Good Friday

Last year I went to Valley Bible Church.  This year I went to the Richmond youth group.  Both this year and last year, I learned some new things about Good Friday and communion that really struck my heart.

Communion is a way to remember Jesus.  The bread represents Jesus's body and the wine (grape juice) represents his blood.  We Christians do communion together to remember that Jesus had died for our salvation.  We do it in the same way that Jesus had taught his disciples.  The first communion, or the last supper, was a Passover.  Passover was celebrated by the Jewish community to remember the time when God allowed the Israelites to leave the land of Egypt.  God destroyed the Egyptians families by bringing on the death of every first born son, but allowed the Israelite families to continue.  The Israelites had to eat unleavened bread and paint the blood of lambs on their doors.  But when Jesus came down to earth, the angel of death passes us all, because Jesus's blood replaced the blood of sacrificial lambs.  It is the exact same Passover we celebrate.  Except now Jesus's blood covers all of us.

When we do communion at church, we're used to little pieces of precut shapes of crackers and small things of grape juice or those big cups of actual wine that everyone shares.  Today, at the youth group, the Pastor had actually brought one big thing of bread.  It wasn't unleavened, but back in the day, everyone shared in one big piece of bread.  We each tore off a piece of the bread.  Just as Jesus's body had literally been torn and ripped apart in order for us to have salvation.  We dunked the bread into a bowl of grape juice, representing how Jesus's body was covered in his own blood.  Jesus went through so much pain and suffering (Passion of Christ, 2004) so that we may have eternal life.  And we will remember that.  Always.

Thank you Lord.