By Doug Redford
Welcome to our thanksgiving meal! You may be thinking, “Wait a minute! This isn’t Thanksgiving Day!” No, but Communion can be considered a thanksgiving meal. We may be looking forward to gathering with family or friends on Thanksgiving Day and enjoying a sumptuous meal with a variety of delicious foods. Communion, or the Lord’s Supper, seems so meager in comparison: a tiny piece of bread and a small cup of juice. How filling can that meal be? But physical nourishment is not the point of this meal; spiritual nourishment is. Communion provides us with a time to give thanks for the bounty of grace and mercy that we have received through Jesus by means of his death and resurrection.
When Jesus instituted Communion with his disciples in the upper room, thanksgiving was included. Paul records that Jesus “on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it” (1 Corinthians 11:23, 24, New International Version). Verse 25 then says, “In the same way, after supper he took the cup,” implying that Jesus gave thanks at this point as well. When we observe Communion, we give thanks for the cross having happened, as we should. With both his betrayal and the cross yet to come, Jesus still gave thanks.
In Psalm 106, the psalmist described the “many kindnesses” by which the Lord demonstrated his power and delivered the Israelites from their bondage in Egypt (vv. 7-12). Then come these disheartening words in verse 13: “But they soon forgot what he had done.” How could the Israelites do that? How could they forget such mighty acts as those associated with the exodus?
Forgetting God’s blessings and becoming ungrateful for them go hand in hand. In contrast, thankful people are thinking people; they make an intentional effort to remember the Source of what they have been given. Paul’s question in 1 Corinthians 4:7 is one we could ask especially in this season of thanksgiving: “What do you have that you did not receive?” Communion is also an appropriate time to ask it, for our salvation is something we have received from the Lord. It is nothing we have earned.
We often speak of saying grace before a meal, and we should do so when we gather on this Thanksgiving Day. This meal of Communion says grace to us each time we take it. Think of all Jesus has done for you and give thanks.
Doug Redford has served in the preaching ministry, as an editor of adult Sunday school curriculum, and as a Bible college professor. Now retired, he continues to write and speak as opportunities arise.
Contact us at cs@christianstandardmedia.com
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