God gives grace

7/3/11   Deuteronomy 5-6; Psalm 43; Mark 14

S: Mark 14:22-25 As they were eating, Jesus took some bread and blessed it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, “Take it, for this is my body.” And he took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it. He gave it to them, and they all drank from it. And he said to them, “This is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and his people. It is poured out as a sacrifice for many. I tell you the truth, I will not drink wine again until the day I drink it new in the Kingdom of God.”

O: Jesus was getting ready to be crucified, to be sacrificed as atonement for our sins and save us. This was His last supper with the disciples before this happens.

A: Last weekend we had communion at our church, and, as they prepared to give us the bread and wine (oops, I mean, grape juice ジ), the leaders solemnly said as they usually do during communion, “This represents His body” and “This represents His blood”, “Do this in remembrance of me.”

It is interesting how we as Evangelical Christians take such care to be true to the Bible, yet here we have a deliberate, methodical, and repeated misquoting.

4 times – Matthew 26:26-29, Mark 14:22-25, Luke 22:14-23, and 1 Corinthians 11:23-32, God recorded for us in scripture what happened at the original communion. In all 4 instances, He recorded “This is My body”, but only twice did he record “Do this in remembrance of me.” Yet Evangelical Christians, who are normally so careful about scripture, keep emphasizing the less-emphasized aspect of this, and misquoting what is repeated 4 times.

On top of that, Jesus emphasized in John 6:41-70 that wemust eat His flesh and drink His blood to abide in Him, and the Lord saw fit to record this with the Greek word “trogo”, which can only be used for literal eating, instead of the Greek words “phago” or “esthio”, which can be interpreted figuratively.

For a more complete discussion of the real presence of Christ in Holy Communion, see this blog post of mine.

However, it cannot be denied that the Evangelicals who believe in this unbiblical interpretation of Holy Communion are also the ones who have been the most faithful in the 20th century to obey the Great Commission. That is why this view is so popular among Christians today.

Clearly, God has not abandoned them in spite of their wrong interpretation of Holy Communion.

If you think about it, all of us have only an incomplete understanding of God. God extends grace to all of us, in spite of our mistakes.

So, when we find other Christians having different interpretations of secondary issues, we should not use it as an excuse to break fellowship. Church history is littered with schisms due to slicing and dicing details of theology.

That is why, even though I am convinced my church’s interpretation of Holy Communion is incorrect, I am still a member of this church. You will never find a perfect church. Each one of us, I myself included, are not perfect.

There are parts of my theology which will prove to be wrong when I finally see Jesus.

I need to also extend that grace to others who disagree with me! Who knows, it may be me who is wrong in the end! ジ

P: Dear Jesus, You prayed that we may be one as You and the Father are one. Help me to always extend grace to people who disagree with me. Help me to always build up the body of Christ and not tear it down.