Many Christians observe the Lord's Supper annually in memory of the death of our Saviour. What does the observance symbolize?
Man's 'inhumanity' has generated a constant stream of refugees fleeing terror and war and persecution. TV images of fleeing victims abandoning their homes and heading, literally, for the hills horrified all of us. Or that terrible refugee problem in Rwanda. It's an experience repeated time and again in our modern world. A figure of some one hundred and twenty million refugees worldwide has been cited. Uprooted, they suffer intense privation - without shelter, often without food or warmth. And with nowhere to go. And still the desperate and degrading trade in 'the souls of men' continues unabated.
When we approach "the Passover season" we can, therefore, appreciate the contrast with the Israelites as they fled the oppression of Egypt - headed for freedom. Four hundred long years in exile, laterally as abject slaves! What joy must there have been as they headed into the wilderness having witnessed all those tokens of God's power. With, ahead, a Land of Promise.
What a night of mixed emotions! Fear at what they had just witnessed: intense plagues on their slavemasters, the final horror of the dying firstborn, a certain trepidation that all would go terribly wrong. But joy, too: that they were survivors, that they were at last free, that the yoke of bondage was removed. Also praise to God for such a mighty deliverance. And comfort as they gazed in amazement at that swirling pillar of fire protecting them from the advancing Egyptian army.
Christian Deliverance
We can draw parallels with our own "escape"! Whether young or older all of us have spent time in "Egypt". We all have been slaves to sin - and it has left its mark. We have absorbed the attitudes of the world through our education and the civilization in which we live. We were, too, loaded with the excess baggage of false religion. But, thankfully, we are released from our "Egypt".
Through our "Passover lamb", Jesus Christ, we have escaped the corruption in the world. A loving Father has placed over us in protection and at great price the blood of our Saviour. (No need, now, for the sacrifice of a lamb!) And has set us on course for the true Land of Promise of which ancient Palestine was but a type.
What cause for rejoicing! And what cause, too, for sober reflection!
The Lord's Supper
On the evening of Nisan 14th on the sacred calendar, God's people observe the Lord's Supper - "Communion" or "Christian Passover" if you will. We mark this Solemn remembrance of our Saviour's death by meeting with our brethren to share the symbols of the bread and the wine. And as Paul reminds us, we do this "on the night on which he was betrayed" (I Corinthians 11:23) - at the beginning of the 14th of the Bible month Nisan or Adar, the first month of the "sacred year". It was during this evening and most of the following day that Jesus suffered horrendously - and then died, nailed to a stake on our behalf, for our sin. Therefore for Christians the 14th is highly significant, and appropriate as a day of remembrance of his total life of suffering (Exodus 12:6, Numbers 9:11).
If you can arrange to meet with other brethren on this important occasion you are urged to do so. It is more appropriately observed as a shared remembrance. However, if this isn't possible you can observe the Lord's Supper at home alone or with your family.
Humility
None of us can stand before God unless covered by the righteousness of our Saviour. Jesus, when he met with the disciples for what has become known as his 'last supper', expressed his willingness to serve, his humility, in setting an example of 'foot-washing' - symbolic of our service to one another and to the world at large..
You can read the account in John 13:3-17. He said: "If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet you ought also to wash one another's feet.... If you know these things, happy are you if you do them".
This is a part of the Lord's Supper as observed by the brethren in association with the Outreach Ministries. Include your older children in the service - of an age to remain quiet and respectful. (Young children should be safely tucked in bed, or with a safe baby-sitter.) Older children, too, can take part in the footwashing, and perhaps read one of the passages of Scripture.
In the Lord's Supper we "proclaim the Lord's death till he come". He is "our Passover [lamb] sacrificed for us", fulfilling the type by dying as the Passover lambs were being sacrificed that Wednesday afternoon in the Temple (I Corinthians 5:7). No longer is an animal sacrifice required (see Hebrews 10).
Prepare Now
The Lord's Supper is a solemn observance. It is an occasion for which we need to prepare ourselves. Paul wrote: "whosoever shall eat this bread and drink of this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For he that eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks judgment to himself" (I Corinthians 11:27-29).
