It seems to me that God used a lot of wisdom when he chose “communion” as an ordinance or sacrament for his church … his BODY. A human body needs food and a spiritual body needs food too, even though a different kind. We can all relate to eating bread and wine, two foods that have been basic to cultures of the world in all times through the centuries.

Bread itself is pretty interesting from another viewpoint too. Simple ingredients come together to make something wonderful, appetizing and nourishing. When consumed those ingredients break back down and run off to all the parts of the body where they are needed to sustain life.

Spiritually, I think there is a correlation. The ingredients of our spiritual communion are all the things that the Cross of Christ secured. “Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:4-6)

When we receive communion commemorating his death, aren’t those the things we are really receiving? Spiritually, shouldn’t those things make an impact in our life the same way eating ordinary bread does in our physical body? When Jesus said: “Do this in remembrance of Me” (1 Corinthians 11:24) wasn’t he asking us to remember those things? Why? Precisely so we can walk ever more fully in all of them.

The next time you take communion, use wisdom like God. Remember those things.