Day 38 (Maundy Thursday) - Apr 6, 2023; Mar 28, 2024; Apr 17, 2025
Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ -John 3:5-7
Today is Maundy Thursday, the day we recall that on the night of his betrayal, Jesus gave us another Sacrament: Holy Communion. It would be fitting therefore to think of how these two sacraments relate.
We cannot possibly go into all the ways Baptism and Communion go hand-in-hand, but we can say a few things: first, Communion is the celebration of the fellowship of the baptized. It belongs to disciples of Jesus, and as we have seen, we become disciples in part through baptism, just as Jesus says in the Great Commission. Second, baptism teaches us about the once-for-allness of Christ’s death. Just as Jesus’ death on the cross is sufficient for our salvation, so also we confess that there is “one baptism for the remission of sins”. In this way we see how sufficient God’s grace in Jesus is. Communion, meanwhile, works the opposite: we partake of it regularly. The more we do, the more it conveys the unending nature of God’s grace. We are never told “you’ve communed too much” or “you are reaching your grace limit”. The righteousness that God credits to us in Jesus has no limit. “For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” (1 Corinthians 11:26). The more you receive it, the more you find grace shared with you.
Both of these things: communion celebrating our baptismal fellowship, baptism being a once-for-all grace while communion is an as-often grace, these things also point to how Jesus understood the sacraments themselves. In John 3, Jesus speaks of being “born” of water and Spirit. Baptism is where we are born again. Meanwhile, in chapter six, he speaks of eating his flesh and drinking his blood. He says, “my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.” (John 6:55). Communion is our spiritual food. Just as we are born once, an act that we can't repeat, so we are baptized once and that is all that is needed. Yet as we must now eat to nurture and nourish ourselves once we are born, so also we nurture and nourish our faith in the sacrament of communion. And that is most nurturing when we don’t starve ourselves of that sacrament but have it often.
Because these two sacraments work together in their message, it is important that every baptized Christian be a communing Christian (and vice versa). And when you are, then you know God is doing much for your faith.
Lord Jesus, as you have provided for my new birth in baptism, so also you have provided nourishment for this new life through communion. I thank you that both these Sacraments draw me closer to you and your death, that both of them might bring me to the heart of my faith. Help me to treasure and use the sacraments as you always intended. Amen.
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