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Now let's jump in. You know, we know what the communion is, but why exactly do we do it? Why the bread? Why the cup? Why this specifically?
Let's figure it out together on the Clear Re Today Show. You're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abadan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Ryan Hill. I'm John Galantis.
Welcome to the Clearview Today Show. We're so glad you're joining us for the conversation today, right here in the studio with our host, Dr. Abadan Shah. Dr. Shah, we've been talking about how do we get to know God.
And we've been talking a lot about these things that Christ has commanded us to do, like baptism and the Lord's Supper and communion. We had a great discussion on yesterday's episode about communion, but we wanted to dive a little bit deeper into the communion. For anybody who didn't listen yesterday, can you give us just a brief recap on what exactly the Lord's Supper is?
So if you go by the textbook definition, the textbook definition is that the communion or Lord's Supper is a symbolic act of obedience. Whereby sinners, or really believers who were sinners but saved, remember the death of the Lord Jesus and anticipate his second coming. The bread is symbolic of the body. And the blood, of course, is symbolized by the cup or the juice. It's the Cup of the New Covenant.
There's also an element of looking around in fellowship because this is not just an individual meal that you celebrate by yourself. You know, out on the beach or up in the mountains, you just decide to have your personal retreat. and have a communion for yourself. It is a church family meal. Not to say that you, as a family, cannot do the communion at times.
Yeah, that's great to do that. Not to say that if someone is passing away Leaving this world, entering Into Christ's presence, that it's wrong to give them communion. No, you can still do that if that has some meaning for them. But ultimately There is a past element. There's a future element, but there's also a present element where you look around.
To the family that God has not given to you. I like that distinction to where those other ways to do it, whether it's your family or whether it's with a person who's maybe the end of their life, they're not bad or wrong. But if you miss doing it together as a church family, then it's incomplete. It's not the full understanding of what communion truly is or what it's meant to be. We talked a little bit on last episode on the ways that churches do this.
We do it every about six weeks or so. We feel like that's an appropriate time for us because some churches they do it every single week, which is not a bad thing, but for us, it felt like it loses its speciality. If it's too common. But at then, at the end of the day, if we're not doing it enough, then we're not giving it the gravity that it deserves.
So we sort of landed on, you know, every six weeks. And then, Dr. Shudder, do you want to talk about how they also come and they pray? You know, during the communion. Yeah, and nothing wrong with passing the plate down the pew, but we felt like there was something missing in our interaction with people.
Now, sometimes people have said it's like passing the plate is like at the dinner table passing the plate. Yes. In theory that is true. But in reality, what do people do? It's a little passive.
Yes, it's just sit there with their eyes closed and very meditative, thinking about the night or they're confessing their sins or asking for God's grace in their life or praying for some family member. There is no connection with the rest of the people in the room.
So We said, what if we change that? And do what many churches do, many denominations do, although they may not have the same meaning and significance behind what they're doing. Is that we will invite people to come forward or go to one of those tables set up. around the building where they can take part of the communion Yeah. Along with other believers coming up.
So there's an interaction that happens. Oh, yes, please go ahead. Or, Kneeling up front And then Getting up or praying with someone and then getting up and taking the communion, or vice versa. There is some. interaction happening with the people there.
It definitely it definitely puts some more connectivity into the communion. And I think it also just uh again, it's not that it takes the focus off of Christ, but it also I guess expands our focus. There's people around us who are going through similar things than us. And I think it helps us really to connect with what it is that we're doing. Yeah, I really do like the intentionality behind it of the going and making prayer part of it.
Because you can tell people in the pews, hey, use this time as a time of reflection, or as we're passing the plates, examine your hearts, things like that. But to see the rest of your church family coming forward and praying as families, praying as friends together, praying as a couple, it's just such a sweet time. And I think it makes it more special and more of a communal feel than just, you know, here's a plate. Right. Yeah.
There's a difference between baptism and communion. Baptism is an individual, one-time demonstration of my oneness with Christ. Right? Going into the water. I am dying with Christ, going under the water, Buried with him.
