Please Explain "Communion"

Cooper

Cooper

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Matthew 26

"While they were eating, Jesus took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and giving it to his disciples said, "Take and eat; this is my body." Then he took a cup, gave thanks, 16 and gave it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you,
for this is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins."

When Christians participate in communion, are they symbolically eating flesh and drinking blood?


Please explain. Thank you. :confused:
 
Cooper said:
Matthew 26

"While they were eating, Jesus took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and giving it to his disciples said, "Take and eat; this is my body." Then he took a cup, gave thanks, 16 and gave it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you,
for this is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins."

When Christians participate in communion, are they symbolically eating flesh and drinking blood?


Please explain. Thank you. :confused:
Click to expand...




Sacred Symbolisms




"Keep
doing this in remembrance of me."—Luke 22:19.​
​

How often should the Memorial be observed in order to preserve remembrance of Christ’s death? ​


Jesus did not specifically say.
However, since he instituted the Lord’s Evening Meal on Nisan 14, the evening of the Passover, which the Israelites celebrated annually, it is evident that Jesus intended the Memorial to be commemorated in the same way. ​

Whereas the Israelites annually celebrated their deliverance from bondage in Egypt, Christians annually commemorate their deliverance from bondage to sin and death.—Exodus 12:11, 17; Romans 5:20, 21.​

​
 
Cooper said:
When Christians participate in communion, are they symbolically eating flesh and drinking blood?


Please explain. Thank you. :confused:
Click to expand...
First the prayers and tradition of breaking bread and sharing wine are part of every passover and every shabbot service I've attended. So it was nothing new to the Jews at the table. There is also symbolism contained in both.

The bread, flesh, represents earthly, material pursuits. The wine, blood represents heavenly, spiritual pursuits.

I find it interesting in one gospel that it indicates Judas received the bread, but not the wine.
 
And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life: he that comes to me shall never hunger; and he that believes on me shall never thirst. For the bread of God is he which comes down from heaven, and gives life unto the world. This is done symbolically and as way to have a spiritual fellowship with our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ, and for christians come together and fellowship with one another which is a shadow of what is to come, which is to fellowship with our Lord Jesus Christ in heaven, where we will have eternal life. One has accept Jesus Christ in spirit and in truth which allows the Holy Spirit to enter into one's heart, where it will bear witness to Jesus Christ and in doing so we will no longer be hungry or thirsty and have a personal and intimate relationship with him.
 
wil said:
First the prayers and tradition of breaking bread and sharing wine are part of every passover and every shabbot service I've attended. So it was nothing new to the Jews at the table. There is also symbolism contained in both.

The bread, flesh, represents earthly, material pursuits. The wine, blood represents heavenly, spiritual pursuits.

I find it interesting in one gospel that it indicates Judas received the bread, but not the wine.
Click to expand...


Of course. However, Jews do not compare Challah and wine to "body and blood." Nor does it have near the spiritual implication of communion.

Could you please provide the basis for the bread = material pursuits and the wine, spiritual?


Thank you for your response.
 
BlaznFattyz said:
And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life: he that comes to me shall never hunger; and he that believes on me shall never thirst. For the bread of God is he which comes down from heaven, and gives life unto the world. This is done symbolically and as way to have a spiritual fellowship with our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ, and for christians come together and fellowship with one another which is a shadow of what is to come, which is to fellowship with our Lord Jesus Christ in heaven, where we will have eternal life. One has accept Jesus Christ in spirit and in truth which allows the Holy Spirit to enter into one's heart, where it will bear witness to Jesus Christ and in doing so we will no longer be hungry or thirsty and have a personal and intimate relationship with him.
Click to expand...


Thank you! A very complete explanation.
 
Now I realize the breaking of bread and wine in the shabbot ceremony is not what Christians look at as communion. However many if not most Christians aren't even aware of the blessing of the bread and wine and that that portion of a passover meal would have been expected (no not the discussion on blood and body).

As for communion, you may correct me if I am wrong but I'd say the thought surrounding the bread and wine has to do with 3/4 of these definitions.
Communion \Com*mun"ion\, n. [L. communio: cf. F. communion. See
Common.]
1. The act of sharing; community; participation. "This
communion of goods." --Blackstone.
[1913 Webster]

2. Intercourse between two or more persons; esp., intimate
association and intercourse implying sympathy and
confidence; interchange of thoughts, purposes, etc.;
agreement; fellowship; as, the communion of saints.
[1913 Webster]

We are naturally induced to seek communion and
fellowship with others. --Hooker.
[1913 Webster]

What communion hath light with darkness? --2 Cor.
vi. 14.
[1913 Webster]

Bare communion with a good church can never alone
make a good man. --South.
[1913 Webster]

3. A body of Christians having one common faith and
discipline; as, the Presbyterian communion.
[1913 Webster]

4. The sacrament of the eucharist; the celebration of the
Lord's supper; the act of partaking of the sacrament; as,
to go to communion; to partake of the communion; called
also Holy Communion.
[1913 Webster +PJC]
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While not a body of Christians in one common faith, it is an indication of a body of people with one common faith no?

