The Communion: Examination or Celebration?

The communion is Christendom's most holy 'sacrament', to borrow a Catholic term. Along with baptism, it's one of the few rites that Jesus actually told his disciples to engage in. Three, including prayer, if you want to be legalistic about it. But the idea is not to be legalistic at all, however, anything oft repeated has a way of either losing its meaning or gaining one that was never intended.

Jesus told us to '...do this in remembrance of me' (Luke 22:18-20), referring to the communion, and Paul chimes in with an admonition to examine ourselves before partaking in the same (1 Cor 11: 28). But what often happens during this rite is that we focus far more on our sin, shortcomings and weakness, and hence encourage guilt - because Jesus did so much for us and look at how we 'repay' him. The communion becomes the examination rather than a celebration. It becomes more a remembrance of what we have done (usually the bad) rather than the good Jesus did. The point of the examination is to be free to celebrate. 

We become like a freed slave who spends all his time musing at the chains that once held him. His now loosed chains take on major significance, and he spends more time with them than just enjoying his new found freedom. Paul asserts that 'It is for freedom that Christ has set us free' (Galatians 5:1). That's an odd but profound statement. Many only go as far as the 'forgiveness' part of the communion, but, and this will sound weird, Jesus didn't die for our sins - he died so our sins wouldn't be a hindrance to our lives! 

We need to get out of that small confining space of 'forgiveness' alone. Staying there implies that God's forgiveness isn't potent enough for our sin. Understanding that our victory is a fait accomplis will allow us to move beyond 'elementary teachings' (because we fully accept them) and move on to living profoundly free lives.