1 Corinthians 5:7 “For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.”
The Lord’s Supper, or Communion, has been celebrated by the church for nearly 2000 years as a means of proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ and knitting the church together as a family. In taking communion together, we recognize our own sin, but we celebrate our Savior.
It’s no accident that Jesus instructs us concerning his body and blood while with his disciples during the Jewish Passover meal. The meal itself is a part of an annual feast of the Jews commemorating the central theme of Israel’s history – God’s redemption of his Covenant people from bondage as slaves in Egypt. God rescued Israel so they could live as priests to the nations, living out His character and presence as the Covenant people of God.
Freedom came at a cost, however, requiring the death of a substitute – a passover lamb. The animal had to be without blemish, disease, or flaw, and it’s sacrificial death meant life for the people. For those who chose in faith to claim its blood, painting it upon their doorposts, the angel of God “passed over” their homes, sparing their lives. Further, God used this same means to defeat their enemy Pharoah, and lead his people out of Egypt.
After over 1000 years as a nation, celebrating the Passover and remembering their deliverance from Egypt, a certain Jew, a man from Nazareth, shocked his followers with a new lens on the whole event. Mark tells the story this way:
Mark 14:22-25 And as they were eating, [Jesus] took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.” 23 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. 24 And he said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. 25 Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”
Here Jesus reveals the Passover’s even greater reality, a truth it always foreshadowed – not just God’s Covenant people set free from physical oppression and tyranny in Egypt, but a New Covenant community expanding beyond Israel, comprised of all kinds of people, now known as the Church, set free from the spiritual bondage of sin and death.
In so few words, a whole new reality and understanding is opened to us. Here Jesus invites even us to join together in remembering the work he did on the cross the very next day.
In taking communion and remembering Jesus, we celebrate the sufficiency of his death, burial, and resurrection in our place, as our substitute, to purchase our freedom from sin. Taking the bread and wine is an act of obeying what Jesus told us to do, and even the act itself declares the gospel of Jesus and his sufficiency to those around – family, friends, or otherwise. By his blood he has purchased our freedom, our forgiveness, and life for any who come to him.
We invite you to grab some bread and juice, and to join in communion with the Church of the last two millennia as we celebrate Jesus Christ, our Passover Lamb.
