Bound Together

Thursday – Luke 22: 17-19 After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, “Take this and divide it among you. For I tell you I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”

Throughout scripture, we see God bringing his people away from old symbols and towards new ones. One common symbol of covenant that the church has participated in since Jesus instituted it on the night before his crucifixion is communion. If you've been to City Church (or any church, really!) on a Sunday, you may have taken communion too. Usually, the person leading it quotes Jesus’ words from today’s passage (or one of the other gospels) to remind us of his sublime sacrifice – both magnificent and terrible.

Many Christian traditions teach that communion is a sort of replacement for circumcision. Much like circumcision was a physical and ritual marker of God’s covenant with the Israelites, so communion is a physical and ritual marker of his covenant with us. In this way, communion connects us with a heritage that stretches back thousands of years.

I encourage you today to spend some time reflecting on the magnitude of that idea – when you take communion on Sundays, you’re participating in something that your sisters and brothers in Christ were doing 400 years ago, 600 years ago, 1,600 years ago, 2,000 years ago! This is the power of symbols. They connect us and remind us that we are bound together by something much bigger than any one person.