I can defy
All hell a fault to find.
II. THE JOY OF REFRESHMENT.
There are two things that are most refreshing in life, and they are getting clean when you
are dirty and grimy, and having a feast when you are famished. Baptism is symbolic of the
refreshment of cleaning and communion is symbolic of the refreshment of feasting. Both are
only symbolic, for baptism does not really get you clean, and the Lord’s Supper does not
really satisfy your hunger and thirst. The power is not in the symbols, but in the one they
symbolize. Jesus can and does cleanse, and He does fill the empty soul that hungers and
thirsts for righteousness.
Communion is a reminder that the spirit of man needs to be fed to keep strong, and to
stay alert and keep growing. If there is no refreshment taken through food and drink, the
result will be decay and death. By this ordinance Jesus made it clear that the only way we
can sustain the spiritual life is by constant communion with Him. Without food you can do
nothing physically, and without Christ you can do nothing spiritually. The whole of the
spiritual life depends upon our partaking of the bread and wine of life, which is, as we have
already said, a taking into our very being the life of Jesus.
Hell is characterized by emptiness and a lack of refreshment. The rich man in hell
longed for only a drop of water on his tongue. In contrast, heaven is characterized by
abundance of refreshment with the marriage feast of the Lamb and the fruitful trees by the
river of life. If life is to be abundant their must be resources to give refreshment and growth,
and Jesus says these are available to the believer in Him. He is the bread of heaven and the
water of life that satisfies that hunger and thirst that drives the empty into all of life’s follies.
That is why we need to partake of communion over and over. We cannot eat enough to stay
fed anymore than we can stuff our body with food and then never be hungry again.
Christians who do not feed on the heavenly manna will experience hunger and thirst and
emptiness, and then they are open to the temptation to satisfy that need with the fruits of the
world. The more a Christian keeps filled with the refreshment of Christ, the less chance he
will want to taste what the world offers. Bonar wrote,
Here would I feed upon the bread of God.
Here drink with thee the wine of heaven.
Here would I lay aside each earthly load.
Here taste afresh the calm of sin forgiven.
This supper is only a foretaste of the great marriage supper of the Lamb, when all of
the redeemed with sit at the table with Jesus and enjoy His presence and a feast beyond our
wildest dreams. In Windsor Castle outside of London is the royal dinning room where the
Knights of the British Order of the Garter gather to dine with the Queen. There is no higher
honor in Great Britain. But those who love Christ will have an honor that far surpasses the
splendor of all earthly royalty as they dine with the King of Kings. Dr. Watts wrote-
Yes, and before we rise
To that immortal state,
The thought of such amazing bliss
Should constant joys create.
We show forth His death until He comes, and when He does come He will show forth all
the results of His death in their fullness. This glorious and precious hope should fill us with
the joy of refreshment. It should kindle in us renewed faith that sends us forth into the
world to do battle with its evil, and our own evil, with determination to be winners for Christ.
