Do you ever get really hungry during the Sunday morning worship service? I know I do. I typically am running late and unable to eat much for breakfast beforehand. By the time noon rolls around I am getting pretty hungry. So, when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper I often wish that we had entire meals instead of only a little wafer. I am hungry and I want filled.
Before you dismiss me as a heretic that is trampling the Lord’s table, hear me out, I’m making a point. There is actually some *unintentional symbolism between my hunger and the unfulfilling wafer. The wafer is not meant to quench my hunger, but it is meant to point me to He who will will ultimately quench my hunger.
The Holy Spirit is given to us (believers) as a deposit. Not only does the Spirit seal us but His indwelling presence is also somewhat of a “preview of things to come”. Our experience of the Spirit now is life the wafer that only really makes me hungry for more. This is not a perfect analogy because the Spirit does indeed fill us and satisfy us far more than a wafer satisfies my desire for lunch. But, what the little cracker does for my stomach is what the Spirit does for my soul: He makes me that much more hungry for Jesus. He makes me think about the meal to come. As I “do this in remembrance of Jesus” I also remember that His death is not the end of the story.
So, the next time you are participating in the Lord’s table, and you are hungry, remember that your experience of Christ now is but a taste.
*I said unintentional symbolism because the smaller “communion crackers” have more to do with making sure the body of Jesus is not eaten by a mouse, or that burly gents do not take the body of Christ home in their beard.