When a church takes communion several things happen at once. The three we are most familiar with are remembrance, fellowship and unity. (1) Believers remember Jesus' suffering and death (Mark 14:22-25, Luke 22:18-20). (2) They fellowship with Christ (1 Corinthians 10:16). (3) The church expresses its unity together (1 Corinthians 11:27-33).

But there is a fourth aspect of communion, and I think of the four this has the potential to be the most neglected. Perhaps we neglect it because it seems a bit underwhelming. But after meditating on this verse, I believe there are wonderful riches here that show us just how significant the Lord's Supper is in the plan of God.

In 1 Corinthians 11:26, the apostle Paul writes that when we eat the bread and drink the cup, we proclaim the Lord’s death until he returns.

I want you to pay close attention to that phrase in verse 26: the eating and drinking of the people of God in communion shows the death of the Son of God. And this is absolutely extraordinary. The word translated to “show" or “proclaim” is καταγγέλλω (pronounced kat-an-gell-o). The word is stronger than to mean something like "symbolize." It means to announce something, to go public with something so that it will be known far and wide. The communion meal proclaims the dying sin-bearing substituting Son of God to the world. In Paul's mind, when the church eats and drink they are making a global announcement like John the Baptist: "Behold, the Lamb of God!"

As I began to mediate on this verse, this struck me as curious, and left me asking: does communion really do that great of a job at showing the death of Jesus? After all, in the following centuries the church would introduce crucifixes, etches, drawings, and paintings of the dying Messiah. Today we have Mel Gibson's Passion  and The Chosen, not to mention thousands of plays all around the world around Good Friday. Let's be honest: doesn't reenactment do a much better job of proclaiming Christ's death than bread and juice? Is Paul wrong in thinking the ordinary means of communion performs a passable job of showing the death of Jesus when so many other extraordinary means seem to pull it off more effectively?

A parallel text helped me answer with an emphatic, soul-satisfied "yes."

Now, take a moment to read John 6:51-57.

Here is why the Lord's Table is 10,000 times better than the flashiest reenactment you will ever see: to show, or to proclaim the death of Jesus in 1 Corinthians 11:26 is not merely to demonstrate the act of crucifixion. It is to proclaim its meaning. No image, no reenactment, no cat-of-nine-tails or thorned-crown props, no wooden crosses will ever demonstrate what Jesus' death means. But do you know what does proclaim the death of Jesus, when coupled with the preached gospel? Redeemed sinners eating and drinking together. Small churches and big churches, beautiful cathedrals and unimpressive houses, famous and unheard of - it matters not. When Christians eat and drink they are showing what Jesus' death means for his people: we have eternal life because Christ has given himself to nourish us. It is not simply that his blood was spilled and his body was broken: we are the beneficiaries of what was spilled and broken. We have no condemnation because Christ has met our hunger in the wilderness of sin and quenched our thirst for the water of life in his blood. To eat and drink is to show the world that Jesus' death is not just something that happened, it is the very thing that feeds our souls with spiritual life.

Come this Sunday night to remember. Come this Sunday night to fellowship with Christ. Come this Sunday night to express our shared fellowship. But don't forget, when we come and eat and drink together, we perfectly and beautifully proclaim the gospel.