Do Messianic Jews Take “Commmunion”?

Every Shabbat at synagogue, we make blessings over wine and bread together. A question that often arises when people see this is “Are you taking Communion?”.

The simple answer is, no.

Another question that arises is “If the wine and bread on Shabbat aren’t considered Communion, do you take Communion at all?”.

The answer to this question is a little more complicated.

In order to really answer this question, we first need to understand what Communion is and where this observance came from.

If you ask a Christian to define Communion, odds are you’ll get an answer like this:

Communion is an act of remembrance that Christ instituted at the Last Supper. It involves eating bread that symbolizes his body that was broken for our sins, and drinking wine that symbolizes his blood spilled for our forgiveness.

As beautiful as this explanation is, it has a bit more history behind it than most believers realize. Contrary to popular belief, Communion wasn’t instituted by Christ at the Last Supper. As the biblical context of the Last Supper suggests, Christ was not instituting a new tradition, but rather observing the ancient tradition of the Passover as the children of Israel had done since their freedom from slavery in Egypt as recorded in the book of Exodus. The bread Christ blessed was that of the Passover bread called Matzah; an unleavened cake also known as the “Bread of Affliction” that represented the affliction of slavery the Israelites endured in Egypt. This Matah, he figuratively likened to his body that carried in it all of the sin of the world that humanity had been enslaved to since the Fall of Man. The cup of wine that Christ blessed was one of four cups still found at Passover suppers today and known as the “Cup of Redemtion”; a cup of wine that represented the Redeeming of the Israelites from the Angel of Death in the Exodus account through their sacrifice of the blood of a lamb. This is what he figuratively likened to his blood that was spilled to redeem our souls from eternal death through his physical sacrificial death as the allegorical Lamb of God.

What we now know today as Communion is a sacrament instituted by the Catholic Church that is founded on non-biblical beliefs. It was officially recognized by the 4th Latern Council in 1215 A.D. and affirmed later by the Council of Trent. Communion taught the doctrine of ‘transubstantiation’. This asserted that elements of the bread and wine of Communion, also known as the Eucharist, literally and physically turn into the flesh of and blood of Jesus in the partaker’s mouth whilst they eat and drink it. This doctrine of transsubstanciation was taught alongside the doctrine of ‘Mass’. Mass is defined as the re-offering of Jesus actual physical body and blood to God repeatedly upon the eating and drinking of the Communion elements as a propitiatory sacrifice.

Here's an excerpt from the Council of Trent:

“Canon I. If anyone denieth, that, in the sacrament of the most holy Eucharist, are contained truly, really, and substantially, the body and blood together with the soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, and consequently the whole Christ; but saith that he is only therein as in a sign, or in figure, or virtue; let him be anathema.

Canon II. If anyone saith, that, in the sacred and holy sacrament of the Eucharist, the substance of the bread and wine remains conjointly with the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and denieth that wonderful and singular conversion of the whole substance of the wine into the blood – the species only of the bread and wine remaining – which conversion indeed the Catholic Church most aptly calls Transubstantiation: let him be anathema.

Canon III. If any one saith, that the sacrifice of the mass is only a sacrifice of praise and of thanksgiving; or, that it is a bare commemoration of the sacrifice consummated on the cross, but not a propitiatory sacrifice; or, that it profits him only who receives; and that it ought not to be offered for the living and the dead for sins, pains, satisfactions, and other necessities: let him be anathema.” (The Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent (Rockford: Tan, 1941, 1978), p.149)

So, while we as Messianics do not take Communion or align with the doctrines surrounding it, we do make Kiddush every Shabbat and say blessings over bread and wine while remembering, figuratively, the body and blood of Messiah in the same way he described at his last Passover meal.