As we gather repeatedly for this meal, one of the things you may have noticed is that the portions are small. You all receive a morsel of bread, and you receive a small communion cup of wine, a bit larger than a thimble.
In one respect this is simply a function of what is necessary when hundreds of people partake together on a weekly basis. This is a meal, and that means that logistical considerations matter. But there is more to it than that.
If there were only ten of us partaking, we still would not have the portions be as large as they would be if you were having lunch. When the early church used to partake of communion in conjunction with what they called their love feasts, and which we would call a church potluck, Paul took care to have them disassociate the communion amounts from the amounts they ate in their “regular” meal.
“What? have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? shall I praise you in this? I praise you not” (1 Cor. 11:22).
If you are eating to satisfy physical hunger, Paul says, then do it somewhere else. That is not the point of this meal. But then what is the point of this meal?
This is a meal that means. The bread is an edible noun, and the cup is a drinkable verb. This means that what you eat and drink is measured by what it means, and not how much it weighs, or how much space it occupies in your hand. When it comes to this kind of communication, you don’t calculate by volume. The word rubbish has significantly more letters than the word gold. And when you look at a check, you look at where the decimal point is placed, and not how much ink was used in writing the check.
And so what does your morsel of bread mean? What does your ounce of wine mean? It means all of Christ, and all He possesses. It means that there are no limits to what He will give to you in His Son.
So come, and welcome, to Jesus Christ.