Good morning.

A little girl asked her mother one Sunday morning as she was preparing lunch, “Mommy, why do you cut off the ends of the ham before you cook it?”  The girl’s mother turned and looked at her and said, “Oh, sweetie, I’m not really sure why, but I suppose you cut the ends off of the meat so that the meat can better absorb the juices and spices and make it more tender.  Maybe you’d better ask Grandma since she was the one I learned it from.  She always did it that way.”

So, the little girl called her grandmother later that day on the phone and asked her the same question, “Grandma, why do you cut the ends off of the ham before you cook it?”  The little girl’s grandmother responded, “Oh, sweetie, I’m not really sure.  I think it is so that the juices will be absorbed better.  Call your Nana.  She is who I learned it from.”

The little girl began to get a bit frustrated with the whole idea, but decided to call her great-grandmother anyway.  “Nana, mom was preparing lunch the other day and she cut the ends off of the ham before she cooked it.  I asked her why and she said that she did it because the juices would absorb better, making it more tender.  She told me to ask Grandma to make sure since she learned it from her.  Well, I called Grandma and she said the same thing about the juices and all, but that she learned it from you and I should ask you.  So Nana, why do you cut the ends off of the ham before you cook it?”

There was a long pause in the conversation and then the little girl heard what sounded like muffled laughter coming from the other end of the line.  “What’s so funny, Nana?”  “Oh, sweetie, I always cut the ends off of the ham before I cooked it because my pan is too small!”

Well, many times we end up doing things for the wrong reasons because no one ever stopped to ask the question, “Why?”  If you weren’t here last week, we began a new series that asks the question, “Why do we do what we do here at Fly Branch Church Of Christ?”  Last week, we answered the question, “Why do we spend time in worship each week?”

This week, we move on to the next thing that we do in a service.  Every Sunday we take a few minutes to partake of the Lord’s Supper.  And just like that family with the ham, some people, possibly even some of you who partake each week, don’t fully know why.  So, this week’s question is, “Why do we take Communion each week?”

Most people are familiar with Leonardo Devinci’s painting of the Last Supper.  While it isn’t entirely accurate, it still captures the essences of the evening.  There are His closest friends spending a nice evening celebrating the Jewish Passover.  But most important of all, there is Jesus.  He is pictured in the center of this rather diverse group of would be leaders.

In that scene, Jesus established a memorial for us to observe.  Significant events demand significant memorials in life.

The more significant the event, the more lives involved, or the more important the life, the greater the memorial is needed.

We have memorials for 9/11 in New York City on the site of the World Trade Center.  There is a memorial on the site of the Oklahoma City Bombing.  People visit and the Arizona memorial in Pearl Harbor.  Our cities are full of memorials.  Some like the Viet Nam Memorial created to remember the 50,000 lives lost.  We have literally millions of memorials covering fields and hills with individual pillars of stone and markers of marble, and each recognize the significance of the lives spent here on this earth.

Jesus’ memorial would be different than these.  There was a death, but there was also a  resurrection.  There was sacrifice and heroic love, but there was also victory and promise.  The moment would not end in tragedy, it would end in hope and salvation.

And during a meal with His disciples, Jesus established a lasting memorial for all believers.

Let’s look at our scripture for today and see what God says about Communion.  If you have your Bibles with you, you can go ahead and turn with me to I Corinthians 11, and we will be taking a look at different sections of that chapter.  In that chapter, we are reading about The Lord’s Supper.

As you are turning there, allow me to share this story with you.  On the yard of a little church in Germany stands a statue of a lamb that has an interesting story to tell.  A group of men were working on the roof of the church one day when one tripped and fell to the ground.  Quickly, the other men ran down the latter expecting to see him dead.  But he was alive!

As he fell to the ground there was a lamb that was feeding bellow.  The man fell on it and crushed the lamb.  He was so grateful that he had a statue of a lamb built in the very place where he fell.  It reads, “Memorial To The Crushed Lamb.”

Well, this is in essence what the Lord’s Supper, or what we call it, Communion is all about.  It’s about Jesus, God’s lamb that was crushed for us, so that we may live eternally.

