Title Why Holy Communion
But in our current situation, should we Protestants only remember and preach the death of Jesus through the Eucharist? Isn't it necessary to interpret the meaning of the Lord's Supper wider and deeper? Couldn't we find deeper meaning in the words and events of Jesus' death, as well as in the days when he was alive?
Here we need to expand the meaning of the Last Supper of Jesus to consider not only the Lord's death but also the Lord's life. That is, the open love feast of Jesus and the Lord's Supper should be joined together. The Apostle Paul admonished us to remember Jesus whenever we eat and drink bread and cup. Then, Jesus, whom we should commemorate, should be the whole of his life, and if we connect it with love feast, we should commemorate Jesus, who personally practiced the open table community movement.
The Apostle Paul decided not to take any interest in the historical Jesus. For him, the only important gospel was the death and resurrection of Jesus. The Christ of faith was far more important to him than the Jesus of history. Therefore, there was no need to confuse Jesus' Last Supper with Jesus' open love supper, or to emphasize the two together. The erroneous practice of love feasts in the church in Corinth, which he had so rebuked, could have been corrected by the spirit of Jesus' open love feasts, but he did not do so, but only emphasized the death of Jesus. So, it is really unfortunate that both the real Jesus and the historical Jesus are missing from his kerygma. So, it is unfortunate that the overall appearance of the Lord, his overall charm, and his overall emotion seem to be halved.
Whenever we celebrate sacrament meeting, we take it for granted to mourn Jesus' death and rejoice in his resurrection. However, in addition to this, we should remember and be grateful for the fact that when Jesus was alive, he personally offered the love feast of the true community, transcending differences such as class, gender, region, and blood ties. That peaceful, just, and open love-loving community. If so, how can we deepen and expand the meaning of the Last Supper?
First, remember Jesus, who threw his whole body to overturn the existing hypocritical and oppressive social system (the legalistic closed social system centered on the cleanliness system) and tried to embody the image of a new community, that is, the Kingdom of God, in historical reality You should. In particular, we need to recall and give thanks to the historical Jesus, who allowed us to taste God's love and justice through the open table community and free treatment.
Let us recall that when Jesus spoke of the kingdom of God in parables of a feast, the main guests of the feast were not high religious people, social leaders, politicians, or rich people. Instead, let's recall the lives of the physically handicapped, the poor, the unemployed, foreigners, and women who were unfairly discriminated against. Would the establishment have welcomed such a movement for the kingdom of God with open arms? On the contrary, wouldn't the least enjoy the joy of being masters?
The kingdom of God is achieved through the freedom of those who want to become slaves to one another. It is to build the kingdom of God with the freedom of those who can give up their freedom for themselves. The spirit of the cross is also this little, high-level spirit of freedom. The meaning of the Lord's Supper is concentrated in this mature free spirit. In this sense, the Last Supper of Jesus is the free feast of Jesus, who willingly gave His blood and body to make us Lord. That is His love. His self-sacrificing love is the perfection of freedom. It is this freedom of completion that we must remember and honor at the Eucharist, and we must keep the feeling of perfection that it gives.
Freedom and equality are easy to contradict. But self-emptying love and freedom for others can embrace equality generously. That freedom is the strength of Jesus' open love feast and the content of Jesus' Last Supper.
Why is the church divided and society insecure? In a closed place where there is no freedom and no equality, whether it is the church or society, there is constant conflict. False freedom fights equality, and false equality destroys freedom. The fight between capitalism and communism was also an example of such a fight. In any system, the struggle between the powers trying to monopolize money and power is caused by the lack of the power of freedom, that is, the power of love, to empty oneself and become a servant of another.
At least in the Church, those who have more, are stronger and know more should exercise this courage of freedom more strongly. Seeing the division of the church in Corinth and the division of the Korean church, I miss this kind of true freedom. Therefore, in the service of the Lord's Supper, we need to crave this strength more. Whenever the Korean people suffer from division and Cold War mistrust, Korean Christians must exercise this power of freedom more vigorously for peace and unity on the Korean Peninsula.
We pray that our communion service will not only be the Last Supper of Jesus, but also the open love feast of Jesus. We pray that the love of Jesus and the power of true freedom may overwhelm us through the Holy Spirit.