We took the Lord's Supper yesterday at Church. That never gets old or "routine" for me. Regardless of whether you view it as a sacrament or an ordinance, you must admit that it is an ingenious teaching device. I was thinking about it last summer, and noticed that it's observance uses all five senses to show the suffering of Christ.
Sight:
The wine (or watered-down grape juice) looks so much like blood that it's kinda creepy sometimes. I definitely have to stop and consider the blood that Christ shed for me.
Smell/Taste:
Most teaching techniques involve two senses at best: sight and sound. Just the fact that these other senses are being stimulated makes this lesson much more real to our bodies. Also, as I understand it, our olfactory (smell) sensors are very closely linked to our memory [that is why smells always remind you of the past], further ingraining the experience in our mind.
Touch:
Like smell and taste, this sense is rarely used in the learning experience. The sensation of the drink trickling down my throat and the hard, brittle feel of the bread (or stale, unleavened cracker thing) gives me a tactile reminder of the body that was broken for me.
Sound:
When I was first thinking about all five senses, this one was, at first, the hardest, but now, it is the most emotional of them. Some people try to carefully crush the bread in their mouth as quietly as possible, but I purposely make a loud noise. When I hear the crunch reverberate through the sanctuary, it reminds me that Christ was crushed for my sins [see Isaiah 53]. And, in a funny way, the clank of the little glass cups hitting their "holders" in the pew is almost like an "Amen" or "so be it" from the congregation, finalizing the observance.
It really can be an emotional time for me. Jesus knew what He was doing when He commanded us to do this to remember Him.
-10:21