Category Archives: body of Christ

     Denominations have come up with a lot of hocus-pocus, mumbo jumbo, and smoke and mirrors in trying to “do the right thing” when it comes to the Lord’s Supper and Holy Communion.  The bread and wine/grape juice are consumed by church goers who cannot comprehend what is really going on in the ritual.  I say this not disparagingly of the flock or the pastors who care for them.  The problem stems from early church teachers who looked at this “after the flesh” and not “after the Spirit.”

     Christ instituted this breaking of bread and having a bit of wine or grape juice amongst His followers as a way to remember Him and what He did for us.  But the key to understanding this is to know that the “bread” and the “wine” are metaphors.  Metaphors compare one thing to something else without using “like” or “as.”

     When Christ takes the bread and says, “Take, eat; this is my body” (Matt. 26:26), He is saying that the bread they are sharing is like His body.  But not His physical fleshy body that would soon go to cross.  He’s talking about His spiritual body–us, the church!  All the members of His spiritual body, the true church, is likened to unleavened bread.  And His spiritual body, is “the fulness of Him that fills all in all” (Ephesians 1-23).

     There is no leaven in His true body of believers; it is humble and not puffed up.  It is the “unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”  Beware, Christ warned, “of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy” (Luke 12:1).  His bread, His spiritual body, will not have any hypocrites or false doctrines in it because they will have the Spirit of God abiding within.  And just like the unleavened bread comes out of one lump or piece, we, being many, are one spiritual body.  “For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of the one bread” (I Cor. 10:17).  

     But as long as a person is looking after the flesh through a carnal mind and not looking at this memorial “after the Spirit,” confusion reigns.

     And Christ took a cup of wine and gave thanks and gave it to them and said, “Drink all of it; for this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.”  The wine is not His blood; it is like His shed blood.  He is saying, All of you in my spiritual body have been washed in my blood.  Your sins have been totally forgiven.  You are clean now and able to walk in “a  newness of life,”  where “all things are become new.”   You are changed and are now walking in accordance with My Spirit which dwells in you now.  And I am setting up this memorial supper that when you get together and break bread and have a bit of wine or grape juice, remember these things.  Remember that you all are my temple and body.  Remember that my blood cleansed all of you equally, so you are equal.  Remember Me.

     And then He looks to the future: “But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”  He’s saying, when I come back, we’ll all sit down and drink a cup and toast to the destruction of the evil world system and rejoice together that the My Government is now with men, right here on earth.  

     And the “bread” is us, His spiritual body, the sons and daughters of God.  And the “wine” represents His blood that cleansed us all and put us on His kingdom road.                          Kenneth Wayne Hancock