Communion: A Sample and a Feast

My daughter tugged on my arm, her green eyes pleading for me to come closer. With her lips to my ear, she pointed at the tiny cups and fragments of bread. “Mommy, is it time for samples yet?” she asked.

Her five-year-old understanding caught me off guard, and I didn’t hide my smile well. “You mean Communion?” I said. “Soon, baby, soon.”

It’s her favorite part of church. The sip of juice, the nibble of cracker. And when we take it together, she tells us what Communion means: Jesus gave his body for our sins and his blood for our life. It’s a simple retelling of an unfathomably deep and rich story. Yet she doesn’t need to know the theological implications to trust that it’s for her.

It’s for you, too. This “sample” of the body and blood of Christ.

Communion as a Foretaste

In one sense, the idea of Communion (also referred to as the Lord’s Supper or the Eucharist) as a sample is perfectly true. We are just tasting the smallest bite of what is yet to come in our life with Christ. When Jesus ate his last meal with his disciples, he intimated what is yet to come:

“I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God . . . I tell you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes” (Luke 22:15-17 NIV)

I can’t help but think that maybe Jesus was envisioning the wedding supper of the Lamb, when evil will be decimated and a deafening shout of praise will rise from the multitude around the throne. We’ll gather before the King of Kings as his radiant bride, blushing, rejoicing, and celebrating (Revelation 19:1-10 NIV).

That, indeed, is yet to come. But we sample it every time we gather with the body, the bride of Christ, in worship. We taste it every time we remember the victory of the cross in Communion. We experience the shadow of it in our marriages when we practice forgiveness and celebrate intimacy.

In his essay, “Meal Above All Meals,” Stephen Whitmer writes, “At the Lord’s Table, in the midst of a sin-sick world, the perfect future for which we long comes rushing into the present. We hold in our hands a foretaste of the future.”

Communion as a Feast

As much as our experience of Christ’s kingdom and his table might still be a shadow of what is to come, something in me rebuffs the thought of Communion being merely a sample. I think, at its heart, Communion is a feast.

One time, our family symbolized this idea by sharing not just sips and crumbs, but an entire baguette and bottle. We told our children, “Jesus doesn’t give us just a tiny piece of himself. He gives us everything.” And we ate and drank until we were satisfied.

This kingdom that we have been adopted into? It isn’t poor. It isn’t a place for meager rations of grace. Its gate is narrow, true, but for those who have entered by the blood of the Lamb, it’s a land of lavish love and abundant life.

Before you start rolling your eyes, hear this: I’m not talking about worldly prosperity. In fact, I strongly believe that walking through the wilderness is a necessary part of our journey. But I also believe that God held nothing back when he gave us his Son, and that, in a very real sense, we are rich beyond our wildest dreams.

I don’t know how all this sits with your upbringing and doctrine. I’m admittedly eclectic in many of my spiritual practices, even more so after having lived abroad for five years, but here is what we know from God’s Word:

• “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32)
• “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10)
• “Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.” (Psalm 90:14)
• “Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare.” (Isaiah 55:2)
• “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us…” (Ephesians 3:20)

We are not beggars. We are royal heirs.

You’re Invited to the Table

Come. There is a delicious feast prepared for you. There’s a party in the kingdom, and you’re invited. And in the typical, paradoxical fashion of the Bible, you get to experience its fullness, all the while realizing it’s only a sample.

I won’t pretend to understand it all. Instead, I’ll just come as a child. Eager. Expectant. Trusting. And when I ask Jesus if its time for Communion yet, I think I know what he’ll say.

Corella Roberts is a country girl and a city girl. An introvert and a socialite. A homebody and an adventurer. But mostly, she’s simply Abba’s child. She’s married to her high school sweetheart, Troy, and they live in Thailand with their two full-of-life kids and two chubbier-than-most hamsters. Her heart is to see people connect deeply with Jesus, and you can often find her using her words to do just that at corellaroberts.com.

Photograph © James Coleman, used with permission