When I come out of the water, I have now risen to walk in the newness of life. It's all a one-time thing. Communion has a different Emphasis. But it's still the same thing about my oneness with Christ, but my oneness with others. In the body of Christ.
Yeah. And it's periodic.
So we repeat this. Yes, yes, exactly.
So. One that It's not one and done. We do it every six weeks. Right. Yeah.
Or whatever. Your church has decided or denomination. Yeah, but do it often enough that it doesn't, people aren't surprised by it. Like, oh, oh, yeah, we do communion as a church. No, no, do it, do it regularly.
Do it as a family celebration, as a meal. That's right.
Now, communion has a much, much deeper significance that I want to focus on. Of course, we talk about. No. our oneness with Christ. But how does that really work out?
Is this something that we're superimposing on scripture? This existential type idea where we're trying to kind of a mystical. Oneness, no. What I want to discuss is How this was something instituted by God Himself.
Something that God told Moses to the Hebrews to do. After the first Passover. You know, the f the Passover was the last thing. The last. strike against Egypt.
10 plagues altogether, right? The last one was when The firstborn is going to die. The only way to survive this plague would be to. put blood on the doorpost of your house. If you do not have enough money and resources to buy a lamb for your family, then you can join with another family.
And together, y'all can purchase a lamb and then slaughter the lamb. And then put the blood on the doorpost of your house.
So. Okay. Every family. that did that would live. Then you had to go inside your home.
Don't be wandering in the streets. Don't go out and take trash down. No, no curious Georges here. No. Let me just pee.
I'm just going to stick my head in here. You will die.
So you stay inside. You stay safe. And then you eat The Passover. You would eat the roasted lamb, you would eat the unleavened bread, You would stand, and now, this is talking about the first, first Passover. They were to get everything packed, ready to go.
And then tie the belt around the waist. And then, like, take your time eating, just really savor this moment. No. Really, just understand what God is doing. Staff in one hand, we're moving.
This is the night to leave. Run and run. It's time to go. There's no reclining. Because typically, you know, people recline as they ate.
Yeah. No reclining to day. We're rolling.
So get everything together. This is not a time to let that lamb cook and, you know, savor and go, ooh, look at that. Get the spices all right. No, no, no, no. This is roasted, means just over the fire, just turning and all and returning.
la the the bread, no time to let it leaven. It's unleavened bread. For it's 11, it takes time, right? Mm-hmm. None of that.
It is we're rolling here. All that is understood. On that first night, That she was celebrated in a hurry, that she was celebrated almost Like, this was not the savory meal. Right. This is: get some fuel in your gut.
We're fixing to go. You have a long journey ahead. Mm-hmm. We're not sure what he's gonna eat next. It's time to go.
But it also had a deeper significance. where one day Jesus would be the Lamb of God. We are under God's wrath. The wrath of God is hovering over Every human being, every person. But if you have the the lamb's blood applied to the doorpost of your heart, And if you have partaken of the Lamb inside, the Lamb is within.
The bread. is within You have his sustenance in you. You can withstand any evil that will come your way.
So You're covered under the blood? and you're full Of the Lamb, which is Jesus Himself. Perfect, right? First generation God the message. But they also understood the significance to follow.
This is the first generation of early Christians, is what you're talking about? No, I'm talking about the Hebrews. The Hebrews, first generation of when this moved from a one-time event and Passover to a recurring remembrance of. what God has done for us. But God told them, when you come into your land, This is what you need to do.
You need to celebrate the Passover. In the same way.
Now, I can understand celebrating the Passover as in All right, guys, we're gonna make lamb today. This is a lamb day. Get some good bread. Get them spices. Spices going.
Get it leavened nice and good. You know, let it rise. Get the cooler, put some ice in it. Yes. Get the nice get the good Coke Zeros.
Don't get the ones in the back. I don't know about that. Yeah, I don't know that the lamb was flowing with honey and Coke Zero. Yeah. I missed that part.
But you know, like when you, when you're getting a cookout, yeah, everybody's just kind of, you know, relaxed and taking it easy. We're going to cook slow. We're going to probably start at 10, eat around 1. Not like that. This is going to be fast.
