Today’s Devotional: “When Tradition Replaces Reality”

We do a lot in life and seldom pause to ask why. We develop habits and traditions, and if we’re not careful, we can forget why we do them. The danger of familiar traditions is that they become routine and lose their intended power.

What I find amazing is that, given enough time, religion can squeeze the life out of reality. Throughout the centuries, it has taken the wonderful grace God has extended and boxed it into meaningless, powerless rituals.

This is something the church has done to what Jesus asked us to remember on the night of Passover when He instituted what we now celebrate as communion.

Religion seemed to be reshaping the meaning of the communion sacrament. Paul spent about 18 months in Corinth, pastoring the growing church there. But after he left, they turned the Lord’s Supper into a boxed-lunch social. They made a total mess of the sacrament.

Paul said, “So then, when you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat, for when you are eating, some of you go ahead with your own private suppers. As a result, one person remains hungry and another gets drunk.” (1 Corinthians 11:20-21)

In Corinth, they gathered for a meal that had nothing to do with communion. In fact, it wasn’t even a potluck. Instead, they hoarded food for themselves and failed to share with those in need. They also brought wine and became somewhat inebriated. Their celebration brought out the worst, as divisions and greed marked this sacred ceremony (1 Corinthians 11:18-19).

What probably happened was that, without careful teaching, this celebration got out of hand over time: physical sustenance replaced spiritual sustenance, and a time of remembering and celebrating