On the bread we use for Holy Communion we stamp the ancient Christian motto: IC XC NI KA at the four corners of the Cross.
IC is an abbreviation of the name of Jesus. XC is an abbreviation of his messianic title “Christos.” And NIKA together means “Victor” in the verb form. “Conquers” is a close but ultimately inadequate common English rendering. Yes, that “Nika” shares the same word-origin with the Greco-Roman deity Nike from which the shoe/clothing brand takes its name. But unlike the greeklings’ god, Christ’s feet are not flanged with lunate wings, they are instead pierced by nail-marks, marked by the crushing of the serpent’s head. Christ is Victor precisely because he fulfills another complimentary role: that of Victim.
Simplified somewhat it names the loaf as the victory bread of Jesus the Messiah. The meal we share is not merely a fellowship-at-a-safe-distance. It is a partaking of the victory-making work of Jesus.
This week we feast in the wake of Jesus’ triumphant victory over sin and death and hell and evil and flesh and the devil. And yet the bread of which we partake presses that victory further: Jesus Christ is not only the victor in the past-tense, He is victor in the ongoing infinitive form as well. He has not only “victor-ed” he is ever and always “victor-ing. ” World without end and age after age. Amen.
Christ comes to wreak his cosmic and eternal victory not only once-and-for-all upon the Cross, but once-and-forever-and-therefore-daily in your life. Here in the wake of Easter, where do you need to see that victory? Where, after all the pastels have been put away, and the easter eggs eaten, and the bouncy-houses taken-down, and the sermons ceased, do you need to continue living in that Victory? Behold, that victory is on-going; that meal continues.
Welcome to the banquet of the Victorious.