When I talk about a little lamb being crushed, what do you feel inside?  No doubt part of you says, “Poor lamb, that’s awful.”  Yet, what is your feeling when we come to this table?  For some of us, this may just be another religious observance, just something that we do each week, and we aren’t quit sure why.

Perhaps it has been meaningless for you lately.  But for others, this table may really present a lot of questions.  What does it mean?  Why do we do this?  Can I participate?  And still others cannot come to this table without tears, remember exactly what it was that Christ did for us.

So, what does communion mean?  And why do we have it as a part of our services each week?  Well, let’s try and answer that question by looking at the basics.

The first reason that we take Communion weekly is to REMEMBER and REFLECT on what God has done for us.
I Corinthians 11:23-25 says, “1”

Jesus was giving His followers something to think about and remember.  Jesus began to use the bread and the cup to talk about remembering what He was about to do at the cross.  When Jesus broke the bread and held up the cup and referred to His broken body and the blood He would shed, He made a covenant or an agreement with them.  The Lord’s Supper was to be a memorial meal.  When we take Communion we are remembering Jesus’ death for our sins.

During the war in Vietnam, a young West Point graduate was sent over to lead a group of new recruits into battle.  He did his job well, trying his best to keep his men from ambush and death.  But one night when they had been under attack, everyone ran to safety except for one man.

This particular soldier had been severely wounded.  From their trenches, the young lieutenant and his men could hear him in his pain.  They all knew that any attempt to save him, even if it was successful, would almost certainly mean death for the would-be rescuer.  Eventually the young lieutenant crawled out of hiding toward the dying man.  He got to him safely, but was killed just as he saved the man.

After the rescued man returned to the States, the lieutenant’s parents heard that he was in their vicinity.  Wanting to know this young man whose life was spared at such a great cost to them, they invited him to dinner.

When their honored guest arrived, he was obviously drunk.  He was rowdy and obnoxious.  He told off-color jokes and showed no gratitude for the sacrifice of the man who died to save him.  The grieving parents did the best they could to make the man’s visit worthwhile, but their efforts went unrewarded.

Their guest finally left.  As the dad closed the door behind him, the mother collapsed in tears and cried, “To think that our precious son had to die for somebody like that.”

Well, when we come to the Lord’s Table in remembrance of Him, we need to understand that that is exactly what Jesus did.  That’s what we are to remember.  Christ died for us while we were still sinners.  We share in Communion to remember Him, and to remember the sacrifice that He paid even when we didn’t deserve it!

When we partake in Communion, we need to reflect on what God has done for us.

Philippians 4:8-9 says: “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things.  Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me, put it into practice.  And the God of peace will be with you.”

We need to think back to what God has done for us in the past, but we also need to thank Him for what He is going to do.

The second reason we take Communion each week is to REJOICE!

Look at I Corinthians 11:26, “…For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes…”

Someone once said, “What we must realize is that every time we eat this bread, and every time we drink this cup, we reenact in our minds the death of the Master.  And every time that we come around the Lord’s Table we need to be drawn back to the Last Supper again and again until the Master returns.”

Communion is not only about looking back.  It is also about looking forward.

When we share Communion with one another, we “…proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.”  There should be a spirit of rejoicing that comes with Communion.  We are celebrating and proclaiming His death and His power to change lives until He comes back.  We look forward to the day when we celebrate Communion with Jesus at the head of the table.

Max Lucado, in his book, Six Hours One Friday, tells the story of a missionary in Brazil who discovered a tribe of Indians in a remote part of the jungle.  They lived near a very large river.  Lucado tells how the tribe was in need of medical attention because of a contagious disease that was ravaging the population.  He shares how people were dying every day.

The sad part about this story is that a hospital was not too far away.  In fact, it was just across the river.  But the Indians would not cross it because they believed it was inhabited by evil spirits.  To enter the water would mean certain death.  Despite the fact that the missionary explained how he had crossed the river and was unharmed, they were not impressed.  He then took them to the bank and placed his hand in the water, but they still wouldn’t go in.  He walked into the water up to his waist and splashed water on his face, but it didn’t matter, they were still afraid to enter the river.

