Why We Do What We Do on Sunday

These days, we question everything, whether it’s the news, our clothes, or church tradition. Nothing is certain in our minds anymore, and maybe that isn’t a bad thing. We all have to make our own spiritual foundation, and asking questions leads to deeper understanding of the Bible and why the Christian church keeps certain traditions. Two of the most important traditions that we question are assembly on the first day of the week and the Lord’s Supper.

The Lord's Day

We find the term ‘first day of the week’ in several places in Scripture. One is Mark 16:2: “And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb.” But Jesus’ body was not found in the tomb that day, because he rose from the grave on the first day of the week, which is how the first weekday became a special day for Christians; Revelation 1:10 calls it the “Lord’s Day.” And again, in Acts 20:7, Christians gathered on the first day of the week: “On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight.”

How do we know Sunday is the correct weekday? Sabbath (shabbat) means seventh. In the first century CE, Ignatius of Antioch, in an epistle, wrote that Christians “have come to the possession of a new hope, no longer observing the Sabbath, but living in the observance of the Lord's Day.” So if Christians no longer observed the Sabbath (the seventh day) and we know they met on the first day of the week, it had to be Sunday.

The Lord's Supper

The church met on Sunday to break bread and eat together: “On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight” (Acts 20:7). Sometimes Scripture uses the phrase ‘break bread’ to indicate a common meal, but when people are gathering together specially to break bread, they are taking the Lord’s Supper. The early church called it Eucharist, from the Greek word eucharisteo, which means ‘to give thanks.’ Early Christians did this in remembrance of Christ on the day of His betrayal: “For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread,  and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me” (1 Corinthians 11:23-24). And we do the same with the cup. But we don’t take the Lord’s Supper merely because we have an example of it; in fact, we are commanded to take the Lord’s Supper when we meet on Sundays. It is Jesus’ exact exhortation: “Do this in remembrance of me.”

There are three significances to the Lord’s Supper.

1. Communion: We are fellowshipping, participating, and sharing in the body and blood of Christ. We are all saved by His blood. This is a time intended specifically for baptized believers to partake in together.
2. Memorial: The Lord’s Supper is done in remembrance of Jesus. When we eat the body and drink the blood, we should think of Jesus’ sacrifice for us.
3. Proclamation: “ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes” (1 Corinthians 11:26). This is the one time we are religiously commanded to focus not on his resurrection, but his death. When Christians come together on Sunday morning and partake of the Lord’s Supper, we are making a statement: that we believe in the efficacy of Christ’s death on the cross. We believe our hope rests in his death and sacrifice.

Reflection questions

1. When you take the Lord's Supper, what are you actually thinking about? Does your mind genuinely engage with what it represents, or has it become routine? What would help you be more present in that moment?
2. The supper is described as a communion, a shared participation in Christ's body and blood. How does thinking of it that way change how you see the people sitting around you when you take it?
3. We assemble on Sunday because Jesus rose on Sunday. Does the day feel significant to you, or has it become just another morning? What would it mean to treat it as the Lord's day in the full sense of that phrase?