Thank you for joining me in today's communion practice.
One of the stories in the Bible that I've always found heart-wrenching is where Jesus goes to Nazareth and starts reading from Isaiah 61.
At first the people from his hometown felt a stirring in their hearts that he was really ministering to them,
But then familiarity kicked in and they saw him just as Joseph and Mary's son.
They not only missed their moment to find their Messiah,
But they missed out on the majority of wonders and miracles he performed on earth.
The same thing can happen for us when we come to the communion table.
We can become so familiar with the emblems,
So familiar with Jesus Christ,
Yeshua himself,
That we miss him.
We miss what he has done and the power behind the cross.
The bread and the wine are not merely bread and wine.
Each time we say that the bread is a symbol of his body broken for us and the wine is a symbol of his blood that purchased us to redeem us,
We declare that it is a priceless gift of victory that we have been given.
I say victory because Christ not only gives us the opportunity to be blameless before God the Father,
A righteous judge,
But he is seated at the right hand of God the Father,
Which is a place of authority over everything in the entire universe.
It is a constant reminder that he overcame sickness and death,
Whatever circumstances we might be facing at the moment.
Through the finished work on the cross,
We can know that we can overcome them through the blood of Christ.
When we look at the bread and the wine,
Let us not be so familiar with it that we too miss what Jesus' hometown missed.
I encourage you to take communion a bit differently today.
Please read out loud Jesus' mandate in Isaiah 61.
Take the time to listen carefully to each word as you read and then close your eyes and reflect on everything that his broken body and his blood purchased for you.
Listen with new ears and a grateful heart and think about the power of the cross in your own life before taking the bread and the wine when you are ready.
Isaiah 621.
The spirit of the sovereign Lord is on me because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
To proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,
To proclaim the year of the Lord's favour and the day of vengeance of our Lord,
To comfort all who mourn and provide for those who grieve in Zion,
To bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes,
The oil of joy instead of mourning and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
A planting of the Lord for the display of his splendour.
They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated.
They will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.
You may eat the bread,
You may drink the wine.
Yeshua,
We thank you for being our saviour.
Thank you that you did not shy away from the cross but that your broken body and your spilled blood purchased freedom from sin,
Guilt,
Shame,
Sickness and everything that stands between us and the Father.
We pray that you will make this finished work on the cross a reality in our lives,
That we will be able to see and hear you clearly and never become too blase about the cross.
Holy Spirit,
Give us humble hearts to gladly accept the price that was paid for us.
Amen.