Finally, he dove into the river, swam beneath the surface until he emerged on the other side.  He punched a triumphant fist into the air.  He had entered the water and escaped.  It was then that the Indians broke out into a cheer and followed him across.
As we take a look at the meaning behind Communion, that is exactly what Jesus did!  He told the people of His day that they need not fear the river of death, but they wouldn’t believe Him.  He touched a dead boy and called him back to life, and they still didn’t believe.  He whispered life into the body of a dead girl and got the same result.  He let Lazarus spend 4 days in a tomb and then called him out and the people still didn’t believe Him.

Finally, He entered the river of death and came out on the other side.  And this is what we celebrate in Communion every time we come to the Lord’s Table.  We are here to rejoice at both His death and resurrection and to make this proclamation until He returns!

We need to focus our rejoicing and make sure it is on the right thing.  We rejoice in Communion because we wait for the return of our risen Lord.

A final reason we take Communion is because we need to REPENT from our sins and RECONCILE ourselves with God.

I Corinthians 11:27-28 goes on to say, “…Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord.  A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup…”

Rob Hawk says, “Communion allows us to examine ourselves and if the Holy Spirit shines His light on anything in our lives that is unworthy of the body and blood of our Lord, we have the opportunity to repent and experience His forgiveness and cleansing in a new way that we might sincerely celebrate Communion.”

State employment officials in Tooson, Arizona, posted an interesting sign over a full length mirror.  Directed to all job hunters it read, “Would YOU hire this person?”  In another office a mirror and sign posed this question, “Are you ready for a job?”

Self-evaluation was what the apostle Paul called for in I Corinthians chapter 11.  We need to look at ourselves weekly if not daily.  In the Corinthian church, the “appearance problem” was especially serious.  Those Christians “looked” awful.  They were actually getting drunk and quarreling among themselves while going through the motions of celebrating the Lord’s Supper.  So, in a way, Paul said to them, “Look at yourselves.  What a mess!  If you don’t get your lives straightened out, the Lord will have to do it for you.”

Then he added the sobering fact that God had already begun to cleanse the church by sending some of them to an early grave.  This is a hard truth, but one the church still needs to hear today.

We need to confess our sins when we come before the Lord in Communion.  This is a great time to ask for forgiveness.

As we come to the table maybe we need to ask ourselves some tough questions.  Questions like:
How have I walked with God this week?
Have I acknowledged Him as Lord of my life?
Have I surrendered my life to Him, or am I holding back a part of my life for myself?
Have I offended someone?
Have I said things that need to be repented of?
Have I done something that is clearly a violation of God’s word?
Have I refused to make peace with my neighbor?
Is there any hidden sin that only God knows about that I need to confess to Him?

During our time of Communion, we need to focus on our sins, and we need to repent of those actions.

The word “Reconcile” means to restore to friendship or harmony.  In Communion, we are given the opportunity not only to repent, but also to be reconciled.  There are times that we need to be reconciled to each other, but each week we need to be reconciled to God through the blood of Jesus.  Colossians 1:22 says, “But now He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in His sight, without blemish and free from accusation.”

Now, as we begin to close, Robert Tinsky was raised in Judaism.  Dissatisfied spiritually, he visited a Christian Church for the first time, seeking some religious truth.

He was amazed by the observance of the Lord’s Supper.  He didn’t understand it, and so he asked some young people seated near him what it meant.  They faithfully told him the gospel story as portrayed in the loaf and cup.  He was amazed that there was a God who loved mankind enough to give His Son to die for us and at the wisdom that originated such a living memorial.  He became a Christian and a faithful preacher of the gospel after that encounter.

When we share in Communion we are doing what almost all Christians do, we are celebrating a relationship with the risen Lord, Jesus Christ, by taking seriously His own words on the night before He died.  “Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you.  Drink from this, all of you; this is my blood poured out for you.  Do this in remembrance of me…”

So, to answer the question of, “Why do we take Communion each week?”  All we have to do is look at these “R” words.  When we take Communion, we need to Remember and Reflect on what God has done, we need to Rejoice, we need to Repent, and we need to be Reconciled.  And the more we do these things, the closer we get to God!

Let’s Pray!