Tag: Communion

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Easter eggs hidden throughout the Bible.

Reading Time: 2 minutes 
“For the Lord holds a cup in his hand that is full of foaming wine mixed with spices. He pours out the wine in judgment, and all the wicked must drink it, draining it to the dregs.”
‭Psalms‬ ‭75:8‬ ‭NLT‬‬

​Wow. This cup that the Psalmist refers to is the cup of judgment from God. Asaph writes about all those who are arrogant and defiant towards God, “I warned the proud, ‘Stop your boasting!’ I told the wicked, ‘Don’t raise your fists! Don’t raise your fists in defiance at the heavens or speak with such arrogance.’” He says that God mixes a bitter drink and makes the wicked drink it. This is cup of judgment. Benson says, “God is here compared to the master of a feast, who, in those days, used to distribute portions of meats or drinks to the several guests, as he thought fit.” And Barnes says, “It is full of mixture – Mixed with spices, in order to increase its strength; or, as we should say, drugged. This was frequently done in order to increase the intoxicating quality of wine. The idea is, that the wrath of God was like wine whose native strength, or power of producing intoxication, was thus increased by drugs.” The king, giving these different cups to their guests were signifying either a blessing or judgment. And, these cups of blessing or curses were mentioned all through the Old Testament.

The gospel writers bring back this idea, these symbols of cups at the last supper, and in the garden of Gethsemane. “And he took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it. He gave it to them and said, “Each of you drink from it,” Matthew‬ ‭26:27‬. “Then Jesus left them a second time and prayed, “My Father! If this cup cannot be taken away unless I drink it, your will be done.” Matthew‬ ‭26:42‬ ‭NLT‬. One more reference is made to the guards offering Jesus “sour wine,” possibly an analgesic to ease the pain. Jesus refused this ‬drink. Matthew 27:34.

God is definitely into these deep, symbolic moments of mystery and has hundreds of encoded “Easter eggs” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_egg_(media) ) scattered throughout scripture. All of them leaving clues and all them pointing to the fulfillment of the work Christ has done for us.

Prayer

Dad,
You are amazing at not only telling your grand story of tragedy and redemption. But the sheer amount of details woven into the salvation of humans is astounding! There are so many clues, so many hints hidden in plain sight. I do however notice that people have to actually look for them. Even in the parables, Christ plainly said, they don’t give answers they encourage seeking! And when we seek… we FIND. I am thankful that you brought me the message of hope and made it so clear, so simple. I think it’s another sign of your mercy to those who are broken, and how you give grace to the humble.

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Will the real communion please stand up.

Reading Time: 3 minutes 
“For I pass on to you what I received from the Lord himself. On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, he took the cup of wine after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this in remembrance of me as often as you drink it.” For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord’s death until he comes again.” 1 Corinthians‬ ‭11:23-26‬ ‭NLT‬‬

It is very significant that the Apostle Paul picked up this Maundy Thursday practice and now sacrament that would live on in every church and every believer. This event was huge in Judaism, because Jesus was celebrating a Super Passover, a Year of Jubilee Passover with all the elements except for the main course, the lamb. But in fact the lamb wasn’t missing at all, it was there at that Passover. However, it wasn’t sacrificed and eaten completely that night, it would be sacrificed about 24 hrs later and very much consumed within three days. The Passover lamb was Jesus and that night was the final Passover necessary for the whole world. That night, the remembrance of the very old story Moses recorded about the death angel passing over when he saw the blood applied on the doorposts of the people who believed and obeyed. But also God commanding that the Jewish people celebrate that memory up until this very night when Christ himself completed the object lesson! For the Jewish person, this was a final celebration in its original form. However for the gentile it would be a brand new practice going forward.

This final Passover was the handoff, the bridge between the Jews and Gentiles who ALL celebrate a different kind of Passover, a communion.

Did you think about the fact that Paul was the only one who restated the story and commented on some of the abuses of the Corinth church concerning communion? I am so thankful he did! Did you know that the abuse of what was considered a “Love Feast,” continued to cause churches problems for several hundred years! Did you know that one of the early Bishop’s tried to shut it all down and basically NOT ALLOW communion to be served to fake believers and it could only be administered through an approved Bishop? This was all before the highly structured Eucharist system in the Catholic church. Paul just said “stop the abuses.” However, the church clamped down the “celebration” part so severely and reduced it to a authoritative top-down experience that we never recovered the joy of remembering or the hope of Christ’s coming. Now, the church still thinks that communion can only be served a certain way and that it must be done by professional clergy in a very controlled, almost mechanical way. This very holy object lesson or ceremony needs the fresh breath of the Holy Spirit to bring us back to reality. The body of Christ gathers, we commune, we celebrate and remember the sacrifice Jesus made and CHEER his second coming.

PRAYER:

Dad,
I have always enjoyed communion! I have always thought and felt deeply about that night so long ago. I have always loved the rich, deep historical and theological significance of the Passover. However, I’ve always wanted to be much more celebratory about the whole thing. I’m thankful Paul wrote about it, even if it was a correction to the church. I would also love to bring back a sense of a love feast, gathering in joy and telling the stories of your great grace.

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Lessons in Individualism or community

Reading Time: 2 minutes 
“But in the following instructions, I cannot praise you. For it sounds as if more harm than good is done when you meet together. First, I hear that there are divisions among you when you meet as a church, and to some extent I believe it. But, of course, there must be divisions among you so that you who have God’s approval will be recognized! When you meet together, you are not really interested in the Lord’s Supper.” 1 Corinthians‬ ‭11:17-20‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Paul is really heated here, writing to the churches in Corinth. It’s so ironic that the most eloquently written summary of Communion and most often used in our services today was written in such brutal honesty.

Paul, delivering high truth with high love gets all over the church for being selfishly schismed! They came as individuals, ate and drank as individuals and thought nothing of it. This idea of unity has been the core of my heart and the exhortation towards the Church for as long as I can remember. Love FOR God is both vertical and horizontal. I’ve been saying it for years. Someone says they love God, the proof is how they love the least, the hardest, the most disenfranchised among them.

Paul’s exasperated joke falls on dense eyes and ears, “of course there has to be division…” how could anyone tell if there’s a clear leader if there weren’t wealth, gluttony and authoritative snobbery? Does God only bless the best?

Our sacrament to God should be a practice of sacrifice, service and unity. It should be clear that the rich are sharing, not in a communistic fashion, but in God-given generosity. It’s not to equalize wealth, it’s to love! And the strong and mature are serving.

I love the bluntness of the NLT, they were not interested in the “Lord’s” supper at all, to some it was just another party.

These abuses in the love feast ended up damaging communion so badly that it took on a far more formal, ecumenical style. It was later reduced and compacted into a far more ceremonial experience where communion had to be served to people rather than people serving one another. Chalk another great living object lesson lost to the church believing we should do it properly, the way it’s “always been done.”

PRAYER:

Dad,
Revisiting this always make me sad and mad at how we’ve taken a beautiful experience and expression of theology being lived out together in the church and reduced it to a checklist. I don’t mind the miniature symbolism as much as I mind the loss of community, service and intent to remind us of being a true body of believers. That we have to fight much harder to remove the individualism in communion or water baptism, for that matter, to get back to a shared community expression of our to you and each other. Help us O’ Lord!