I’m sure I’ve shared this insight before, but just in case you’ve never heard it, here’s a little story I want to share with you. It was a few years ago, before I received my ordination, I was taking classes to prepare for ministry. One of these classes was about the history of the early Christian church. One of my assignments for this class was to visit churches of different Christian traditions. So I went to a Catholic church for Saturday Mass, and the next day, and I had to skip my regular service to do this, but I went to a Greek Orthodox Church.
It was really cool, actually. There was this sweet lady who met me at the door and invited me to sit with her. We chatted a little before the service started, and she explained to me how things go. They sing a few songs, just like we do, though I didn’t join in the singing because the songs were in Greek. But, I was able to read the English translation as they were singing and they were beautiful songs, and the people were singing them in genuine worship. She explained to me that they would read from their readings taken from Scripture, which are kind of like lectionary readings for us (sections of Scripture read on the same day every year, which gets the congregation through most of the Bible in the course of the year).
There was a short message based on one of the readings, much like we listen to a sermon. And then, it was time for communion. The lady I was sitting with explained to me that the Greek Orthodox Church took eucharist much more seriously than Protestants. For them, there is a period of preparation that a person must go through in order to be able to take communion that Sunday during service.
They prepare for communion by first, fasting. They eat or drink nothing except water for the morning, so that the first thing they eat is the body of Christ. They then come to service early to enter into a special time of prayer, with the father and others who want to take communion. They go through a special prayer that is fairly lengthy. The prayer walks them through repentance of sins, asking God to cleanse them of their unrighteousness. They pray through several Psalms, asking God for mercy and forgiveness, that they might dwell with God. They pray through Psalms asking God to hear them and turn His face to them and shine upon them with blessings. They pray through their Doxology, their statement of beliefs of who God is, to remind themselves of the One that they serve and are giving respect and reverence to. They pray to the different persons of the Godhead, Father, Spirit, Son, asking each to work in His special role in their lives. It’s a very extensive prayer time. Then, they are expected to give as part of their preparation for taking communion. And they go through a prayer of forgiveness, to forgive those who they may be holding grudges against.
See, they don’t just show up and take the bread and the cup. There’s thought and prayer and heart-searching that goes on before they take the bread and cup. I can’t help but wonder. I know we don’t do a lot of these rituals and traditions. We’re not “high” church with a lot of liturgical processes. I get that those things can become legalistic and oppressive even. But as I watched each of those parishioners go down the center of the church to take the body and blood of Christ, they looked joyful. There was excitement, and awe on their faces. There were even small children who went through the process to prepare to take the bread and cup. They didn’t look oppressed, or bored, or like they were just checking boxes. I saw faces of genuine love and worship for God. I can’t help but wonder…if this was what we asked of church goers before communion…who would come?
I don’t say this to try to make us feel guilty, but I see that sometimes, we are far too comfortable and apathetic when it comes to approaching the Almighty God. I think we take it for granted that we can just approach Him whenever we want, and we’ve become flippant about it. A little more awe and reverence may do us good.
I think about my experience watching the Greek Orthodox take communion frequently. And it’s relevant, because this morning, as we continue talking about the Symbols of Easter in the Bible, we’re going to talk about the Bread and Cup. We’ve looked at The Lamb, which represents for us, sacrifice, the price paid for the debt of sin. We’ve looked at The Cross, which represents victory over sin and death. We’ve looked at The Crown of Thorns, which represents humility, a willingness to submit self for the Lord.
Let’s go to Scripture this morning, in Luke 22:7-20. “Now the first day of Unleavened Bread came, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. 8 And so Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover for us, so that we may eat it.” 9 They said to Him, “Where do You want us to prepare it?” 10 And He said to them, “When you have entered the city, a man carrying a pitcher of water will meet you; follow him into the house that he enters. 11 And you shall say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher says to you, “Where is the guest room in which I may eat the Passover with My disciples?”’ 12 And he will show you a large, furnished upstairs room; prepare it there.” 13 And they left and found everything just as He had told them; and they prepared the Passover. 14 When the hour came, He reclined at the table, and the apostles with Him. 15 And He said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; 16 for I say to you, I shall not eat it again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” 17 And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He said, “Take this and share it among yourselves; 18 for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes.” 19 And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body, which is being given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 20 And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup, which is poured out for you, is the new covenant in My blood.” (NASB)
This was the PASSOVER before the Crucifixion of Christ. It’s a Jewish tradition, one that has roots going all the way back into Genesis. In Genesis 15:13-14 God told the patriarch Abraham this, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years. 14 But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out with many possessions.”
If we just look at these two verses and understand them directly, what we will find is that Abraham’s descendants become enslaved in Egypt. They were there about 400 years. They were greatly oppressed. But then God delivered them, and Egypt was judged, and Abraham’s descendants came out of Egypt with a lot of possessions and goods. So, this promise God gave to Abraham was an ancient promise of covenant, to watch over Abraham’s descendants, and to deliver them out of oppression.
