A couple weeks ago I visited the holy city, because Jesus lived, died and rose here. It’s the city of Jerusalem. It’s real. And Jesus was here.
With a beautiful view from the Mount of Olives, I took more than a few pictures of the cityscape featuring the white limestone buildings, gates, city wall and temple mount. If I had taken those pictures in 30AD when Jesus was in town, he’d be in the picture. For real!
The only thing better than a trip to the Holy Land? Being in the picture with Jesus, there in 30AD, for real!
Then I visited a very special place in Jerusalem: The Church of the Holy Sepulcher. It’s a huge church built centuries ago over the location of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection.
Today, you can enter the church, touch the rock of Golgotha (the hill where Jesus was crucified) and then walk into this tomb. It has been decorated–perhaps a bit too much–but this is the place they laid Jesus in his tomb, sometimes called a sepulcher. Jesus spent a weekend here …
Or maybe it was here. Okay, there is some mild disagreement among Christians that the Church of the Holy Sepulcher is not the actual place, but rather it is a place called the garden tomb. It was discovered decades ago and offers some convincing evidence that some believe makes it the place Jesus rose from the dead.
Well?! It actually doesn’t matter which it was. Because both tombs are empty! Jesus was there. Dead. But he’s not there any more. What a thrilling experience to lay eyes, and even hands, on these empty tombs where the real body of Jesus one touched, buried, having died for our sins, and then the powerful miracle of the resurrection.
Does it make you want to be there? Well, there’s something even better than being there, where Jesus maybe was or maybe wasn’t. Being here as a communion member of CrossLife Church or your church. Being in the group of people invited to come forward to the altar of God and to eat and drink. Taking Holy Communion.
Why is that better? Because there is no doubt. No uncertainty at all. We don’t wonder or speculate if Jesus is in the bread and wine. He is. He promises. He spells it out clearly.
“Take and eat, this is my body … Take and drink, this is my blood” (Matthew 26).
Yes, Jesus lives, and he lives physically in heaven with a glorified body. Just as he miraculously moved through the rock of the tomb to rise from the dead and appear to his disciples, today Jesus miraculously moves himself into and with the bread and wine. And gives himself to you.
It’s called the Real Presence. 1 Corinthians 10:16 says, “Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?”
Jesus was there in Jerusalem, and in the tomb. But better yet, the living, powerful, saving Jesus is here. Right here. Right now.
Jesus is why we call Jerusalem the Holy City. And Jesus is why we call this sacrament Holy Communion.
PRAYER: Dear Jesus, you are real, the evidence is real, and your body and blood are real still today—even in Holy Communion. Deepen my faith in these miraculous blessings, and my appreciation for Holy Communion.
FURTHER MEDITATION: Do you agree with the statement “Holy Communion is not optional for Christians”? How does your belief compare with your behavior? Say a prayer of repentance, thanks and humble boldness to improve the quality and quantity of receiving Holy Communion.
