Damarco loaded three slices of pizza, a chocolate milkshake, and a huge cinnamon roll onto his tray. Then he made his way over to where his friends were seated in the school lunchroom.
Lexi, Hadley, and Weston paused in their discussion as Damarco bowed his head over his lunch.
“You’re just in time, Damarco,” said Hadley. “We were talking about ordinance services that different churches have—you know, when everybody takes the Lord’s Supper, and then they do Foot Washing.”
“Not everybody,” said Lexi as she took a bite of her sandwich. “The Lord’s Supper is only for those who are saved.”
Hadley was surprised. “Really? I thought it was for everyone.”
“Nope, Lexi’s right, Hadley.” Damarco stopped eating for a moment and continued, “It’s special. You have to know for sure that you’ve been born again. It says so in the Bible.”
Weston had been listening to the others and looked up. “I don’t know exactly what you’re talking about. What is an ordinance service anyway? Is it what my church calls ‘taking communion’?”
“Communion, or taking of the bread and juice that represent the Body and Blood of Jesus, is part of the ordinance service,” said Lexi. “When our minister passes around the tray of broken bread and grape juice, he repeats some words that Jesus said during the Last Supper with His disciples, ‘. . . this do in remembrance of me.’ After that same supper, Jesus washed His disciples’ feet and told them that this was an example they should follow. So at our ordinance services we do both.”
Weston looked interested. “How often do you do this?”
“We do it every few months,” said Damarco.
“Do you?” said Hadley with surprise. “Our church has communion every Sunday.”
“The Bible doesn’t tell us how often we should do it,“ Damarco replied. “But like the verse says that Lexi just quoted, when we do it, we must remember we are doing it in memory of Jesus. It is a very special time, and we must not let it become commonplace to the point that it loses its meaning for us.”
“The important thing is that Jesus wants us to do both of these things,” Lexi added. “He knows that we get a special blessing from obeying Him. It’s great! All of God’s people gather to remember how He suffered and died to save us, and the example He set for us.”
“Well, thanks for the input,” said Weston as he wadded up his lunch sack. “It’s time to get to class. This has really been an interesting discussion. I’d like to talk some more about it sometime.”
Damarco smiled. “I think the discussion has been good for all of us. Now the Lord’s Supper and Foot Washing will mean even more to us.”
A few weeks later as Damarco took the Lord’s Supper, he thought back to what they had talked about that day at lunch. He tried to imagine how it was in the Upper Room during the Last Supper. He thought about Jesus holding out the bread and the cup—His Body broken and His Blood shed—knowing that He was giving up His life for sinful men. He thought about how Christ showed such love and humility as He washed His disciples’ feet. Then he remembered how Jesus rose from the dead in victory and that He would be coming back soon! It made Damarco feel good inside. He felt really close to the Lord at that moment.
* * * * *
How about you? Do you understand the meaning of the Lord’s Supper? Do you think of it as something very special and sacred? Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:16 that the cup of blessing is the communion of the Blood of Christ, and the bread which we break is the communion of the Body of Christ. Communion means fellowship or friendship. When you take the Lord’s Supper you are having a special time of friendship with Jesus. Those who have not been born again are not included. Only those who love Jesus and know Him as their Lord and Savior have the right to this time with Him.
Let’s look forward to the times when we take the Lord’s Supper and are blessed by Jesus!
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