At the Communion Table, when you eat the bread (flesh) and drink the cup (blood), you are not partaking of a symbol, but of the actual Flesh and Blood of Jesus Christ.
Sadly, some people make the mistake of thinking that the Communion is just ordinary bread and drink, nothing can be farther from the truth! Before it is blessed, it is ordinary bread and drink; but it ceases to be so the moment it is sanctified. After it has been blessed, it then becomes the actual Blood and Flesh of Jesus Christ Himself indeed. Isn’t this truly a mystery?
Take particular note of the fact that John 6:53 did not say, ‘except you partake of a symbol of my body and blood!’ No! Rather, it says: Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. So, as long as you see the Communion as a symbol, it profits you nothing.
The Communion is a medium, not a symbol. What is the difference?
A symbol, defined by Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, is an “image, object, etc that suggests or refers to something else, an emblem… a mark or sign with a particular meaning.”
A medium on the other hand (as defined by the same source) is a “substance in which something is transmitted; means by which something is expressed or communicated.”
In essence, as a symbol, the bread and drink taken at Communion are representative of the actual Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, but as a medium, the bread and drink taken at Communion are the actual substances transmitting the very life of Jesus Christ Himself to those who partake of it. Can you see the difference?
This explains why Jesus emphatically said: …Except ye eat of the flesh (not a symbol, but the actual thing), ye have no life in you (John 6:53)! Having been sanctified, the bread and drink at the Communion Table are transformed into the actual Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. It is a mystery indeed!
The process of the Communion transmitting life into man’s system can be likened to the way mosquitoes bite a man and deposit malarial parasites into his system. However, unlike the negative effect associated with mosquitoes’ bites, the Communion for the believer is laden with eternal benefits.
Shalom!
#pstnath.
IG, X, Threads: Pstnath.