So I understand that. But then God told them to do the exact same thing, in every generation, every year. Why? Because was it simply to remember what took place? Was it simply to think, oh, that's what my Ancestors went through.
It's more than that. Yeah, because they could do that without having to physically do it. Right. Yeah. But this was not simply to remember what took place on that fateful night to great, great, great, great, great granddaddy and grandmama and our whole Clan.
Right. No, this was.
So that in every generation An Israelite would Or a Jewish person would celebrate the Passover as if they themselves. Came out of Egypt. Yeah. It's not about like acting it out so I can realize what they must have gone through. It's about saying that what they did You are doing it unto yourself.
You're applying it. Like, that sacrifice also applies to you, right? In a sense, you were there that night. Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Yeah. In a sense, when you're taking the Passover lamb and Passover bread and eating the bitter herbs and the rest of it. It is as if you were there that night. Yeah. I like the way you're framing that.
You were there rather than act as if you were there. Right. And I think a lot of Christians act as if. Yes. Yeah, let me just make believe that it happened.
Yeah. Right. And that's very unique. No faith in the world, no religion in the world can ever come even remotely close to that idea. that we see ourselves through the eyes of faith as if we were there that night.
And that's what the Jewish people were supposed to do. That's what the Israelites were supposed to do. That's what the later generation of Hebrews who were in the wilderness were supposed to do.
So does Jesus come in at the Last Supper and completely change the game, or is he taking this established Passover tradition and making something new? You know what I'm saying? He is. That's exactly what he's doing. Yeah.
Instead of seeing themselves as in these individual huts and homes in Egypt. they were to now see themselves in the upper room. Let's take a quick break. What if some of the hardest questions about Christianity Aren't threats to faith? but invitations to understand Jesus more clearly.
I'm Matthew Murphy. And I'm Marita Murphy. And we're the host of the Fifth Gospel Podcast. Come take a journey with us as we explore biblical interpretation, the identity of Christ. And why agape may be the thread connecting it all.
Bring your questions and explore them with us on the fifth gospel podcast.
Okay, okay, so Jesus is sort of like. Not fast forwarding things, not pushing us forward, but recasting this thing that's already been familiar and giving it a new meaning, new life. Because I guess it would be pointless for Jesus to say, listen, we need to remember what Moses did. Rather, he's saying Moses was looking forward to this. Right.
You need to remember this. Yeah. This is the night. Wow. That even that night was pointing towards.
Imagine the disciples. Imagine these good Jewish boys who have grown up celebrating Passover, who have grown up understanding this tradition, and now things are being recast in front of them. This paradigm is shifting in front of them. We might have talked about this on yesterday's show, but do you think they grasped that then? Like, do you think they knew?
Somewhat this is what he's trying to do. Like this moment is going down in history forever? I don't think they understood every inch of it, but when he is talking about memorial, you see in Exodus twelve, fourteen, it says right here, So this day shall be to you a memorial, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations you shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance. The memorial, again, was not just for one generation. or the first generation But for all generations, in fact, in the Mishnah, which is the oral Torah, tells us how they understood the word memorial.
In each and every generation, this is the definition coming straight from The the missioner. In each and every generation a person must view himself as though as though he personally left Egypt. Not remembering what they must have gone through, but you came out of Egypt. And guess who. is associated with that statement.
Gamelio Gamaliel was Paul's mentor. Wow. He's the one who said that. Yeah. That you need to view yourself.
In every generation, each and every generation, a person must view himself as though he personally left Egypt.
So when Paul says that, you know, in. In Corinthians, he talks about this do in remembrance of me. He's hearkening back to what his mentor said. And his mentor was rephrasing what Exodus 12:14 was saying.
So when we take the communion, same rule applies, I assume. It's not like. Hey, remember what Jesus said in the upper room. I was there. You were right.
I was at that winner. I was at that table. I was at that table. And you said, was that a make belief? Or do I like?
Like like time travel? No, by faith. You believe just like the Israelites did, just like the Jewish people did through the centuries that you were there. And that b so When you took that bread, it's as if Jesus is handing you that piece of bread. When you took that cup, it's as if Jesus is handing the cup to you.