As for where I get the material and spiritual I can't tell you which books I gleaned that from...I do remember years back though thinking about the thought that Judas developed a material understanding, but not a complete spiritual understanding. In searching on the net I found some more yet different information.

The Holy Eucharist

Communion — GAMEO


The Jewish meaning of "communion" is "common union." In Unity, the phrase "communion with God" generally means a time of prayer and meditation. We believe the bread signifies Truth and spiritual substance, and the broken bread represents the multiplying power of the Divine Word. The water/wine symbolizes the divine life force flowing through our bodies.
Click to expand...
 
Communion is about identifying with Jesus' death. In the same sense that every Jew was present at the Passover(Exodus 13:14), Christians were accursed upon the cross with Jesus and resurrected as new creatures, having destroyed all that was evil. Since Jesus' body was hung on a tree, he is considered to have been cursed by God.(Deut 21:23) but the curse only falls upon Jesus' body while Jesus escapes death because of his righteous choices in life (Rom 8:3, Heb 5:7).

Communion and baptism are the ways a Christian testifies of and remembers these things. The Christian identifies personally with Jesus' cursed death. The Christian takes communion 'In memory' of him, saying "I've been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live." (Gal 2:20) There are frequent references to identity with Jesus' death in the Christian canon, and this is the Christian's classic testimony of communion ("This cup is the new testament in my blood" 1Cor 11:25, Rev 12:11). Christian communion and baptism correspond symbolically with going onto the ark with Noah. (1peter 3:18-21)

This helps explain many other passages, for instance: The story of the Prodigal Son was always about death and resurrection, Christians and Jews. Each Christian believer was considered to be a prodigal, dead but returned alive to his family just as the son was in the parable. The representation is that of the older brother as the Jews and the younger brother as the Christians. Why should the older brother be glad for a younger who had wasted a third of their family's fortune? The answer and the point of the parable is Luke 15:24 "For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry."



Additional Romans 6:5, Galatians 2:20, Romans 6:13, I Corinth 11:24-26
 
I really appreciate your responses. They have helped me understand the significance of communion for Christians.


Thank you.
 
Cooper said:
When Christians participate in communion, are they symbolically eating flesh and drinking blood?
Click to expand...

Depends upon which denomination ...

As a rule of thumb, from the Reformation (1517) on, human reason continues to restrict the Mystery of the Eucharist and reduce its spiritual efficacy ... until today, when some choose to interpret the Last Supper as nothing more than a meal, according to common custom and practice.

In the pre-Reformation churches of today — Roman Catholicism and the various Orthodox Patriarchates (and to a limited degree in Lutheran and Anglican Christianity) there is the Doctrine of the Real Presence, by which it is implicitly understood that the Eucharist is the Body and Blood of Christ, and not merely in a symbolic sense (although the esoteric understanding of the term comes close).

The Doctrine of the Real Presence asserts that whilst the external or accidental form of the Eucharistic offering remains unchanged to the senses, bread is bread and wine is wine, nevertheless Jesus Christ is present therein, and the material has been changed into Himself.

Likewise in Baptism, Traditional Christian doctrine holds there is a change effected in the being of the person baptised by the power of the Holy Spirit, and through this one enters the possibility, the potentiality, of the life in Christ.

+++

The nature of the Eucharist can be understood via a contemplative reading of the Discourse of Our Lord to His disciples, John chapters 13-17, which centers on the prayer of Our Lord "that they may be one, as we also are" John 17:11, 21 and 22.

Whilst a meal is a significant occurance in every cultural tradition, it is obvious from Scripture and Tradition that the disciples were under no illusion that Christ was performing something ordinary ... quite the reverse ... the Eucharist was the central secret of the Disciplina Arcana for some 200 years.

+++

The Sacraments, and the Eucharist above all, are Mysteries that are not easily explained or received ... the above is offered purely because it had not been mentioned up to now ... but they comprise the narrow gate into the interior life in the Holy Trinity.

Thomas
 
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