He Wants Us to Eat Him?

A poem, followed by thoughts on the eucharist - what does it means to take, eat, and drink Him?

“Would you put something on your face that you wouldn’t eat?”

I heard this question yesterday
from a girl on the internet 
putting beef tallow on her face 
 
and it made me think 
about Christ's command 
to eat Him

a brutal invitation 
a most mysterious one 
and Christ followers 
have sweetly 
and ever-so-softly 
reduced it 
to a tiny cracker loaf 
(I can just hear Derek Zoolander saying "what is this, a feast for ants?")
and a shot glass of Welsh's grape

I wonder does He, the King and Living Sacrament, 
chuckle 
at how cute we've made communion?

if He invites us to His table for this sacred meal, 
and if He breaks the bread 
and if He pours the wine 
and says
take 
eat 
take 
drink 
I wonder… 
is He inviting us
to fleeting, momentary remembrance?
or is He inviting us to something so much more?

“you are what you eat” 
we laugh and say to our friend 
who is eating a slab of ham 

but it’s true, isn’t it? 
we become that which we consume 
not just with our mouths 
but with every orifice of our body 

food and footage 
sex and songs 

so what a strange and wondrous thing it is 
that Christ would invite us to His table 
to consume Him – His beauty and goodness – 
in bread and cup

what a remarkable thing, 
that we are invited to partake of His glory 
and become more like Him 
with light shooting out of our eyes at every bite
our faces becoming a beacon
because Christ is that beef tallow 
that the girl put on her face
because Christ is the bread 
and “we are what we eat” 

in beautiful eucharist 
we eat Him and drink Him 
we remember what He’s done, of course, 
but I think
it may be something
so much better 
I haven’t quite put my finger on it yet 
but I’ll spend my whole life 
coming to the table 
just to find out 

Reflection

I’ll speak plainly. Communion was never important in church. It was a thing we did once a month. We ate the shitty crackers and drank the mother-approved grape juice. We sat in somber silent as we fought our imaginations to see Christ bleeding on the cross - dying “for me”. It was personal, yet somehow wildly detached. How could eating this garbage cracker and drinking this concord grape juice mean anything to me or to Christ?

Then I got older. The practice continued, albeit the bread become breadier (with a gluten-free option, of course). I had encountered Christ in other ways that deepened me and deepened faith in me, and yet, the bread and cup still meant precious little. It still felt like I was forcing sobriety of spirit, the image of the ravaged Christ (post- “the Passion of the Christ” - our imaginations didn’t have to work quite so hard anymore), and trying to fight for the meaning in it.

It wasn’t until I heard a dear friend say something so simple (yet profound) that something shifted in me — “He wants us to consume Him.”

Something about that word “consume” haunted me. It’s a terrifying word when we are the subject of the consumption — being completely eaten up for the satisfaction of someone else.

And yet, Christ asks us to consume Him? He asks us take, break, and eat Him? As if taking a bite out of His flesh wasn’t savage enough, He asks us to “drink his blood”?

These images — as visceral and violent as the Cross itself — are something He asks us to participate in… He couldn’t have meant this gift of Himself in bread and wine to be a little girl in a church pew nibbling a cracker and throwing back a grape juice shot once a month. He couldn’t have meant for it to be less than a feast. He couldn’t have meant for it to be a somber moment of silence to remember Him for two minutes and then roll on with our lives. Yet, we have reduced this act by treating it as merely a symbolic act and a rote monthly practice. We love symbolism, don’t we? We love to indulge in the feelings of sadness as we picture the brutalized Christ, am I right? (EEK, I’m preaching to MYSELF, y’all)

I don’t mind a symbol, but this is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, we’re talking about. Symbolism is trash here when we don’t actually accept the real implications of what He’s asking. He’s asking us to take on His very nature, with all the brutal and beautiful parts of it. He’s asking us to become Him. He’s asking us to celebrate and FEAST. He’s asking us to join in the marriage supper that is to come. He’s asking us to completely take on every bit of Himself.

By all means, remember Him. Do as He said. But, remember too that He is asking you to consume Him — His perfect beauty and steadfast love; His streams of mercy and roaring justice; His selfless practice and yielding spirit; His healing the sick and setting captives free; His dying and rising again. All of those things, He wants to be a part of you.

But first, you must eat Him.