The Power of Communion
The Lord’s Supper, which is also known as “Communion,: or the “Eucharist,” (depending on your church tradition and terminology), is such a powerful display of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ upon the cross that every single Christian who partakes of it should be physically healed of any ailment that they have. Assuming that they understand it.
Disaster one: A Christian who is physically sick, infirm, or feeble partakes of Communion. And when they have finished taking Communion they are still physically sick, infirm or feeble.
This is a disaster because the Communion service is a healing service. And the healing service failed to deliver results. But most Christians think this is normal and so it isn’t even considered a disaster.
But anyone who just participated in a Communion service and didn’t get healed just participated in abnormal (or rather subnormal) Christianity. It is a testimony that they have absolutely no idea what they were doing when they partook of the elements that represented the body and blood of Jesus.
Disaster two: There are Christians who are carrying around guilt and condemnation for their imperfect performance and so they don’t feel worthy to partake of Communion. And so during the Communion service they will abstain from the celebration and erroneously think that they are being obedient to the Lord by celebrating their unworthiness.
This is akin to being offered the medical cure to a disease but refusing it because you feel like you are not worthy to take the medicine.
Are you WORTHY to participate in the celebration of Communion? If you are looking at your own personal performance instead of the performance of Jesus, of course you aren’t worthy. But you AREN’T supposed to be looking at you. You are supposed to be looking at Jesus! And discerning HIS body!
We are shown here in this passage that it is critical to discern the Lord’s body. Now this can actually be taken two ways. And BOTH ways are right!
The body of Christ refers to what Jesus went through when He hung on the cross. Few Christians understand the scope of this and so healing eludes them. If pulpits would spend a year teaching about this, it would completely transform the health of their congregations.
But the body of Christ is also the individual members of the Church. And because the Christians of this church that Paul was writing to were not treating each other well, they had opened up a door of opportunity for Satan to come in and wreak havoc among them.
They had sickness, weakness, and premature death in their congregation because they had no regard for each other, the body of Christ! They were short-circuiting the powerful effect of the Lord’s Supper in their lives. Modern churches are doing the same.
Communion is a tradition that acts out the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross. If it was really taught correctly, it would become an aid to generating GREAT HOPE that our faith could be activated through.
But instead it is just glossed over and so it becomes merely an exercise to check off on our religious to-do list.
How sad! The Communion service is far more than celebrating the forgiveness of sins. It is the celebration of abundant life!
If you would ever really discern the Lord’s body, it would totally transform your life!
And sadly, I have barely scratched the surface on this topic. I encourage you to dig in deeper on your own. It’ll be worth it!
Are you sick? Find out what it means to discern the Lord’s body.