There is a surprising benefit of communion many are not aware of. It can turn the tables on our adversary. Another term for communion in the Bible is the Table of the Lord. This is more often used by protestant churches, but it is the same ceremony. A surprising benefit of the Table of the Lord is that it can turn the tables on our adversary, Satan.   

Our adversary’s advantage

Satan is our adversary. That should come as no surprise. One of Satan’s most often used tactics is to center our attention on physical, tangible things. All our senses sense or respond to how things look, feel, sound, smell, or taste. The physical size of their enemies convinces Israel that they cannot take the promised land. Goliath looks too large to be defeated by a youth. A roaring lion looks and sounds impossible to pluck a lamb out of its mouth. A disease, a doctor’s written diagnosis, or a debt you owe can look and feel insurmountable.

Faith must look beyond what our natural senses are telling us. Our help comes from what we cannot see, the intangible realm of the spiritual. While the things we see or feel are not the final word, their physical appearance can give our enemy an advantage.

This is the surprising benefit of communion

A surprising benefit of Communion, or the Table of the Lord, is to help us overcome the enemy’s advantage. A phrase for doing this is, “to turn the tables on your adversary.” This term has been in English literature for centuries. It came from playing table games like chess or backgammon. One player seems to have an advantage from his side of the board. It is possible to make a play that will turn that all around. It is as if you were able to turn the table gameboard around. The weaker can use the stronger-positioned player’s own strategy to reverse their positions.

Communion blurs the line between physical and spiritual things

During their last  Passover celebration, Jesus oversees this meal that reminds Israel of their covenant with God. The main point of the ceremony is to include tangible elements of covenant-making. This will remind partakers of the covenant God made with Abraham. The covenant enables Israel to be freed from Egypt and enter the Promised Land of Israel. Included are references to the Messiah.

Messiah would one day take the throne of David and deliver them from their adversaries. We know Jesus changes everything when He reveals that the bread they eat during the ceremony now represents his body. The wine they drink from the cup, reserved only for the Messiah, now represents His blood. He is telling them He is the Messiah.

The Passover meal becomes the Lord’s Table

We now have the benefit of the biblical record of the death and resurrection of Jesus. We can believe in Jesus, just as Abraham believed in God. Jesus, our Messiah, provides us with right standing and other precious promises. We are to be confident in the face of trials, temptations, sickness, diseases, and other physical hardships.

But as I said at the outset, one of Satan’s most often used tactics is to center our attention on physical, tangible things. A disease, a doctor’s written diagnosis, or a bill for a debt you owe can look and feel insurmountable. So how can we hold onto the intangible, very old promises?

How does the Table of the Lord turn the tables?

We can use The Table of the Lord to turn the tables on our adversary. The Table of the Lord is another term for communion. Jesus has given us even better promises in a New Covenant. The covenants of men can be broken. But Father God and Jesus cannot and will not break their covenant promises. The only thing we are told to do is to believe exactly that. Jesus gave His body and His blood. Abraham had to believe in the tangible evidence of the blood of animals confirming God’s promises. We have the physical elements of bread and wine to remind us of the body and blood of the risen Christ Jesus. Let’s use them to turn the tables on our adversary.

The bread and the wine are physical and spiritual

Our enemy can ask us to fear the physical things in and around us. Jesus can ask us to trust Him and have faith in the physical and spiritual things He provided. We have Holy Spirit in us, and at communion, we can place the physical things that represent His body and blood in us as well.

When you physically approach the Table of the Lord, center your attention on its physical elements, and what they represent. Bring your need for physical healing, forgiveness, and provision of anything that pertains to life to the Table. See yourself laying those things on the Table. Now, look at the physical bread. It is just as real and physical as any need you have. The bread represents the body of Jesus. When the Lord gives you the bread, He gives you his body. Look at the physical juice of the grape. When the Lord gives you the red juice of the grape, He is giving you His Blood. Now the body and blood of Jesus are physically in you, representing what the Bible says they do for you.

Isaiah 53:5

But he was wounded for our transgressions,
he was bruised for our iniquities:
the chastisement of our peace was upon him;
and with his stripes, we are healed.

The New Covenant

Communion does not just remind us of the Death of Jesus on the cross. It reminds us of why. The reason why is to make a New Covenant with us that brings healing to our physical flesh, forgiveness, and eternal life to our spirits. This is the surprising benefit of communion. It provides a tangible reminder of our physical and spiritual healing through the mystery of the blood covenants.

Photo by Debby Hudson on Unsplash