The Eucharist!

Tuesday morning, September 18, 2007
It seems that yesterday’s perspective stirred a bit of interest in the Eucharist (Holy Communion; the Lord’s Supper) and that is a good thing—a very good thing. It is my guess that it was my friend’s comment that did the stirring and that is also a good thing. It went something like this: The church attempts to make the supper more holy by substituting grape juice for wine!
You get the point, I feel sure: since drinking alcohol is sin, we make the supper “more holy” by removing the alcohol and using grape juice. Of course, since using alcohol would be detrimental to the alcoholics in the congregation, we make the Supper “more holy” by removing the alcohol and using grape juice.
How in the wide-world can we make anything “more holy”? There is no superlative for “holy”; it is either holy or it is unholy! Yes, I know that the Scriptures speak of the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place, but the truth is the Holy Place in comparison to the Most Holy Place was not holy at all! It had the “air” of holiness but it was NOT holy (the blood of bulls and goats CANNOT take sins away!). I will leave that for another perspective.
Of course, many churches have abandoned the Supper altogether and those who have not, celebrate it only very infrequently. In the end, very few Christians have any appreciation for it; in fact, many will not attend on the Sundays that the supper is celebrated because they feel unworthy to participate. Others, when they see that the Table has been set, silently wish they had not come and for the same reason. How sad! Jesus told us to celebrate this Supper often, and as often as we do to remember Him. What a privilege! Unfortunately, it is celebrated far-too-seldom by most believers and appreciated by an even smaller number!
My friend’s comment about our making the supper “more holy” by substituting grape juice for alcohol applies to so many areas of the Christian life. The Devil is an deceiver, indeed! Take worship for example: one group thinks we make it “more holy” by making it more emotional; whereas, another group thinks we make it “more holy” by keeping our emotions a bay. Some think we make worship “more holy” by substituting “praise choruses” for the hymns of the church; whereas, others think we make it “more holy” by refusing to sing praise choruses. The fact is the object of worship is not to make worship “more holy”; instead, God is the object of worship and He is so because He IS holy!
Many sincerely believe that there is a direct relationship between how well we obey the Ten Commandments and how “holy” we are; the better we are at keeping the commandments, the more holy we are! In other words, we make ourselves “more holy” by substituting our “obedience” for Jesus’ obedience and that is sad, especially in light of the fact that none of us are obedient (Well, close enough for all practical purposes but, as I said yesterday, this ain’t about hand grenades or horse shoes!).
Dear Christian friend, there is no substitution you can make that will improve your righteousness (holiness); all you can do is accept His righteousness as your own, which makes you as righteous as He is righteous and THAT is enough to get you Home before dark!
Just for the record: the heart and essence of the Supper is that through His shed blood and given body we have been made Holy—like Holy of Holies, holy! No need to try to improve of that by making substitutions! Hallelujah!