By Greg Hurd
I want to start this week with a search I have been on for about the last 10 years. It has taken me a long time to get to this point and I am ready to share what I have learned with you. Through multiple revisions I have attempted to eliminate redundancy and explain as clearly as possible my understanding of this subject.
As believers God gives us His Spirit and His Word, however He doesn’t always give us the answers to all of our questions about our faith. Sometimes it can be years before we ever gain a full understanding of certain things. Other times the lightbulb comes on almost immediately. My experience with Communion has taken many years and much searching.
When I first set out to write about Communion it was only to serve as a reference point for myself. As time went on however, I found there to be an increasing number of people who really didn’t understand what Communion was anymore than I did. By God’s grace and His Word, which never returns void, I am blessed to be able to share what the Lord has revealed to me. It is my hope that in reading this you will not just get a greater understanding of why we observe Communion at church, but that you will also have a deeper relationship with your Lord and Savior. Let me tell you where my journey began.
I was a few years into my faith and serving at a local church in my 30’s. I had gone to church regularly with my family as a kid, but had no real relationship with Jesus. Not until I was 28 years old and found Jesus, or rather He found me. So, here I was walking out what I believed and had invited my friend Karl to church. He was attending regularly and I was happy to see him every Sunday morning, I felt like things were going great! I was established in my faith and trying to bring others into the kingdom. Karl was doing well and taking in the sermons with considerable understanding. I thought myself to be seasoned in the Word and able to answer almost any question asked with a biblical response of some sort. And then something unexpected happened. We were having communion Sunday and as the ushers were passing the plates filled with the elements (this is what most Christian churches call the communion items that you eat and drink) he looked at me and said, “What is this?” I was stumped. I whispered back with an uncertain response about how we do this as believers and if he listens to the preacher he will understand. My hope was that he wouldn’t ask any other questions about it because I realized that I really didn’t know what communion was. I had heard that it was a symbol of the body and blood of Jesus, but had no further understanding beyond that. Furthermore, I felt like it would be a disruption to begin talking during this time because as they pass the Communion trays around this is usually when the piano would play softly and people would quietly reflect on the Lord before the Pastor responded from the podium.
After this experience, my answer and inability to explain further haunted me. Was it a symbol? Was it important at all? Was it important to me? and most importantly, what did I believe it was because I would partake of it every third Sunday of the month? For this reason, I had to know what communion was and why I did it. This is where my troubled journey began and it led me into a forest of uncertainty for a lengthy period of time until I emerged on the other side, by the grace of God, with a greater understanding of communion and a deeper love for my Lord.
Years ago, even before I had a relationship with the Lord, I knew The Communion only as a ritual. The ushers would pass a brass tray filled with small pieces of broken saltines in it and another tray of tiny grape juice filled cups. I would eat and drink after the pastor read the words of Jesus Christ from one of the gospels at the Last Supper. I never questioned why we took this sacrament and didn’t even know that it was a sacrament (A sacrament, as defined by Websters Dictionary is an outward and visible sign of inward and spiritual grace). I simply did it because my parents and all those around me did it. It seemed like an odd practice, but who was I to question it, and I was pretty sure God wouldn’t be happy with me if I did.
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