Table of Brokenness
Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.”
And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you,
for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.”
--Matthew 26:26-29
Communion. That’s what we call this act of remembering this passage. But communion, according to its original Middle English roots, simply means sharing. The thesaurus compares communion to agreement and togetherness.
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To put the story of the Last Supper simply, Jesus broke and He gave. He poured and He gave. Later He did exactly that - He broke and He gave; He poured and He gave. Jesus, literally, gave us His brokenness. And that is what we are sharing. That is what we are together in - in brokenness.
Ann Voskamp describes Communion with her church like this,
“I look across the sanctuary to the passing of broken bread, crushed grapes, down the rows of open hands, across the aisles. This is what this all is: communion with Him…”
We pass the brokenness and pass the crushing. We open our hands to receive the brokenness and receive the crushing. And then we pass the brokenness and pass the crushing.
Isn’t it weird that we pass the brokenness and crushing and receive it so openly? Why? What are we actually “remembering”? Are we remembering the brokenness? Or is it something else?
And so here we sit at the table of brokenness. Here at the table of brokenness we are sharing...sharing the brokenness. But the brokenness gives way to something else….abundance. Isn’t that why Jesus broken Himself? He did it to give abundance (see John 10:10).
“In shattered places, with broken people, we are most near the broken heart of Christ, and find our whole selves through the mystery of death and resurrection, through the mystery of brokenness and abundance. We are the body sustained by His brokenness, His givenness, sustained by the Last Supper than for centuries was called simply ‘the thanksgiving’ - the eucharisteo.”
--Ann Voskamp, The Broken Way
Sit at the table of brokenness. Pass the bread. Pour the wine. Share. And make a way for Abundance.
“The seed breaks to give us the wheat. The soil breaks to give us the crop, the sky breaks to give us the rain, the wheat breaks to give us the feast. There was once even an alabaster jar that broke to give Him all the glory...Never be afraid of being a broken thing.”
--Ann Voskamp, The Broken Way
