PASSOVER AND EUCHARIST

Moses was sitting in the Egyptian ghetto. Things were terrible. Pharaoh wouldn't even speak to him. The rest of the Israelites were mad at him and making the overseers even more irritable than usual. He was about ready to give up.

Suddenly a booming, sonorous voice spoke from above:

"You, Moses, heed me ! I have good news, and bad news."

Moses was staggered. The voice continued:

"You, Moses, will lead the People of Israel from bondage. If Pharaoh refuses to release your bonds, I will smite Egypt with a rain of frogs"

"You, Moses, will lead the People of Israel to the Promised Land. If Pharaoh blocks your way, I will smite Egypt with a plague of Locust."

"You, Moses, will lead the People of Israel to freedom and safety. If Pharaoh's army pursues you, I will part the waters of the Red Sea to open your path to the Promised Land."

Moses was stunned. He stammered, "That's.... that's fantastic. I can't believe it! --- But what's the bad news?"

"You, Moses, must write the Environmental Impact Statement."

A BIT OF SCENE-SETTING

We’ve been considering the issue of whether children should be admitted to communion before confirmation. So, today we’re starting a series of sermons on the Eucharist, and this morning we’re specifically looking at the Jewish origins of this celebration. Let me remind you of the words we use in the Eucharistic prayer

“our Lord Jesus Christ…in the same night that he was betrayed, took bread and gave you thanks: he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying “take, eat; this is my body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after supper he took the cup and gave you thanks; he gave it to them, saying “Drink this all of you; this is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.”

The setting is the Upper Room. Matthew, Mark and Luke tell us that this is the feast of the Passover. The Passover meal was full of symbolism, the meal told the story of how the Children of Israel escaped from Egypt.

So let’s look at how the table was laid, now, last week with FROGS we laid the table. This week you’re going to have to imagine, but…there will be matzo and haroset…which I hope will become clear, to be eaten with coffee after Mass. So, first on our table…

• Salt water, representing the tears of the slaves; lettuce which is dipped in the salt water to represent new life.

• Bitter herbs to represent the bitterness of life as a slave; an egg, roasted another representation of new life, but also by becoming hard during cooking, representing the determination of the Jewish slaves not to abandon their beliefs under the oppression of the Egyptians.

• Haroset, a paste made from dried fruit, nuts and wine representing the mortar with which the slaves made bricks to build the palaces of Egypt.

• There are four cups of wine, recalling the four times God promised freedom to the Israelites and symbolising liberty and joy.

• And an extra cup of wine is placed on the table, and the door is left open for the prophet Elijah, whom it is believed will reappear at Passover and announce the coming of the Messiah.

• There’s Matzo, unleavened bread, because there wasn’t time for the Israelites to leaven bread with yeast.

• Finally there’s the Passover lamb itself. During Jesus’ time it would have been slaughtered and cooked earlier that day in the temple.

A FAMILY CELEBRATION

Although in the time of Christ some of the rituals of Passover took place in the Temple, Passover was and remains today a ceremony celebrated in the home, not in the synagogue. It is essentially a family celebration and children are a very important part of this. They are involved in the preparations, particularly in the hunt for every last piece of leaven, which becomes a religiously based “hunt the leaven” like “hunt the thimble”, but with bits of bread on the day before Passover. And during the meal itself it is the youngest child present who asks the four questions which start the recounting of the story of the Passover:

1. Why do we eat unleavened bread?
   We eat unleavened bread or matzo to remember the Exodus when the Israelites fled Egypt with their dough to which they had not yet added yeast.

2. Why do we eat bitter herbs?
   We eat bitter herbs to remind us of the bitterness of slavery.

3. Why do we dip our food in liquid?
   We dip lettuce in salt water to recall the tears the Jews shed as slaves.

4. Why do we eat in a reclining position?
   We recline as we eat because in ancient times those who were free reclined while they ate.

The Passover meal takes place within the framework of a re-telling of the story of the Exodus, the ten plagues, the parting of the Red Sea, the drowning of the following Egyptian army.

The name Passover itself reminds the Jewish nation of how the Angel of the Lord passed over all Jewish households marked with the blood of the Passover Lamb, while entering every other household and slaughtering all first born males, both human and animal.

So this meal is full of symbolism to the Jewish people, it tells their story, locates them in relation to God and to their ancestors. And the Eucharist does the same for us as Christian people, tells our story, locates us in relationship to God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

DELIVERANCE FROM THE SLAVERY OF SIN

Just as the re-telling of the Exodus story told of deliverance from slavery in Egypt, our re-telling of this Passover meal tells of our deliverance from the slavery of sin. The concept of the Passover lamb is a crucial part of this. A corner-stone of the Jewish religion was the necessity for blood to be spilt to make atonement for sins hence the sacrifice of the lambs. Our Lord took this one step further, he identified himself with the Passover lamb, but in place of an annual spilling of blood he substituted himself, once for all, upon the cross. Hence the words “this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins”. The Old Covenant as told to Moses for the Israelites has been transformed into a new covenant given to us by God’s only Son himself, and sealed with his own blood. We have become part of the story.

Our symbols of remembrance are pared down from the Passover meal, the bread becomes Christ’s body and the wine becomes Christ’s blood. And we partake of this meal much more often than once a year “do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me”. It remains essentially a meal, a re-creation of that Passover meal in the Upper Room, but relocated within the saving grace of Jesus Christ.

Our Gospel reading recounts one of our Lord’s appearances after the Resurrection. And part of that time spent with his disciples, before his ascension, was taken up with shared meals. Which shouldn’t come as a great surprise. So much of Jesus’ ministry was about eating with people, usually sinners. There is something about the incarnation, God becoming human, which speaks to us of the importance of our physical existence, our day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute existence. We are both physical and spiritual. We eat and drink physical things to stay physically alive, we eat and drink spiritual things to become spiritually alive. And the Eucharist is at the meeting point of those things. It is both physical and spiritual, it is Our Lord meeting us in bread and wine.

A MEAL FOR THE CHRISTIAN FAMILY

It’s a family meal, the Christian family gathered around the table to have a ceremonial meal which retells God’s great goodness to us. It tells of our deliverance from the power of sin, of the sacrifice of the cross, of our freedom in Jesus Christ. So what defines the family. For Jewish people that’s easy, physical birth gives community identity. For Christians that’s rather more difficult. Earlier we listened to a reading from the Acts of the Apostles. In the previous chapter Peter was asked by new believers how to move forward in the Christian life and his answer was

“repent and be baptised every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.”

As a Christian community baptism is our symbol for membership of our community, for membership of our family, for participation in our family meal. For all that is, except children, despite being baptised, they have to wait until confirmation to be allowed to share in our feast. So where do our children fit into this meal. At the moment they hardly do so at all. They are allowed to be present, we ask them to sit quietly while the story is re-told, the liturgical actions performed, but we exclude them from participating in the meal itself. I wonder what this says to them about their place in the Christian family. It seems to say that children don’t really belong. They can watch but not touch, be present but not join in.

That, of course, brings us back to the purpose of this series of sermons, and to a crucial question which we need to address: If children, by their baptism, are truly part of the Christian family then shouldn’t they also partake of the family meal?

Penny Sayer
St John the Evangelist, Pevensey Rd, St Leonards on Sea

Picture Credits on this page: www.thebiblerevival.com

http://www.bibleresourcecenter.org

Carl Bloch