Perfect Communion

“I am the living bread that came down from heaven.”  John 6:51

This past Sunday, to celebrate the start of Advent, my church lit the candle of hope and shared a special communion.  Since I was involved in the music of all three services, I took part in all three communions.  Well, sort of…

Because I played the piano while the elements were passed, my participation depended entirely on what was given to me by someone else.  During one service, I received no bread at all.  During another, the supply of regular communion bread was soon depleted, and the elders resorted to breaking off bits of a leavened loaf used for illustration.  But, finally, during the third service, bona fide Lord’s Supper bread came my way.

This experience started me thinking.   Our lives are much like my communion experience.  Unable to reach what we need on our own, we are entirely dependent on what we are given by Someone else.  And Jesus had a choice.

He could have not come to earth at all, leaving our hearts like my hands during Sunday’s first service—empty.  No bread.  Or He could have come but then sinned by giving in to Satan’s temptations.  This failure would have disqualified Him from being the perfect sacrifice we so desperately needed.  He would have become leavened bread—the right stuff tainted by a wrong ingredient.  But, instead of leaving us eternally lost by His absence or His selfish actions, Jesus came to be just what we needed—perfect Living Bread from heaven who was arrived as a baby, lived a sinless life, and died as our bona fide substitute.  “I am the living bread that came down from heaven”(John 6:51). 

On Sunday, as I finally held that little square of special sweetness in my hand (at my church communion bread is sweet and yummy—email me for the recipe!), I kept thinking, “Thank you, Jesus, that You are always more than enough to go around, that You are all always all I need, and that You are never not there.”  As we start our Christmas celebration, let’s begin by being glad Jesus showed up—and that we don’t ever get left out.

Sunday’s communion was special because through man’s imperfection I realized more of God’s perfection.

And don’t even ask about the grape juice.