Meals are important. Putting aside the fact that our bodies need for to function, we place a lot of importance in eating together. From Christmas Dinner to that first date, or the traditional Sunday Roast with the family to the obligatory trip to McDonalds after a night out, meals mean something. When we gather together and food is involved we make great memories, and usually post those memories all over Instagram. But no meal in history is more momentous and significant to our lives than one which was eaten about 2000 years ago by Jesus Christ and his friends on the eve of his death. The Passover is a Jewish festival which remembers the liberation of the people of Israel from the slavery of Egypt. It is one of the longest standing feast days in history, having been celebrated for over 3000 years. The Passover meal, or Seder, tells the story this liberation interactively through the food that is eaten, songs that are sung and words that are said through the course of the meal. This is all done in a certain order. There are some very important elements to this, such as unleavened bread, and roasted lamb and bitter herbs which signify different elements of the story, but there are also four cups of wine which are drunk through the meal which signify four promises that God made during the Passover. These are found in Exodus 6:
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“‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgement. I will take you to be my people…’”
The night before Jesus died, he was leading this meal with his disciples. And he used it to establish a new covenant (Bible word for an agreement or contract between God and us) that would come about through his death and resurrection. Jesus took the story of the Passover and used it to teach his disciples, and us, the significance of what was about to happen. All four of the Gospels record this meal, but I want to pick up in Matthew’s account:
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“Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, ‘Take, eat; this is my body.’ And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.’”
So here Jesus takes the bread and wine and gives them a new meaning, he claims that he is the fulfilment of what they signify and tells us to remember him whenever eat and drink them. The bread which Jesus broke was unleavened, which means it was made without yeast, in the Bible yeast represents sin and evil, so when Jesus identifies his body with this bread he is saying that his sinless body is broken for us. The unleavened bread originally symbolised Israel leaving slavery in Egypt, where they had to make bread quickly so did not add the yeast. So with this Jesus is saying that as his sinless body is broken, it will take us out of slavery and bondage from sin and evil.
The cup of wine that Jesus takes would have been the third cup in the meal, we know this through layering what the different gospels say and piecing together the accounts with the order of the Passover. This cup is known as the “Cup of Redemption” and represents the promise “I will redeem you with an outstretched arm”. Traditionally, people celebrating the Passover drank from their own cup each time, with the host filling it up for each promise. However here, Jesus only fills his own and gives it to them. He is saying that his blood and his blood alone will be our cup of redemption. That this cup will deliver us from sin. It signifies his blood, which is given when his arms are outstretched on the cross and he died for us.
As I said at the beginning, meals mean something. When we eat and drink together we create memories and mark significant moments in the stories of our own lives and those around us. This meal, which we are all invited to join in with, points to the incredible sacrifice that God made, through Jesus, for us. It points to the fact that he has brought us out, not from the burden of the Egyptians but from the burden of sin. That he has delivered us from its slavery by dying in our place. And that his blood has redeemed us as his arms were stretched out on the cross. It also comes with the invitation for us to be his people. To love according to his way of life, living a life which is all about love, following Jesus’ example.
In communion we join in with 2000 years of people looking back at what Jesus did for us, saving us from sin. We look at what he is doing now, redeeming us day by day to be more like himself. And we look at what will happen when he comes again, and we are united with him once again as his people. Let’s never forget the significance of this meal, the invitation we have to be part of this momentous moment in history and make it a reality in our lives.