And when you see the people around you, They are the disciples, not just those twelve. but hundreds of thousands of disciples all over the world, And then you can add that, you know, multiply that to millions and trillions. Throughout history, I think I think I I think I have an illustration. It may be too, it may be too straightforward, but I think a lot of times Christians, especially, we try to confuse this thing buff. Like, I was there, but I wasn't there.
That was 2,000 years ago. Like, if you're at a, let's say you work at a company, right? And you're absent for a meeting and they take notes for you. This is what the boss wants. He's laid out all the notes, passed these notes along to.
to you. when you come back. You were at that meeting. Like, what he wants, what he expects from you, is communicated to you. You can't be like, hey, well, I wasn't there, so you didn't say it to me.
It was given to you. You know what I mean? And maybe that's too straightforward of an illustration, but is that sort of what it is? It's like, it's like, for all intents and purposes, you were there. Because here's what I said, here's what I want you to do, here's what I expect from you.
It was given to you. For all intents and purposes, you really were there. Exactly. And I think that sometimes is a missing element in many of our communion services where people. Either take it as a sacrament.
That somehow this gives me miraculous power of healing and protection from evil or blessing. And I don't think that's really accurate.
Sometimes people look at it as this is my personal moment with Jesus. This is my time to confess my sins, and it it should be. But I don't think it's just about you. Right. Sometimes people look at it as this is just me in in You know, in the family of God.
And we are emphasizing that in this particular episode, but I don't think it was just that. I think it's more to it. And the more to it is that you are in the upper room. With Jesus. and with the disciples of the ages.
Taking part In The body. in the blood of Christ, were one with Him together. One with him? And I think all that plays a role. Sadly, A church completely I mean, completely missed that point.
And that was a church in Corinth. Yeah. I remember I remember you doing a series on First Corinthians when Paul writes to these guys. And I mean, it's It's essentially whooping time. And communion was a big part of that.
That church in Corinth, man, they need to get straightened out. I saw. I saw TikTok one time. It was Steve from Blues Clues, and it was like, We just got a letter. Wonder who it's from.
And it opens it up and it says Paul's epistle to the 1st Corinthians. And it's just like deathly scary music. It's like, oh, no. No, I mean, they got this way wrong. Absolutely.
And it's centered around the communion. Yeah. I mean The early church, the first church, or the first couple of generations. There Church services look different than ours. And I don't think we need to aspire to go by.
Go back to that early age. That was never the intention. The God said, just. House churches, home churches, how I want things to be, but that's just what they could do at the time. A lot of people in 2026 want to go back to house church.
You've got the freedom to build and make this great church here in your local community. But they're like, nah, I want to do it in my house. Yeah, that's why a lot of heresies also came out in the first couple of centuries because you had untrained leaders doing a lot of untrained things leading into heresies.
So just be careful. That's never been God's plan that you go back to meeting in home. What was it we said recently about not many of you should become teachers? I'm pretty sure we said that in a recent episode. Maybe tuck that away for your own personal edification.
Exactly. No, it was just for a time because. Synagogues in one of them, right? Temple. Didn't want them.
So they had to meet from house to house. And how did they meet from house to house?
Well, they would probably go to the house of some of the wealthier people. Because the house were houses were larger. And they would go sit in the the sitting room or the triclinium or really. became like a dining room. Yeah.
The triclinium. Clino as in recline.
So where the three recliners were.
So I mean think about them like this. Recliner here, recliner here, recliner here. Recliner like a lazy boy. No, it was not like Lizzie War. Where they just got their feet up.
They got a TV dinner with Laura. They did have their feet up. Yeah, yeah. But it was more like they reclined from the back to the front, kind of kneel kind of leaning on their elbows and thing. Yeah.
So this was a Greco-Roman custom. The Greeks did it. Romans did it. And they would sit in these on these tricliniums, and this is where. They would have a meal They would have some wine, And in the past, I've talked about how much wine.
If you study the historical documents and biblical accounts, The wine was so diluted. It was mostly water. Mostly water. Nothing like what people have today. And you wanted it to be like that.
Most Greeks and Romans did not have these. Wild drinking parties.
