What's With The Wafer?!

Today as the communion bread wafer plate was passed around the church I grimaced. We have the most terrible tasting communion wafers I've ever partaken of! I determined to find an extra small chunk. As the plate was passed, I reached for a smallish looking one. It was one of those "iceberg" communion wafer chunks and the top was smaller than the bottom. This created a nauseating dilemma. Hurling would be out of the question. What to do? Hmm..... I reached far. Well, I decided since Jesus "broke the bread", it would be ok for me to do this too. I looked for a hiding spot for the larger part of my "broken" bread desperately. Suddenly I heard heavenly music and a light illuminated around my son, Super Catman's pants leg pocket. He was focused on his piece of wafer with a frown. Would I stoop so low? My window of opportunity was beginning to close and I hurriedly (but slyly) stuffed the wafer piece into his side pocket. He never noticed, not one bit. Sock Fashion Expert gave me a quizzical glance. She suspected foul wafer play, but couldn't prove a thing.
Since I was thinking extra hard during communion today, I decided to share a little about the custom.


Mark 14: 22 And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” 23 Then He took the cup, and when He had given thanks He gave it to them, and they all drank from it. 24 And He said to them, “This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many. 25 Assuredly, I say to you, I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.” 26 And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

Back in Biblical days, when you made a "covenant" with a person, you sealed that covenant in the blood of an animal. In fact, I have been told that the slaughter of the animal was a part of the covenant process. In essence, Jesus was saying that His blood would replace the animals blood in this new covenant that He was making with mankind. As we all are aware, Jesus allowed Himself to go to the cross to pay for the sins of mankind. By taking communion, we keep in remembrance this sacrifice that Jesus made for mankind.

Taking communion is powerful because :

1. Jesus told us to do it. There's gotta be something said for honoring The Son of God's request.

2. We are once again reminded of the price He paid for us.

3. We are physically demonstrating what God did for us in an act of faith.

If you made a covenant with a person (such as in the act of marriage), you would commit to that person for the rest of your given days. Your strengths would benefit each other and you would share one another's burdens and weaknesses. You'd "have their back". In Old Testament times, their enemies would become your enemies and you would be required to fight for and with them if need be. When we make a covenant with God, we are giving Him both our strengths and our weaknesses. We exchange our best for His. This doesn't just mean that He provided a way for us in the here after. It means that what ever your facing today, He's got your back in a way only The God of the Universe could.

Every time I've ever experienced extreme challenges in my life - physical, financial, emotional or spiritual, I've taken communion as an act of faith in my covenant with God of the Universe. Every time, it's been marked by some kind of supernatural occurrence thereafter. I can't explain it much better than to promise you it works. God always has my back and I bet He'd like to have yours too. Why not take communion today in faith over whatever you are facing? Use a stale cracker and some soda or whatever you have around. The important part is that you put your trust in Him.