But if you look at all that surrounds these verses, you see that this is a very personal promise and covenant to Abraham. He didn’t have any descendants because he had no children. He was old. He was upset that God had made all of these promises to give him an heir, but it hadn’t happened yet. This promise was personal reminder to Abraham of God’s faithful covenant with him. God wasn’t going to let Abraham down. He would do as He promised, even if took longer than Abraham wished. This was personal for Abraham, and God was saying, “Hey, I’m faithful. I’m going to do what I say.”
And He did. God gave Abraham a son, because God is faithful. And that son had two sons. And one of those twin sons had twelve sons. And they did end up in Egypt, and eventually enslaved and oppressed. And then, because God is faithful, He judged Egypt and delivered His people out of slavery.
They were told to mark the occasion with a meal. A special meal, on the night that God would pronounce His final judgment on Egypt with a tenth plague, when He would passover His people who had covered their home with the blood of a lamb. And this meal was something they were meant to do to remember, and Exodus 13:8 tells us what they were meant to say year after year: “And you shall tell your son on that day, saying, ‘It is because of what the Lord did for ME when I came out of Egypt.’” (NASB)
The passover meal was meant to be a personal time of remembrance and reflection. Each person is meant to remember what God did for them personally, as well as what He had done for all His people. As Jews continue to do this every year and participate in the Passover meal every year, they read through the Haggadah. The Haggadah is a little booklet of readings, that guides the Pesach seder, which is the Jewish name for the Passover meal. The Haggadah guides them through the meal (seder) and reminds the family of all that the Passover means. During this time, they eat the Paschal lamb, the sacrificial lamb, and we know as Christians that Jesus is our Passover lamb. However, the portion in the Haggadah that talks about the lamb is very small. There is much more space in the Haggadah devoted to the bread and the cup. While the blood of the lamb was important, the bread and cup was more important because of what it reminded them of.
What does the bread and cup remind them of at the Passover meal? It reminded them that yes, they had freedom from slavery. But, it is also a reminder of the brokenness of humanity. God’s people were delivered from slavery, but even His chosen people were subject to oppression. Abraham had a son, yes, because God is faithful, but there was a lot of brokenness and heartache that went into that story as well. The bread, which can be broken, and the cup, which can be poured out, reminds us of the reality of life here and now, even for God’s special people. There is room for suffering in the Passover.
The same reality exists in the crucifixion and we are reminded of this reality in COMMUNION. Jesus’s death gives us victory over sin and death, and we are redeemed from an empty way of life, delivered from all that oppressed us…but there’s still pain, there’s still hurt, there’s still suffering, even in the church with those who deeply love Christ. The reality is that we have deliverance and freedom, but we are also still human. Jesus did an amazing thing on the cross, but His body had to be broken and His blood had to be poured out to accomplish it.
Let’s turn to 1 Corinthians 11:26, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.” (NASB) Jesus commanded that we take the bread and cup in remembrance of Him, and Paul tells us that the reason we do this is to proclaim Jesus’s death until He returns. So every time that we take communion, whether it’s on Easter or not, we’re supposed to remember the duality of Jesus’s death and the nature of life in Christ. We proclaim salvation, freedom, but also the death and suffering done to secure that freedom & salvation.
1 Corinthians 15 echoes this strange idea of remembering the good, while also considering the bad, as believers and disciples of Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:50-57 says this, “Now I say this, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Behold, I am telling you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54 But when this perishable puts on the imperishable, and this mortal puts on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written: “Death has been swallowed up in victory. 55 Where, O Death, is your victory? Where, O Death, is your sting?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the Law; 57 but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (NASB)
We live in the perishable. What we see and these bodies will one day be nothing. They go away and cease to exist. But we were made to inherit what does not pass away, we were made to inherit the Kingdom of God! This passage is a reminder that while we live in the reality of being perishable, we view all of it in light of what is to come, the imperishable. We remember the sting of death while looking forward to that sting no longer being there. We remember that we were not made for DEATH, even though we have to face the reality of death here and now.
The Bread and the Cup—its a reminder of the brokenness of humanity…but that we frame that brokenness in light of God’s faithful covenant of delivery. God has promised deliverance. He will do as He says, just as He’s always done, just as He did with Abraham. In the meantime, we’re human, and we’re broken, but we cling to His faithful promises.
Questions to form your quiet times this week:
1. Read 1 Corinthians 11:27-32 for further instructions for communion. What do Paul’s words add to your understanding of the attitude the bread and cup should be taken in?
2. Do as Paul asks, examine yourself before Communion Sunday next week. What do you think it would look like to eat the bread or drink the cup in an unworthy way?
3. Find a copy of the Haggadah online. How does this enhance what you know about the bread and cup portion of the Passover meal?