Discerning Christ’s Body

Ultimate issues call for ultimate measures, The ultimate issue everywhere has always been broken friendships, human and divine. That friendship consists of behaviors toward each other, not just closeness to, descent from, and likeness to.

If those behaviors and their attitudes and motives are self-centered, the associations are strained and broken. We call them “sins.”

So what happens now? This “breaking bread” calls for our undivided attention to what has happened: God has sent his Son to establish the only case of perfect righteousness in the human realm. That “Christ event” culminated in his being killed on a cross by those who refused to accept him as coming in the Messianic role.

The body that suffered through the torture and the blood that drained from his head and back and side are represented here by bread and grape juice. We “discern” in them his “last measure of devotion” for our need to be forgiven for acts that have separated us from God and each other. Partaking of them acknowledges that they have that meaning and that his body given and blood shed have that value in our hearts.