Now they did have them. But not that was not the most common thing. Yeah, it wasn't like that was a staple of the culture. They looked down on it. They looked down on it because if you're really stone drunk.
What's the fun in that? You're going to be vomiting. You're going to be. saying outlandish things. you're going to destroy The entire meaning and and You know, atmosphere of the party.'Cause the whole purpose of the party, right, is to come together, talk, argue, have like music or discussion or have someone get up and speak.
How can you do that if everybody's drunk? Yeah, it's just chaos, pandemonium. People are passed out. I mean, that's not what they want. Yeah.
So you would have these things. Christians sorta copied the same model.
So they would come in. and since they had a much larger crowd, there would be some people who would wait out in the foyer. Waiting to come in. And there would be a group that would come in, recline, eat. The fellowship meal.
Take part in the communion. and then they would make their way out. There would be a word spoken, you know, a message given, and the move on.
So the next group can come, so the next group can come, so the next group can come. But people were getting there early. And not leaving. Ha ha ha ha ha. I plant myself right there.
I don't know why. I know Paul really didn't like this and it made him angry, but I always laugh when I picture these guys laying down. Eating the Lord's Supper, like taking the meal, looking out, seeing the line of being like, And even avoiding eye contact. Yeah. I reckon somebody will get up soon, but it ain't going to be me.
Like in restaurants when you have a whole party of 15 standing outside, and then people over here taking their time drinking and then ordering some dessert and some coffee. And you're like, come on, man. They won't dare look up at you. Yeah. And that's what was happening in Corinth.
And that's what Paul was talking to them and saying, hey, you guys are doing this kind of stuff, and this is not good. you need to realize by doing this you are Some of you are walking away drunk. And others are walking away hungry. They're out there and they finally leave. You're over here, keep drinking, drinking, drinking.
And you're drunk. They leave. They're just like, all right, well, let's go home. He says in 1 Corinthians 11. 33.
Therefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. But if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, lest you come together for judgment.
So the Corinthians, as I would say, other Church communities as well had lost the meaning. The sacredness of this moment. And you know, ultimately, we're talking about the communion, but as with every episode that we do here on the Clearview Today show, it's not just about the communion, right? It's about our unity in Christ. Everything we've been talking about with baptism, the Lord's Supper, the communion, all of these things are to help you get to know God better.
This whole mini-series we've been doing is about getting to know God. And so, how do we get to know God better? It starts by realizing these things that we do in church are not ritualistic in nature, right? They're periodic, but they're not just rituals that we do because God told us to do it. And I don't really think deeper than that.
We are unifying and uniting ourselves with Christ every time we observe these things. Yeah, I think the biggest takeaway for me from these discussions about who God is and baptism and communion is that there's often a deeper spiritual reality or a deeper spiritual truth that we haven't tapped into. Maybe just because of ignorance, maybe because of how we've been raised, or maybe because of a lack of a desire to go deep into the things of God. But that's our heart here on the Clearview Today show through these various conversations that we've had. And we have more that are in the docket, more that are in.
The queue to talk about that you would go deep in your faith. You would go deep in your understanding of who God is because God has not called us to a shallow faith, He's not called us to just be content with wading into the shallow water. He's called us to go deep. And when you go deep, you understand that there is more to know and more to learn and more to love about God than lifetimes can account for. There's an overwhelming process when you start to go deep like this, where you feel like giving up and you're like, man, this is a lot.
It was a lot easier when I just showed up, watched the baptism, ate the bread, drank the cup, said the prayer, and went home and, you know, went to Cracker Barrel. Yes, it's an easy life, but it's not a rewarding life. It's not a deep life. And the thing is, we really believe sitting here on this couch and in this chair right here that Dr. Shah's in, that God has such a rich life prepared for you.
You know, we're going through Ephesians in our church right now, and the riches that you have in Christ, you can't even know. And you can experience those riches here on earth, just a taste of them, just a shadow of what's to come, but you really can. And so, as we're continuing this series on getting to know God, our prayer is that you would continue to get to know him and experience those riches for your life, for your church, for your ministry, your community. You really can have it. Amen.
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