What is Communion?

Communion is something I greatly emphasize.  If you don't know already, I believe every church should observe Communion every Sunday.  To explain my reasons for thinking that, I should explain what Communion is; and a few things Communion is not.

A tangible act
Communion gives action to our faith.  The Christian faith is not some empty profession of faith.  We don't just say we believe in Christ and sing a few songs.  There are many acts the Christian should be involved in.  Some are acts that help people.  And a few are even ritual acts.  There's nothing wrong with that.  In our culture we tend to steer away from ritual.  At least we won't call it ritual, but if we're honest, everyone has rituals.  Its just that most of our rituals are subconscious things we do every day; we don't call it ritual, but it is.  Communion is a religious ritual with much meaning for our lives.  Its way more beneficial than all the subconscious secular rituals people perform every day.

An act of remembrance
"Do this in remembrance of Me".  Jesus tells us exactly what Communion is for.  Its to remind us of the sacrifice Jesus gave on the cross.  Its to remind us of our need of that sacrifice.  Unless we are in the "flesh" and "blood" of Christ, there's no life in us.  That flesh and blood symbolize the spiritual life of God.  Lest we forget the flesh and blood of Christ, we eat and drink symbols of that flesh and blood.  What an intimate commemoration of the greatest sacrifice ever given!  Not just a thought in our mind or a song on our lips, but bread and wine (grapejuice) that touch the lips and stir up the mind.

An act of worship
Every Sunday Christians sing songs to praise Jesus.  But Jesus did not say "sing songs in remembrance of Me".  Its good that we sing songs, since its written that everyone have a hymn ready for the gathering of saints, and we know the very first Christians sang in hymns every Sunday morning to worship Christ, who rose from the grave Sunday morning.  But if its good to sing songs, how much better is it to commemorate the sacrifice of Christ, which He actually did say "Do this in remembrance of Me"?

An act of obedience
Communion is not merely a tradition.  It is a tradition, going all the way back to the apostles.  But its not merely a tradition.  The Roman Catholic Church did not give us Communion.  In fact, Catholics do not observe Communion (I'll say more about that elsewhere).  Don't let anyone confuse Communion with Catholicism, or say that its merely tradition.  Christ Himself commanded it.  He was eager to eat the Last Supper with his disciples.  He was eager to break bread and say "take it, eat".  He was eager to say "This is my blood, poured out for many".  He proclaimed what was already determined, and how He would save all mankind from sin.  This was no small thing.   

An act of unity
When we observe Communion, its something we all do together.  I know there's many Christians in different time zones; the point is not that we all do it at the same time necessarily.  But we all do gather on Sunday morning, and we all do commemorate our Lord in Communion.  It is something we do together.  It is something that brings us together.  Even with so many denominations, observing the Lord's Supper is something we do agree on.  Sadly, some have neglected the Lord's Supper.  But for those that do commemorate it, it is done as one body.  The entire church as a whole observes it.  Its not an individual thing, its a churchwide thing.

An act of evangelism
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes. 1Corinthians 11:26 ..  Communion is a way of speaking the gospel.  Its a way to bring attention to the cross.  Its a point of teaching as well.  Consider the children.. they ask: why do we do this?  That's the perfect opportunity for teaching the children what Communion is all about.

A spiritual act
Communion is spiritual.  The bread is not literally the body of Christ, and the grapejuice is not literally the blood of Christ.  But the bread and the grapejuice are not merely symbols either.  To think that they are merely symbols, that's almost as wrong as the Catholic belief in Transubstantiation.  Communion does have spiritual value.  A person is infused with the Spirit of God by partaking of the Lord's Table.  How so?  By calling to mind the sacrifice of Christ.  By worship.  By obedience to His command.  By everything that I have mentioned thusfar, and possibly things I haven't mentioned.  The observance of Communion goes well beyond the symbolic.  It is nourishment for the soul.  If you don't understand what I mean, spend three months at a church that faithfully observes Communion every Sunday.  Maybe you grew up in a church that neglected Communion.  Maybe it never caught on with you.  That's because you never really observed Communion.  Faithfully observe Communion for at least three months, then you'll understand what I mean when I say it is a spiritual act.

Now let me just say one thing that Communion is not.  As I already alluded to, Communion is not the Catholic Eucharist.  The Catholic Eucharist can best be described as food sacrificed to idols.  The Catholic Augustine, who modern-day Catholics like to quote, even made this point.  When Jesus said "unless you eat of the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you" (John 6:53), He did not literally mean His flesh and blood.  That would be cannibalism.  Jesus is not talking about literal flesh and blood; Jesus is spiritual.  How do I know this?  While He was speaking to the same crowd of people, just moments later, He said "The Spirit is the One who gives life.  The flesh doesn't help at all.  The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life."  Now if the Catholics believe that they are literally eating the flesh and blood of Jesus, by Jesus' own words, that does them no good (even if Transubstantiation were true).  The "flesh counts for nothing", so we cannot have life in us by eating His flesh.  Then How?  The "Spirit gives life".  It is not the actual bread and wine (grapejuice) that give life; it is the act that gives life, because the act is spiritual.  Just as Jesus said "My words are spirit and life", so too the act, which Christ gave to us, is spiritual and life-giving.  Not the bread, not the wine, and certainly not Transubstantiation.  This false doctrine from the Roman Catholic Church is a hideous misunderstanding of Christ's words.