In the weeks leading to this annual remembrance it is time to carefully assess how we stand before God. As Paul also wrote in this context, "let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall". From one year to the next it's an easy matter to slip into habits that corrode our relationship with our Father! Christianity is joyful. But this one time of year merits a degree of healthy introspection!
A Time To Rejoice
It won't have escaped your notice, though, that the Jews had not yet observed their observance of the Passover (John 18:28). Jesus was crucified on the afternoon of the 14th - a Wednesday that year. The Jew's killed the Passover lamb as the sun was declining (between 2 and 3 p.m.) on that day, just before the 15th Nisan began. They were to eat the lamb before "midnight". It marks the night in Egypt that Israel put the lamb's blood over their homes, the night that Death struck the firstborn of Egypt, the night that they left Goshen and headed out of slavery.
And because of all these momentous events - which mirror our own spiritual deliverance - God said that this night (of the 15th) is "a night to be much observed". A night to be carefully noted, to be "protected", not to be overlooked.
Clearly, as the Israelites in later years recalled that evening, it was a time of great celebration and rejoicing! What a deliverance! And thereafter it was a "feast day". As Ezra notes: "The children of Israel... kept the feast of Unleavened Bread seven days with joy" (ch 6:22), and "with great gladness" (II Chronicles 30:21). Not just the night of the Passover, but the whole seven days! As the latter passage continues: "they did eat throughout the feast seven days" (v.22). It was a week of material feasting. The sole restrictions were that no leavened bread was to be seen anywhere in Israel throughout the seven days. And unleavened bread** was to be eaten each day - for Christians a reminder that we are to consciously "put on" Jesus Christ.
[Note that the Jews in their seder - their modern successor to Passover - have added numerous traditions which are not incumbent on the Christian.]
But it was also a week of praise, of sacrifices, of teaching "the good knowledge of the Lord", of making confession (read vv. 15-22). A week, therefore, of spiritual feasting, too!
Two Observances
In all, the Festival was in marked contrast to the solemnity enjoined on us for our observance of "The Lord's Supper". The latter observance was, as Paul instructs in I Corinthians 11 (w.19-22), to be separated from any ordinary (or even special) meal.
Both evenings therefore have considerable significance for the Christian! On the evening of the "14th" we observe the solemnity of the remembrance of our Saviour's suffering and death. And on the "15th" we begin the Feast - a time of gladness and rejoicing both physically and spiritually.
The first day of Unleavened Bread is, of course, one of the annual holy days. It's a day to "have a holy convocation [a service]; you shall do no work" (Leviticus 23:7) - as, too, is the last day (Nisan 21 - Exodus 12:18) of the Unleavened Bread Festival.
But the first Day of Unleavened Bread is special - "a night of observations" (Exodus 12:42) marking the departure from Egypt - sin.
During this evening we have a special festive meal - with the family (if they can be persuaded!), and with nearby brethren and their families where this is feasible. The host should structure the evening with prayer, appropriate Bible readings reflecting deliverance from spiritual Egypt and celebrating our freedoms in the resurrected Christ, and with hymns and spiritual songs etc. How much better than the pagan 'Lent'!
[Of course, where brethren are "scattered" or where your family is resistant this family festive meal may have to remain "the ideal". But let's strive to attain to it if at all possible. There is great blessing in honoring the Godhead as the Bible guides!]
Let's therefore honour our great Deliverer by heartily observing both aspects of this celebratory Festival!
NOTE: The 14th Nisan varies from year to year on our present Roman calendar. A calendar card is available giving the modern dates of all God's Festivals for several years
** Unleavened: this is bread made without any raising agent. It was the practice of the fast Christians to use this as they observed the Festival See I Corinthians 5: 6-8.
To comment on this article or request more information, please contact James McBride by e-mail at the comment form below.
For PDF or mailed copy, see CGOM. Excerpt from New Horizons Issue 38, March/April 2003. Edited by James McBride of the Churches of God, United Kingdom.
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