The Gift of Communion at Christmas
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December 25, 2022 fell on a Sunday, and one of the most unexpected gifts I received that Christmas was celebrating Communion—the Lord’s Table—on Christmas night.
When I began writing this blog series about the observance of the Lord’s Table, I did so with that special Christmas service in mind. Preparing for that service was the inspiration for the series. I thought I could finish the series in less than a week. Three years later, here we are…
The idea of observing Communion at Christmas seemed like an odd choice at first. I don’t remember ever being in a church where the Lord’s Table was celebrated during the Christmas holiday season.
We tend to compartmentalize our celebrations and observances – and our emotions and thoughts in the midst of them.
Christmas is a time of joy, hope, expectancy, longing, wonder, and beauty. The celebration of the miraculous birth of the Savior. You know, “good tidings of great joy!” and “peace on earth, goodwill to men!”
The Lord’s Table is a time of solemn remembrance of the gruesome, violent death of the Savior. It’s a time of self-reflection, confession, and – as seemed to be emphasized so much in the churches of my childhood – fear of being unworthy and potentially reaping the consequences of that unworthiness.
The juxtaposition of these observances was hard for me to wrap my head around. But over the weeks of preparation for this special service, my mindset began to shift. And what took place that evening was very special.
Communion at Christmas: The Gift of Christ’s Birth
Celebrating Communion at Christmas reveals three profound reasons for Christ’s birth:
Christ was born for the unfaithful
One of the songs that our team sang that night was called “O Come, All You Unfaithful.” This beautiful song starts with an obvious nod to the triumphant carol “O Come, All Ye Faithful” and turns the concept on its head:
O come, all you unfaithful
Come, weak and unstable
Come, know you are not alone
O come, barren and waiting ones
Weary of praying, come
See what your God has done
O come, bitter and broken
Come with fears unspoken
Come, taste of His perfect love
O come, guilty and hiding ones
There is no need to run
See what your God has done
Christ is born, Christ is bornChrist is born for you
Matthew 1:23 says, “Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.”
Not us with God. Not us trying to be good enough for God. Not us trying to be worthy enough to approach God. No…God…with us.
What we celebrate in the first Advent is a foreshadowing of what will come with Christ’s second Advent:
“And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.” (Revelation 21:3)
Christ was born to be the sacrificial Lamb of God
That evening, our pastor spoke from Hebrews 10, which speaks of the insufficiency of the sacrificial system and the need for Christ:
“Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired,
but a body have you prepared for me;
in burnt offerings and sin offerings
you have taken no pleasure.
Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God,
as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’”
(Hebrews 10:5-7).
The following is what I hope to be a coherent compilation of snippets from the devotional sermon our pastor preached that evening, altered and abridged for clarity:
Why was God dissatisfied with the sacrifices that he himself commanded?
First, they were a symbolic foreshadowing of a greater reality to come – the Messiah.
Second, they were temporary. They did not provide ultimate remedy for the problem of sin. It was merely a temporary covering for sin, but it did not take away sin. (Contrast this with what John the Baptist said of Jesus: “Behold the Lamb of God, that takes away the sin of the world.”)
Third, they existed to remind you of your sin. (Hebrews 10:3: “But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year.”) God is not content with that. That’s not what brings him pleasure. It’s not God’s pleasure to remind you of your sin. It is God’s pleasure to redeem you, reconcile you, and make you new.
“I have come to do your will, O God” – This is an expression of loving devotion. This was the life not of bulls and goats. This was the life of a person. Not only was it the life of a person, it was the life of a perfect person. Not only was it the life of a perfect person, but it was the willful giving of that life of a perfect person. Why is it important that his was a willful sacrifice? This is why the blood of goats and bulls couldn’t do the job…they were utterly insufficient. Because they were not a perfect life…life created in the image of God. There’s not one animal that ever willingly volunteered to be a sacrifice.
His total devotion to God’s will – His perfect life and obedience to the point of death are credited to us through his willful sacrifice.
The offering of his body is why he was born as a baby in a manger that we celebrate today. He needed a body to be sacrificed.
“And by that will…” (Hebrews 10:10) What was the will of the Father? Isaiah 53:10: “It was the will of the LORD to crush him.” It’s hard to hear, isn’t it? But there is reason in that. There was purpose in that. Because God is good, he will oppose evil, and that evil exists in every one of our hearts. It was God’s will to crush Jesus in my place.
