Christians go to Church to pray and celebrate many traditions and one of them is Holy Communion. This is something to remember what Jesus has done for you and celebrate the new covenant between God and people. The Holy Communion is to re-enact what Jesus did at the Last Supper. While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take it; this is my body”. Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, they all drank from it. “This is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many”, he said to them. Also, Roman Catholics believe in transubstantiation where they believe that the bread and wine which is blessed by the priest actually becomes the body and the blood of Jesus.
Jesus’ suffering enables the new covenant to be formed with Christians and God, bringing them closer to one another. Suffering can make you strong, for example, Peter. Peter was one of the twelve disciples of Jesus and he denied Jesus three times and suffered the consequences. He felt weak and upset when he had done this, but the outcome was positive as he became stronger and he took a different approach to life. Peter put the past behind him and became a leader to early followers; Peter truly became the rock in which Jesus believed he would be. In the end he was willing to die for his beliefs and from this the new religion Christianity begun.
Another example is Roy Castle who was an entertainer and musician, in his early career he went to a lot of clubs and played there, and a lot of smoking occurred in the clubs, a few years later Roy was diagnosed with cancer, but instead of using his suffering in a negative way, he tried to make it better for future people with cancer and try and raise the awareness of how serious passive smoking actually is. This example is used to show that different people show their suffering in different ways. Suffering is an attitude to pain and certain people react different to it. Jesus is a wonderful role model to show this. Nobody will actually suffer like Jesus did, but we know he understands our suffering and pain and that’s what is important to Christians, they also believe that they need to suffer in order to grow.
When Jesus was dying he thought that no-one was there for him, but God was there, not in physical but spiritual presence. God is there for everyone; in his eyes we are all special. Jesus’ resurrection gives us security and assures us that life is going to be better for us and it gives us hope, something we can look forward to; in a way it is a reward for us. It is also a comfort for us to know that death is not the end and we can be with our loved ones and God when we die.
The Commission is also important to Christians, because when Jesus resurrected he gave orders to his disciples that they were to go and preach the gospel to the whole world. Jesus told his disciples that they would be able to heal the sick, drive out demons and be able to speak a language that everyone would understand and most importantly be baptised. Baptism is essential if you were to become a Christian it was a way to cleanse your sins and it would decide whether you would go to Heaven or Hell. Without this Christianity probably would not be one our largest religions in the world today.
Some Christians wear crosses around a necklace; there are two different types symbolising two different things. If you wear a cross with a figure on it, Jesus, then atonement is very important to you but if you wear a plain cross then the resurrection is important
Overall this is why the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus are important for Christians today, they appreciate more from life, without suffering they will not be able to mature and have a further understanding of life.
