Dr. Péter Hack: The Holy Communion’s biblical content

Before Jesus was slain He prayed his prayer of the High Priest. God called us to proclaim the truth, which is God’s Word. God expects us to proclaim it. People accept human ideas, but we must proclaim only God’s Word to them without any compromise. We can only do this if we become one with Christ. We cannot change people, our task is to give them the opportunity to make good decisions. For this, we have to make them know the truth.

It’s a really great thing that today we can still proclaim the gospel freely in our country, because it hasn’t been forbidden by state regulations.

Jesus did not ask the Father to take us out of the world, even though that would be the best thing that can happen to us. Nowadays a lot of news cause pain to decent people. Those whose lives have ended, have lost their opportunity to choose between right and wrong. Jesus said that He sent us to the world the same way the Father had sent Him. Christian life must not be self-focused, because that is not God’s nature, but Satan’s. Being sorry according to God inspires Christians to go and proclaim the Gospel. Jesus made God’s name and plan known to us and wanted to deposit the same love in us with which the Father loves Him.

For us to be able to convey God’s will authentically, we have to become one with Christ, so we must speak God’s Word from Him, to convey the fragrance of life.

The stronger death is present in the world, the bigger the hunger for life is. Our task is not to justify the deeds that were committed in the name of Christianity, but to proclaim the truth. Jesus said that by the New Testament’s standard hating our fellow people is considered murder, that’s why blessing weapons cannot be biblical.

Life is Christ, so the Gospel is the message of life, which carries hope for the people. Satan hates those who have God’s power in them, but it would be worse if he applauded us or if he were indifferent toward us. God made us all individuals, and He transforms us to His own image while our own personality traits remain.

Being born again means that in baptism our sensual nature becomes one with Christ in His death and burial and stays in the grave, but our new temper rises and lives.

Just as we became one with Him in His death, we become one with Him in His resurrection. For this we must remain in Christ. Those who remained in Christ are in a better condition now than they were in before the pandemic.

Jesus said that it was better for the disciples if He went away, because without that He could not have sent the Holy Spirit.

Remembering the Easter Lamb, Jesus established the communion we have to renew over and over again, and we have to practice it until He returns.

The expression ,,Easter” doesn’t reflect the meaning of the celebration perfectly, because in the original text it’s called Passover, meaning there is an opportunity to avoid judgment. We can choose a fate that is connected to life, thus escaping the Destroyer. By Jews the festivities begin with Seder night, on which it’s the task of the youngest boy to ask why this night is different than the others. On the Last Supper the youngest disciple, John occupied this place. The establishment of the Holy Communion happened on the Lord’s Passover dinner.

The centrepiece of the evening is the table that symbolizes communion with God and with each other. We show God that we want to belong to Him. Even though we live in the world, we are separated from Satan’s table and we want to be in communion with God’s table.

Jesus Christ won and because of that, we can sit together with Him on His royal throne, but for this to happen we need to open our doors permanently before Him.

God speaks to us through people, and because He is consuming fire it was necessary for Jesus Christ not to appear in His divine existence on Earth, but in human form and proclaim the message of the living God that way.

In the Holy Communion the bread symbolizes Jesus Christ’s broken body. Through the bread we enter the communion with Christ’s body and the Church at the same time.

Through the Lord’s broken body, we receive eternal life. This results in a really strong covenant.

The wine means communion with the blood of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ’s blood is the cup of forgiveness, with which we strengthen our communion with Him.

The goal of the Holy Communion is to remember that God made a covenant with His people so that we may be in Jesus Christ, and He may be in us. For this we have to practice communion with His body and blood, because there is no forgiveness without shedding of blood. The Lamb’s blood delivered us from the Destroyer.

As we participate in the Holy Communion we also look forward, because it means the strengthening of the covenant through hope that looks onto the future.

So, the Holy Communion is not only a common feast where everybody eats unleavened bread. Our faith is in the fact that our repentance, rebirth and communion with Christ’s body and blood saves us from death and condemnation and leads us into an unbreakable relationship with the living God, whose messengers we strive to be on Earth.

Lukács Zsuzsanna