We celebrate the Lord’s Supper each week by sharing this little piece of bread and a few drops of juice. These two basic items, which are simple enough to be found in every culture around the globe, are meant to remind us of Jesus. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all recount the story of Jesus instructing his disciples about the bread and the cup. During the Passover meal, Jesus takes some bread and declares, “This is my body, given for you.” And then in a similar fashion, He takes the cup and says, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.” Simple and short, but packed with meaning.
Luke’s gospel starts the meal with Jesus telling His disciples, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until if finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.” This will be their last meal together before Jesus is arrested in the garden and everything else that follows. This is one reason that Jesus’s “Last Supper” becomes the “Lord’s Supper.” But don’t forget that Jesus also was very intentional in setting up the Lord’s Supper DURING this Passover Meal. He wants His disciples to draw meaning and connection between what they are celebrating in the Passover and the events that are just about to take place.
Exodus 12 is where we find the story of how the Passover Meal began. Israel is enslaved to Egypt and the oppression is great. God has empowered Moses to battle with Pharaoh (and Egypt’s gods) through the first nine plagues, and has announced the nature of the tenth and final plague. The Israelites are instructed to sacrifice a lamb and use it to prepare a hasty meal with unleavened bread. Some of the blood from the lamb is to be spread on the doorframe of the house where they will eat. When the Lord passes through the land killing all firstborn of both people and animals, He will see the blood on the doorpost and passover that house and whomever is inside. The power of Egypt will be broken and the Israelites will be set free. They are then instructed to celebrate this meal and reenact this evening every year as a meal of remembrance of what God has done.
Jesus declares that this new meal of remembrance is the FULLFILLMENT of the old one. When we accept the saving Grace of Jesus, we align our lives with God’s Kingdom in this new covenant. Then when it comes time for God to pass judgement again, he instead sees the blood of Jesus in our place and passes us over. In Exodus, I don’t think it really mattered who was inside the house. If the doorframe had the blood of the sacrificial lamb on it, God passed them over. Similarly, it doesn’t really matter who you are either. When you choose Christ and put your faith in Him, His blood causes God’s judgement to pass over you as well.
The Israelites were instructed to commemorate this Passover Meal each year in order to remember and pass on to future generations the story of the night that God delivered them from bondage. God broke the power of the Egyptians and set them free, and the Passover meal stood as a lasting reminder of that fact. By sacrificing that lamb and spreading its blood on the doorposts, they were CHOOSING to go with God rather than remain in bondage to the Egyptians. Because of this blood, they were set free from slavery to the Egyptians and could follow God wherever He leads. Commemorating this choice each year through the Passover Meal was vitally important. We read in the following chapters of Exodus that the Israelites were going to need every reminder they could get if they were going to keep choosing God instead of something else. Time and again, we read about how they failed to do so.
For us, this choice was made at our baptism. When we put on Jesus in baptism, we CHOSE through faith, to go with God rather than remain in bondage to sin. In a similar way to Israel, we are set free from sin because of our faith and can follow God wherever He leads. Commemorating this choice each week through this meal of remembrance is vitally important. Before we get too down on Israel for failing to consistently choose God as they wandered the desert, let’s be honest with ourselves and recognize that we also fail to consistently choose God – and we get this remembrance meal every week! I don’t have to remember all the way back to the last Passover meal. I simply have to remember back to last Sunday!
So, in this remembrance meal, and with this blood of Jesus, let us be mindful not only of Jesus and the sacrifice that He made. Let us remember that we CHOSE to follow Him and trust in His blood for our own passover. May this meal also help us to KEEP CHOOSING God in the midst of our wandering this week.
~ Clay
Fowlers in Japan 