Aristotle said that no one can be friends with a god. Why? Because friendship requires equality, and what god would step down from their heavenly status to become equal with lowly human beings?
I wonder what Aristotle would’ve done if he’d been present at the Last Supper (Matthew 26:26-35). For there, Jesus—the Creator of all, who left His heavenly status to become a lowly human being (Philippians 2:6-8; Colossians 1:16)—told His disciples He no longer called them servants but friends (John 15:15).
Aristotle would’ve been surprised too at who sat at that table. There was Matthew, the Roman-friendly tax collector; and then Simon, the Roman-denouncing Zealot (Matthew 10:3-4); along with James and John, the “sons of thunder” (Mark 3:17) sitting with quiet Philip. I imagine Aristotle watching quizzically as Jesus described some bread and wine as His “body” and “blood,” broken and poured out for the “forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:26-28). What god would die for mere mortals, even those who’d soon abandon Him (v. 56)?
That’s one reason Communion is so profound. Through Jesus, God became friends with humans and enabled friendships between those with political and temperamental differences. As we eat and drink at the Lord’s Table, we celebrate the one who rewrote friendship’s rules, human and divine.
How else does Jesus rewrite the rules of friendship? How can His example help you reach across relational differences today?
Dear Jesus, thank You for making me a friend of God and others.
Christ commanded His believers to remember His death through which forgiveness has been secured (Matthew 26:26-30; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26). In the observance of Communion, or the Lord’s Supper, believers in Jesus partake of the bread and the cup as visible symbols of His death.
In 1 Corinthians 11:24-25, Paul instructs believers on how to observe Communion. The way the Corinthians were observing the Lord’s Supper wasn’t commendable and was ripe for rebuke (1 Corinthians 11:17-22). Why? The conduct they displayed was out of character with what Jesus had done. There were reports of “divisions among” them (v. 18). They were inconsiderate and self-indulgent (vv. 19-22). There was something wrong with this picture, so Paul noted pointedly, “So then, when you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat” (v. 20). His subsequent teaching highlighted the gravity of their error in how they observed this remembrance (vv. 23-34). Communion continues to be a reminder that because of Jesus’ sacrifice, God became friends with us and can help us to love others well.
