Every other Sunday at Globe, we come up to a table in the centre of the room to take bread and wine (grape juice!) together.

If you’re new to church, it might be a strange thing to see. Others of us might think of it as very normal. Across the world and across the centuries, this practice of taking Communion or the Lord’s Supper (sometimes also known as the Eucharist) has been a precious and powerful part of the Christian life. No wonder – it’s one of the few practices (alongside baptism and the Lord’s prayer) that Jesus himself instituted in the church.

As with almost every part of church life, there have been some differences in thinking and practice between church traditions. Whatever you’re used to (or whether you’re not used to it at all!), it’s important to be refreshed in what the Bible has to say about Communion. Let’s take a look now.

What’s it for? And how are we to approach it?

What’s it for?

Certainly, remembrance. In Paul’s retelling of the Lord’s supper (1 Cor 11:23-26), Jesus says ‘do this in remembrance of me’ (also Luke 22:19). Interestingly, the moment Jesus chooses to reveal himself to the two men at Emmaus after his resurrection is when he breaks bread in the same way (Luke 24:30-31, 35).

More than that, proclamation. As Paul explains to the Corinthians, to take the Lord’s supper together is to declare Jesus’ death to one another, again and again until he returns (1 Cor 11:26). As we drink the wine, we also look ahead, says Jesus: proclaiming that the next time we drink wine with him it’ll be the finest wine, in the kingdom (Matt 26:29, Mk 14:25, Luke 22:18).

Even further though perhaps, participation. Warning the Corinthians against sharing with demons, Paul uses just that word (koinonia) to describe our sharing in Christ at Communion (1 Cor 10:16, 18-20) Jesus’ words to the Jews in John are stark: they wanted feeding with physical bread, but Jesus replied, ‘unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you’ (John 6:53. Also see 6:32-35, 52-58).

Lastly, and wonderfully, unity. We’re brought together as a body by sharing in a body: the bread, the body of Christ (1 Cor 10:17). The Lord’s supper is always something to be done together (1 Cor 11:33, Luke 22:17).

How are we to approach it?

What a precious gift Communion is then. And it’s one given for a reason: we need it!

It’s assumed in Scripture that sharing bread and wine is a regular, integral part of church life. The first believers devoted themselves to it (Acts 2:42, 46). Paul’s sermon ran over until midnight and a young man fell out of a window, died and was raised… and the church in Troas still made time for it (Acts 20:7-11)! We’re not to take the meal lightly. Paul rebuked the Corinthians, who were treating the meal as any other. Their bread and wine had effectively ceased to be the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor 11:20). Do we know the weight and preciousness of the meal?

We’re also to check our hearts (1 Cor 11:28). The Corinthians had become concerned with competition, despising one another (11:19, 22). Do we approach the table rejoicing with one another as equals?

Praise God for his amazing gift to us. May we always share Communion in a worthy way!