Taste and see the bliss of heaven known by saints around the throne, where the Lamb, in closest union, lives to love and feed His own. From His riven side forever flows the purest stream of love, love that robes us with the raiment worn by all who feast above. -LSB 572, Verse 5
The Lord’s Supper is not simply an individual meal. As we approach the communion rail, we partake in a meal that unites the body of Christ past, present, and future. Yes, this is forgiveness for you, but it is also forgiveness for all who confess the name of Christ and His saving work. This is another great joy and blessing in Holy Communion. We commune with those in our own physical church building of course, but we also commune with Christians around the world and all the saints who have died in the faith. Every Sunday, you are surrounded by the people of God who sit in His presence- grandparents, parents, siblings, etc…. In some Roman Catholic and Lutheran churches, the communion rail is shaped in a half circle. This symbolizes fact that we are only a part of the attendance at communion. The rest of the circle is completed by those who we cannot see, who are no longer with us here on earth, but who are in the presence of God and still attend to His Word and receive His gifts in the courts of heaven.
These gifts that Christ freely gives to us He gives out of love. As John 3:16 tells us so beautifully, it is God’s love for His creation that brought Him down to earth in the person of Jesus Christ. All that Christ did during His ministry here, He did because He loves us and does not want us to spend eternity enslaved to the powers of sin, death, and the Devil. His sufferings and death on the cross put Him through the greatest pain man could ever experience on this earth. Yet all this was done because of His great love toward us.
When the soldier pierced Christ’s side after He was already dead, blood and water came flowing out. The blood that flows from Christ on the cross washes away all our sins and makes us holy before God. This blood clothes us with the righteousness of Christ: the righteousness He won for us. With this new garment of salvation, we can now come before God and receive His gifts both here on this earth and in heaven after our time on earth has ended. This is how we are saved and can know that we will be with God in heaven. Just as God promised Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden that He would send a savior to crush the power of the Devil, so now God promises to us that all who are clothed in the precious, redeeming blood of Christ will enter into His eternal kingdom and live with Him forever.
