Today is Maundy Thursday, and I just realized it about five minutes ago, so I guess that makes me a bad Christian... or maybe just a busy college student (both?). Anyway, I finished reading Nadia Bolz-Weber's Pastrix today (by the way, this book has completely changed me, and I strongly recommend it), and she concludes with this beautiful story about how her church shared turkey sandwiches and pumpkin bars with 600 people who had to work on Thanskgiving. Later, one of her parishioners talked about his own experience of feeding the crowds of Occupy Denver, saying, "Everyone is fed. It doesn't matter if you are a homeless guy who is scamming and doesn't even care about Occupy or a lawyer on a lunch break.... The only place I've ever really seen that is at communion."
Maundy Thursday commemorates the day when Jesus shared the Last Supper with his disciples, which we now remember throughout the year by taking communion/the Eucharist. But I was thinking today about the first supper--the first communion--and when I read Nadia Bolz-Weber's story, I immediately thought about the feeding of the five thousand. When Jesus' disciples give him five loaves of bread and two fish to feed this enormous crowd, Jesus breaks the bread just like he does with his disciples before he is crucified. Describing the Last Supper, Luke 22:19 says, "He took the bread, gave thanks, and broke it." Matthew 14:19 describes the feeding of the five thousand similarly: "Taking the five loaves and two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves." Communion is happening with a crowd of five thousand long before Jesus shares communion with his disciples and tells them what that bread symbolizes.
That's what makes communion so beautiful. It was first shared with a crowd and not just with the small group of people closest to Jesus. He breaks the bread for all the sinners in that crowd whether they truly know he is Lord or not, whether they care about his teachings or not. Just like those in the crowds of Occupy Denver, these people could be posers, skeptics, and heretics. The only commonality is that they are all sinners, and despite that--in fact, because of that--Jesus invites all of them to partake in communion. To commune with him. I really love that.
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