THINK TOGETHER.
Have you ever seen communion (the Lord’s Supper) observed at your church?
READ TOGETHER.
Luke 22:19-20. 19And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 20And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.
For the 1500 years before Jesus, the Jewish people celebrated Passover. Do you remember what Passover is? It is a celebration of the day that God spared the faithful Israelites (the Jews) from punishment because they had painted the blood of a lamb on their doorposts. Then God led the Israelites out of Egypt, through the Red Sea and into the Promised Land. Yay!
Jesus and his disciples have come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover feast together. It is Thursday night of Passion Week; the week Jesus will die on the cross. In fact, Jesus will die on the cross on Friday. We call it Good Friday. So Jesus is going to be arrested and crucified in just a few hours, but before that happens, he will gather around the Passover meal with his disciples.
And then something amazing happened. Jesus changed Passover. The meal that the Jews have gathered around for centuries, always eating the same thing and saying the same thing, Jesus is going to change it.
Imagine if you woke up on Christmas morning and your dad said, “We aren’t celebrating Jesus’ birthday today, we are celebrating me and my birthday.” Hopefully your dad would never say that. If he did, you might think he’s going crazy.
That’s sort of what Jesus did. He took the Passover, which is about God rescuing the Jews from Egypt and he made it all about himself. Read today’s verse from Luke again. What did Jesus call the bread? What did Jesus call the cup? Jesus was supposed to say, “This is the bread of our trouble.” And he was supposed to say. “This is the cup of our redemption from Egypt.” But instead Jesus uses the bread and the cup to start something brand new. What does he call it? The new covenant.
A covenant is a set of promises. When God led the Jews out of Egypt, he was keeping his promise to them to bring them back to their home in Canaan – the promised land. Now, the night before he will die on the cross, Jesus is saying that he will give us new promises. Better promises. The best promises ever!
What promises has Jesus made to us? Forgiveness of all our sins. Going to Heaven. Loving us no matter what. Changing our hearts.
That’s why Christians take communion. Not to celebrate Passover anymore, but to celebrate what Jesus has done for us. And that will always be worth celebrating.
Because of Jesus we have all the best promises from God.
With Jesus we can trust all God’s promises.
DO SOMETHING TOGETHER
Make a point of going to church whenever communion will be celebrated next. Talk about it together. How is the Lord’s Supper observed in your church? What did the Pastor say? What do the bread and wine/juice represent?
PRAY TOGETHER
Father, help me to trust all of Jesus’ promises to me. Amen.
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