For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. (1 Cor. 11:26)
An email came into my inbox recently to confirm a family vacation we have planned during the next school break. Although I typically do not use them and they find their way to my trash folder, on rare occasions these messages prove to be important reference points that detail the contents of my agreement with an airline, hotel, or rental agency. Recently during a work trip, the car rental company’s computers were down and it was the confirmation number I was able to locate on an email from my phone that saved me a considerable amount of time at check-in.
In this passage, we are challenged to consider what partaking in Communion does not only for us, but also for those watching. Paul seemed to suggest that it is much like what a wedding or baptism does. It communicates publicly a decision we have made privately. It says to others that we have put our trust in Jesus and that this life is not our own, but we have been bought with a price. It confirms that we believe in the life, burial, resurrection, and second coming of our Savior. It says a lot! Simply participating in the Lord’s Supper says a great deal about us and in whom we believe.
May we each day, by God’s grace, ultimately confirm with our actions what we believe in our hearts.
List two things you do privately that say publicly, “Jesus is Lord.”
Santes Beatty is the multiethnic multiplication catalyst for The Wesleyan Church and campus pastor of Mosaic Midtown Church in Detroit, Michigan.
© 2020 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission.
Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.
