Saw an article in the paper this morning about researchers who have been looking at paintings of the Last Supper over the last thousand years and have noticed that the portions of the food depicted on the table have become bigger with every generation. Apparently, artists over the last thousand years have been painting food the way it has appeared on their plates, with increasing volume, as prosperity (and obesity) have become more prevalent in the age of medicine and money.
My first thought? Someone has a lot of time on their hands. But this is interesting in another way. The fact that artists have been remembering this holy meal for more than a thousand years is striking and that the food on the table has become super-sized may have a theological reason beyond the social/culinary ones.
When we share the eucharist, we're sharing in the Body of Christ and re-membering or re-embodying that meal and all for which it stood. While the artists have made the portions bigger, most churches have made the communion elements even smaller and, in some traditions, almost tasteless in the form of cardboard wafers.
What we miss is the idea that if this meal represents in a very powerful way God's grace offered through the brokenness of Christ, then a crumb doesn't seem to cut it. Sure, we could all afford to eat less and remember those who are hungry, but when it comes to the Lord's Table we should be sharing in a feast not replicating a famine.
When we serve communion I'm fond of doing it by intinction, where the communicant receives a piece of bread and then dips it in the cup. We've had to make some seasonal modifications to that because of the swine flu, using the little cups to be more sanitary, but I still think that it's important to recognize that God's grace is lavish and not scarce. Because of that, I always like to give out larger hunks of bread.
Someone asked me about that once, thinking that was a little sacrilegious. On the contrary, I think it's spot on for what Jesus was trying to convey. We need more of God's grace, not less; a filling meal vs. a crumb. Those larger pieces of bread are just my way of reminding us of that.
I love the way that Great Harvest Bread Company offers samples to its customers–big, warm slices of fresh bread slathered in butter. Their motto: "We don't offer samples, we give amples!"
I think that should be true for communion as well–not a sampling of the body of Christ, but an ample portion to nourish us to be the Body of Christ in the world.
May your communion be super-sized as Maundy Thursday approaches!
