The Master's Meal

In recent years I have focused more (than earlier) on Christ’s death and resurrection. In our congregation we ‘celebrate’ our Master’s death monthly, and for the last four years we hosted a Christian Passover meal as part of the Easter preparation.  The centrality of the cross has also come through in the weekly preaching.

The Passover is the old Jewish feast that commemorates the birth of their nation at the Exodus from Egypt.  At this crucial event, God, ‘remembering’ His promises to Abraham, rescues his offspring from suffering in slavery and sets them on the journey to the Promised Land. 

It was a new beginning.  What God had built up in Abraham’s life, making him a man of faith, seems to have been lost in his children.  Judah and his sons lived not much different from the God-accursed Canaanites.  And yet, God continued with his plans, fulfilling his promises to Abraham. He called Israel from Canaan, leading them to the borderlands of Egypt.  Living in relative isolation, God used this time of about four hundred years to let Canaan’s sins ripen for judgment while he built the Hebrews into a great multitude.  Although they had the stories of their fathers and their patriarchs were ‘waiting’ in the Promised Land, it seemed that few people thought of leaving Egypt. 

So, God had to use brutal slavery and oppression to stir in the Hebrews a longing for home.  And then he used a battle of magic (spiritual power) to show that He is God Almighty, and that Abraham’s seed could fully trust Him all the way home.  Yet, they had a lot to learn on their journey through the wilderness.  And it did not come easy to them to live as God’s Kingdom in a royal priesthood.  Only finally, in King David, do we get a glimpse of the Kingdom as God had wanted it.  Yet, also this Golden Age was short-lived; soon the Kingdom crumbled and collapsed until Abraham’s seed was forced to leave their land again.

Matthew (in his first chapter) begins his account with this redemptive history. In bold strokes he paints a powerful picture of the story of God’s Kingdom from Abraham to Christ.  It is an amazing portrait showing the creation, fall, and restoration of God’s Kingdom.  Finally, after another long time in exile, a righteous remnant may return to the land of Israel and the city of David.  And then the time has come for God to bring his covenant to the climax in his Son, for He is the true Son of Abraham, the true Son of David.

When we meet the Lord Jesus near the dramatic end of his ministry, he hosts the Passover meal.  On the eve of his Exodus, the Passover lamb had been slain so that its blood outside the door could save the family inside.  Now, the true Passover Lamb has come, ready to lay down His life to save His people from the judgment.   Breaking the bread of suffering, He claims, “This is my body- the bread of my suffering!”  Also, to provide the wine for His Wedding Feast, his precious blood would have to flow.  Only in this way could God’s wrath for sin be satisfied, and only through His Son’s death could history unfold to the final and full restoration of God’s Kingdom!

When we come to the communion (table), we are standing at the cross.  Looking back, we can see the road of the covenant: from Paradise through the fall and the flood to Abraham.  Abraham did not have to walk the path of blood when the covenant was sealed, for already there God promised to be broken as Abraham’s seed would break the covenant.  Then, we look from Abraham via Egypt and the Exodus to the Promised Land; from David through the breaking of the Kingdom and the exile to the Lamb of God.  And the Lord said, “The New Reality starts here: Look ahead: from the cross to the open grave, and from the Pentecost to the Final Harvest Feast!”  As surely as the Messiah has come, so we must be assured that He will come again to make all things new!  And just as Christ is the Lamb who was slain, He is also the Bridegroom, inviting us into His wedding feast.

The citizens of Rome may have thought that the Christians were crazy cannibals, but for the followers of Christ the Communion is a powerful picture of an incredible story.  The traditional Passover is a ‘bittersweet event’, looking back at suffering in slavery and judgment, while it also celebrates freedom and the road to a new land of peace and prosperity.   For us, in the new covenant, it is also a bittersweet event: Through His torture and murder we may celebrate our new lives of freedom in Christ.  And we must be encouraged to continue the journey in faithful anticipation of the New Jerusalem!

At the Lord’s Supper we are invited to share in this sacrifice and in its blessed outcome.  He invites all his followers to join Him at the table.  When our Lord Jesus proclaimed “This is my body”, he did not actually eat his body; neither did he drink his own blood. Yet, when we join him at the table, somehow He is there: standing in our midst.  Of course, in his Spirit, He is present everywhere- especially where two or three are gathered in his Name!  So, how is His presence special and unique when we celebrate His Supper?  I don’t know; I cannot exactly understand.  Perhaps, in our rejection of the Roman mass, we have become blind to the mystery of the communion… Perhaps here lies another mystery that we cannot fully grasp.  But that’s all right: it would be a mistake if we try to limit God’s truth to our understanding or to force it into rigid creeds!