What about the Eucharist?

This article was origianlly written in September of 2005.

It’s about that time again. It seems like the year just gets started and it’s Fall already. We barely get hot and the summer is over. Where did it all go?

It seems the retail industry can’t wait to introduce us to the next holiday. Back-to-School sales barely end before Halloween candy appears. The Halloween costumes are still on the rack when the Christmas items appear. The children are taught art of indulgence.

For Back-to-School, children do not have to make their own wish list – the school has done it for them. Parents oblige the desires of the school, and the child, by purchasing everything on the list, and a little extra.

Halloween comes and the child is taught to say, “Trick or Treat” when everyone really knows it means, “Gimme some candy.” While the child is still gorging himself on the Halloween candy we start asking them what they want for Christmas. To the undisciplined child, Christmas is just a second birthday party so they can continue to be self-absorbed.

Isn’t there something missing? What happened to Thanksgiving? What happened to stopping the whole retail driven buying spree and saying, “Thank you.”? And not saying thank you to the sky, clouds, and trees but to thank God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth.

What do we teach our family about the importance of giving thanks to our God? Do you spend more time, effort, and money on Halloween than on Thanksgiving? Should you? What are your children learning from your actions?

Our God desires, and deserves, our thanks – every day. Thanksgiving is a great time to show the world how a Christian appreciates the one and only God.
In New Testament Greek the word that is most often used for giving thanks is: “Eucharisteo” (yoo-khar-is-teh'-o).

The Catholic church uses the word, "Eucharist" often. They define the Eucharist as the time when the bread and wine of the mass become the literal body and blood of Christ to be sacrificed again for the sin of man. (The Second Vatican Council, Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (December 4, 1963), esp. ch. 2, on the Eucharist).

Because of this wholesale takeover of the word Eucharisteo we as Baptists have resigned the fight and therefore the word has been redefined. If we go back to the Bible and research the word we would find there is no fight and no need to give up a perfectly biblical word.

The first use of the word Eucharisteo in the New Testament is found in Matthew 15:36 when Jesus gives thanks (Eucharisteo) to God the Father for the seven loaves and the fish he was about to feed to the more than four thousand people gathered that day.

“And He took the seven loaves and the fish and gave thanks, (Eucharisteo) broke them and gave them to His disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitude.” Matthew 15:36

I don’t believe the Catholic church uses fish as a part of their Eucharist. Another time Eucharisteo was used was when the one leper returned to give thanks to Jesus for being healed in Luke 17:15-17.

“And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan. So Jesus answered and said, "Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine?”

The term Eucharisteo is also used in a negative way as found in Luke 18:10-11: "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, 'God, I thank You that I am not like other men-extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector.”

The Pharisee said thanks but was not truly thankful. His heart was corrupt and his motive in prayer was to brag and not praise or thank. In the Gospels the word Eucharisteo was most used by Jesus. Jesus thanked God for food prior to eating and for hearing His prayer prior to raising Lazarus from the dead.

This Thanksgiving why not use the occasion to launch a year of daily Biblical Eucharist. Pray daily and often. Pray a prayer of thanksgiving prior to every meal, even when you are by yourself. Pray prayers of thanksgiving for the everyday things (air, water, health, family, church, job). It has become a cliché but it can be said again, "pray and live your life with the attitude of gratitude."

First Thessalonians 5:16-18 says:
“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; (Eucharisteo) for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”