Last weekend I spent
several hours on the GO train. I was
headed to and from a point east of Toronto, but as it happens the express train
coming into Union Station from the west arrives within a minute of the east-bound
train leaving on a different track. So I
missed my connection and was stranded in TO for an hour. As it happens, they were handing out free
newspapers and shortly I found myself reading an article about a community
event in Toronto on the Sunday.
Apparently since 1998 the community is invited to bake Matzo in the park
in an open oven – supplies are donated by a local company and as many as wish
to can mix, knead, roll and bake the bread within the customary 18
minutes.
Why 18 minutes you
ask? To quote The Star, “The time limit is in keeping with a
traditional belief that flour – when it comes in contact with water – will rise
[become leavened] after that amount
of time.” In Exodus 12 the Jewish
people were specifically told to prepare the Passover meal in haste, and to
make the bread without yeast (leaven – see Ex 12:8). This meal was (and is) to be a perpetual
festival as the Lord declared, “Celebrate
the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought
your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the
generations to come. In the
first month you are to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the
fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day. For seven days no yeast is to be found
in your houses. And whoever eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from
the community of Israel, whether he is an alien or native-born. Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever
you live, you must eat unleavened bread.” [1]
Most Christians know that
Passover was a physical foreshadow of the spiritual reality of Easter. As 1 Cor 5:7 declares, “For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore
let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and
wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. [2]” The lamb that was sacrificed in Passover is
a foreshadow of Jesus, who is the sinless lamb of God, sacrificed for us. In the Gospel of John we read of John the
Baptist’s first encounter with Jesus; “John saw Jesus coming toward him and
said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! [3]” The
unleaved bread of the Passover is symbolic of His sinless body, broken for us on
what we now call Good Friday (see Mark
14:22), the wine is symbolic of His blood, spilt for us the same day (see Mark
14:23-24). So the Christian celebration
of Easter has its origin in the events on Calvary (where Christ was crucified)
but its roots in the Jewish Passover.
That makes sense, for salvation comes from the Jews (not my words, but
Christ’s – see John 4:22).
But why would God use bread
and wine? Bread is the most basic
of foods – in the ancient middle east wine was a very common drink. The analogy is best seen in that light.
Bread is available in some
form all over the world. Likewise Jesus
is available to all for salvation. Bread
is necessary to sustain human life. We
need some form of carbohydrate in our diet to provide us with the energy we
need to live. In a like manner Jesus is necessary to us –
without His indwelling influence we have no spiritual life. Bread is made of crushed grain just as wine
is crushed out of the grape. In a similar
way Jesus’ was crushed for us. Isaiah
53:5 declares, “But he was pierced for
our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment
that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.”
We remember Jesus’
sacrifice for us on the cross every time we take communion, what we call “the
Lord’s supper”. This sacrament has its
origins in Jesus’ last celebration of the Passover meal. As the Scripture records: “When
the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. And he said to them, “I have eagerly
desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For
I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom
of God.” After taking the
cup, he gave thanks and said, “Take this and divide it among you. For I tell you I will not drink again of
the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” And he took bread, gave thanks and broke
it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in
remembrance of me.” In the
same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new
covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you. [4]”
During communion we
prayerfully consider our state before God and His sacrifice for us. Then the bread is broken before being offered
to all around the table. In a similar
way Jesus’ body was broken by the scourging He endured just before He died for
us all (see Rom 5:8). All around the
table partake of the one bread – just as all who come to Jesus partake of His
one sacrifice and are made alive by His one Spirit. Then the cup is lifted up and all
participate, just as Jesus was lifted up on the cross and all who jcome to Him are
washed of their sin and made new by His Spirit.
As Schaff and Schaff wrote,
“The
Lord’s Supper is: (1) a commemorative ordinance, a memorial of Christ’s atoning
sacrifice on the cross; (2) a feast of living union of believers with the
Saviour, whereby they truly, that is spiritually and by faith, receive Christ,
with all his benefits, and are nourished with his life unto life eternal; (3) a
communion of believers with one another as members of the same mystical body of
Christ; (4) a eucharist or thankoffering of our persons and services to Christ,
who died for us that we might live for him. [5]”
This Easter, let us give
thanks and celebrate. But first let us
prayerfully consider the great cost and truth of Good Friday.
[1]
The Holy Bible: New International Version.
1984 (Ex 12:17–20). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
[2]
The New International Version. 2011
(1 Co 5:6–8). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
[3]
The Holy Bible: New International Version.
1984 (Jn 1:29). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
[4]
The Holy Bible: New International Version.
1984 (Lk 22:14–20). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
[5]
Schaff, P., & Schaff, D. S. (1910). History
of the Christian church. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.
No comments:
Post a Comment