As a young man, I attended a church with a form of liturgy you could set your watch by. Regularly they would serve communion to those of the church who had been christened and confirmed. As I arrived at this point in my life, I partook of communion without realising the nature and consequence of communion, and this state continued well into my life. It was a ritual we all did because that’s what we did. It was only in understanding Passover that Communion suddenly made sense and move from being a ritual to being a relationship meal.
The Passover, as a memorial meal for the Children of Israel, commemorated an event where their lives, (especially the lives of their first-born children) were spared by the application of blood to their doorposts and lintels, and be eating the entire lamb with unleavened bread. I suspect the nature and gravity of the meal may have changed, and I think the same is true of our communion services. But Jesus takes the opportunity to explain, not only to His disciples, but to all of us too, that there is still deep meaning in what is now a festival. Jesus puts Himself into that meal, making Himself part of the memorial. He is now the Passover lamb and that as future Passover meals are celebrated, so we should think of Him as the Lamb of God, that we eat!
But He doesn’t tell us to only do this once a year, but regularly. It will lose significance if we do it without reflection, which we often do, but nonetheless, He wants us to remember Him every day – that as a lamb was sacrificed for each household, so He sacrificed Himself for His household – the household of faith – us. And as the lamb’s blood was painted on the doorposts and lintels of each house, so was His painted in the uprights and crossbar of the Cross, ultimately painted on the doorposts and lintels of our hearts.
The Destroyer passes over each of us, and the Spirit of Life enters. Jesus is the Way the Truth and the Life – John 14:6.

Rob Hollands