Series: The Things We Say - Best Meal Ever - Martin Wiles

This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Luke 22:19 NLT

According to my wife, I eat some strange things.

My wife and I come from different regions of our state and have different eating habits. On one of our earlier dates, she was fixing my dinner plate. Out of habit, I said, “Make sure you put some liquor on my rice.” A saying and practice foreign to her (liquor being the juice in the pot with the cooked vegetables). Nor did she understand putting vegetables over white rice—until she spent a few years in the Lowcountry and was served white rice with every meal. And some of the things I had grown up putting together—such as grits and fried cubed steak—she had never experienced. Getting her to add vegetables to the gravy she had just put on her rice was out of the question.

Since I love to eat, I enjoy almost any meal. But I suppose the one Jesus served to his disciples was strange. Not the bread and wine, but what he told them about it. Eating the bread entailed eating his body, and drinking the wine involved drinking his blood. The practice led others to accuse early Christians of cannibalism. And some church traditions teach that the wine and bread become Jesus’ blood and body when consumed.

Early churches observed the Lord’s Supper every time they met. I’ve been more accustomed to churches that do so quarterly. Dad always gave the biblical warning to examine oneself before partaking of the elements. Paul said Jesus reminded them that they proclaimed the Lord’s death every time they observed the tradition.

So, what’s the big deal about Communion or the Lord’s Supper? Of all the meals we might enjoy, this should be the most pleasurable because of what it represents. Other meals merely fill our bellies, feed our muscles, and then leave our bodies. God’s meal, however, sticks to our ribs and gives us continual spiritual nourishment. Eating the bread reminds us that Jesus was our substitute. His body was broken as he paid for the sins we had committed, were committing, and would commit. Drinking the wine or juice reminds us of the blood he shed for our sins because, without the shedding of blood, no forgiveness exists.

Enjoy a good meal, but don’t neglect the best meal.

Father, thank you for allowing your Son to give his life so I might have life.

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