Our subject this week is Holy Communion or the Eucharist (meaning giving thanks). Communion (meaning union with) was instituted by Christ at the last supper at the time of the Jewish Passover, celebrating the day when the angel of death passed over the Hebrew people and caused the death of all of the firstborn of Egypt. It was a terrible day of deliverance for the Hebrews and a time of great mourning for the people of Egypt. So, why did Jesus choose this day and this time to institute what he called the New Covenant?
First, the Passover was a time of deliverance of the Jews from captivity and slavery. It was the watershed moment in Hebrew history when God came in power to set them free from the Egyptians. Now Jesus comes and fulfills the law of the Torah by living it out perfectly and bringing a new law of forgiveness through His blood and His body ... this sacrament is a remembrance of Christ's life, death and (soon to be) resurrection. While it remembers the Passover it points forward to Christ.
Second, this New Covenant is completed in Christ and expands God's work to the gentiles. No longer are the Jewish traditions and customs the focus of faith (as if they ever should have been the focus ... they were meant to point to God). So the New Covenant points to the sufficiency of Jesus as the focus, the path and the person of our faith. In Ezekiel and Jeremiah God promises a New Covenant that changes everything from that point on. Joel said God's Spirit will be poured out on all people and that all will have the capacity to know Him. Paul continues this idea as he takes the message to the gentiles and has the audacity to suggest that the New Covenant is sufficient apart from the Jewish traditions. Knowledge of these traditions continue to inform our understanding of many New Testament passages but Paul defends the new Christians from the Judaizers who (in clear error, in fact called a heresy in the early Church) said we must continue Jewish traditions to be true Christians. Paul said everyone was invited to the party called Christianity.
Third, this New Covenant lives out the blessing God spoke about to Abraham when He said Abraham would be father of a nation who would bless all people and all nations. Jesus is that blessing.
The shame of it all is this. Where this Sacrament was to bless and unify God's people it, through the centuries, has become a point of divisiveness. Some refuse to accept the Sacrament of the New Covenant and insist on going backwards to the Passover. Some think we should only celebrate Communion once a year. Some believe the bread and wine are the real body and blood of Christ, ignoring the obvious symbolic nature of Jesus' comment in that room at the Passover before His crucifixion. In short, this time of Christian unity has become a way to divide and confuse rather than a way to celebrate our thanksgiving for the forgiveness offered in His "once for all" sacrifice on the cross of Calvary.
What should we do? Come on the 21st and we will celebrate what Jesus did that Thursday night before He gave Himself up for us. It is called "Maundy Thursday" and comes from the word mandatory ... Jesus said "Do this in remembrance of me." We'll look back, look at that night and look forward with shame (He died for my sins) and thanksgiving (He purchased my forgiveness). We will remember together, hopefully in unity. I'll see you there! Pastor Randy
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