“And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” (Hebrews 10:10)
It’s not just the removal of guilt. Christ’s total willful devotion to the Father inaugurated the New Covenant. This is why when Jesus took the cup, he said “This cup is the New Covenant in my blood.”
What is the New Covenant? Three things benefit us in the New Covenant:
1) Total and complete forgiveness. The Lamb of God has taken away your sin.
2) Newness. “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation.” When Jesus said, “This is the New Covenant in my blood,” he’s saying “I want you to know not only will you be completely forgiven because of what I am about to do, but you will be made new in me. As you identify with me, your faith makes you new!” You’re not just a forgiven sinner; you’re a new creation. The seed of God abides in you. The nature of the parent has been handed down to the child.
3) Presence: God takes up residence in you and me in the presence of His Holy Spirit. That’s what he promised in the New Covenant.
Sanctified means to be made holy. It is a perfect passive participle – here’s what that means: it was completed in the past and yet it represents a current state of reality. Done. This is who you are. Sanctified. Set apart. In Christ, you are set apart to God.
“This is the covenant that I will make with them
after those days, declares the Lord:
I will put my laws on their hearts,
and write them on their minds,”
Your heart represents your affections, and your mind represents your attitudes. So God is transforming you and me at the level of our affections and our attitudes.
Christ was born to make us worthy
Something occurred to me that night while I was sitting in that service. I thought of another reason the sacrificial system was insufficient. Like was said above, the animals were not willing participants, nor had they lived a perfect life. But further – they had no inherent righteousness that could be imputed to the sinner. They were innocent, but they were not righteous.
One of the most important – yet so often overlooked – benefits of the gospel is the doctrine of imputation. Simply put, imputation is the act of God crediting the limitless righteousness of Christ to the account of the sinner. The sinner is then made righteous. Not just a legal declaration of righteousness (justification) but a change to righteousness from within. There is a change within the heart of the sinner wherein God makes him righteous.
“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)
Particularly in regard to the Lord’s Table, this is so beautifully illustrated in how the disciples experienced Christ’s final meal:
“He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself.
After that he poureth water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded.
Then cometh he to Simon Peter: and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet?
Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter.
Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.
Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.
Jesus saith to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all.
For he knew who should betray him; therefore said he, Ye are not all clean.”
Christ didn’t tell the disciples to clean themselves up before he had his last meal with them and instituted this ritual of remembrance. He didn’t tell them they needed to “examine themselves” to make sure they were worthy to dine with him. Rather, he made them clean. He washed their feet and taught them his transforming truth.
I’m unsure of the exact chronology between his washing their feet, teaching them on his final evening, and his instituting the Lord’s Supper – but I think it’s significant that two chapters later, he told his disciples: “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.”
His treatment of his disciples on that final evening was a beautiful picture of Christ’s acceptance, God’s Divine invitation, and the power of Christ’s sacrificial love that cleanses us and makes us worthy.
Concluding thoughts about Communion at Christmas:
As we navigate this no-man’s-land of a week between Christmas and New Year, we may have hearts full of joy and good memories. We may have pain as we have felt the blunt end of the brokenness of others. We may have longing for the time when all things will be made new and God comes to dwell with us. Whether or not you have the opportunity to participate in Communion at Christmas, I hope you will take time this week to reflect on the connection between Christ’s birth and His death.
I am going to end this post by sharing one of the other songs our team sang that Christmas night in 2022, “How Low Was Our Redeemer Brought.”
How low was our Redeemer brought
The King who held the stars
Lay helpless in a maiden’s arms
And pressed against her heart
While sheep and cattle raised their voice
The babe could speak no words
The ever flowing Spring of Joy
Had come to share our thirst
How low was our Redeemer brought
The Lord the worlds obeyed
Would stumble as He learned to walk
Upon the ground He’d made
The One the angels bowed before
Would kneel to wash our feet
And be at home among the poor
Though He owned everything
How low was our Redeemer brought
To raise us from our shame
And now the highest praise of all
Belongs to Jesus’ name
The Healer wounded on a tree
To bear our grief and sin
The King gave up His crown, so we
Could ever reign with Him
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