The Neglected Part of Communion

Although the ancient rite of communion is common to all Christianity, not all aspects of it are, explains Joseph Maticic.

If you’re at all familiar with a Christian church, you’ll have noticed a feature of worship called Communion. It goes by other names, such as the Lord’s Supper or the Mass. Although it’s conducted in different ways, with different theological interpretations, it’s nevertheless one aspect of worship common to mainstream Christianity.

The Communion consists of the eating a small piece of bread or a wafer and drinking a mouthful of wine, as commanded by Christ during the Last Supper, as He sat with His disciples on the night before he was brutally executed.

But for many people, Communion has about as much meaning as does a midmorning snack. However, when you study it in the Bible, you soon discover there’s much more to it. The taking of the bread and wine is part of a whole package that has real meaning to Christians, and it lies close to the heart of its beliefs.

Despite this, there’s one part of the service that most Christians have forgotten or only rarely practise.

At the Last Supper, to celebrate the Passover, Christ gathered His disciples in a Jerusalem upper room. The Passover was a special meal in which Jews celebrated their deliverance by God from slavery in Egypt. During the course of the evening, Jesus took His disciples quite by surprise, doing a couple of unforgettable things, which are recorded by John, one of the disciples, who was there.

He writes that Jesus “got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel round his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel” (John 13:4, 5). This made a huge impact on the bickering disciples. In those days, whenever people entered a home for a meal, there would be a servant to wash their feet. It was a necessary gesture considering that most people travelled on foot over dusty Palestinian paths. It was a degrading task, and performed only by servants.

So when the disciples saw their Lord and Master, Jesus, kneeling to wash their feet, they were incredulous: Their leader, God’s Son, in the role of a servant!
The disciples’ shock is best seen in the reaction of Peter, who objected, declaring, “No, you shall never wash my feet!” (John 13:8).

By this one act, the disciples learned what Jesus had been trying to teach them for more than three years—the meaning of true Christian service. Up until then, they’d been arguing among themselves as to who might be the greatest in Christ’s kingdom, despite His teaching that the essence of Christianity is humility and service. Now they were confronted with it.
When Jesus finished washing the disciples’ feet, He explained the significance of what He had just done: “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you” (John 13:14, 15).

Jesus clearly commands us, then, to wash one another’s feet. By these words, He instituted a service for all Christians to follow as a prelude to the Communion service. It’s surprising, then, that it has been almost forgotten and ignored. Most, though, remember what Jesus did next.

The purpose of this service is to give Christians a tangible way to remember just what it took for Jesus to come to this world to save us. It also serves to remind us that we are all equal in God’s eyes, and the essence of Christianity is to serve others.

I’ll not forget the first time I participated in the foot washing, as a teenager. I vividly recall how humbling it was to kneel before my friend and wash his feet. It was a moving experience and one that made me realise that I cannot hold grudges or feel I am better than my fellows.

Through this service, Jesus intended to lead into the Lord’s Supper. That’s why, after He washed His disciples’ feet, Jesus performed a second unforgettable act. He took two of the elements on the dinner table and used them as symbols of His impending death on the cross. The first was unleavened bread (without yeast), which He took, broke into small pieces and shared with His disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body” (Matthew 26:26) as a symbol of His body, which was about to be broken.

He then held up a cup of wine (probably grape juice, “fruit of the vine,” Luke 22:18) and passed it around the table telling the disciples, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:27, 28), a symbol of His about-to-be shed blood.

On an earlier occasion Jesus said that “unless you can eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you” (John 6:53). The purpose of this shocking statement was to emphasise our utter dependence on Himself. So it is that every time Christians partake of the bread and the wine in a Communion service, they remember that these two things represent Jesus’ death—His broken body and spilt blood on the cross.

For the Christian, there’s nothing more important than the death of Jesus. It’s for this reason they celebrate the Communion service or Mass—so they’ll not forget. To use the words of Jesus: “Do this in remembrance of me.” When we participate in both aspects of this service—the service of humility or foot washing, and taking of the communion bread and wine—of the Lord’s Supper, we’ll never forget.

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