This is my body, given for you. Eat it in my memory. Luke 22:19 (MSG)
Egypt, Exodus and The Good Gift – The Good Gift Series – Part 1
Go to PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3 | PART 4 | PART 5 | PART 6 | PART 7
Thousands of years ago, while living enslaved, abused and used up like worthless rags, the Israelites shared an important meal. Moses had tried to convince Pharaoh to stop the slavery and let the Israelites leave Egypt once and for all. But the message and the signs and wonders were not working. So, under the cover of darkness, each Israelite family sacrificed a lamb, ate together, and painted the doorposts of their homes with the blood from their sacrifices. The spirit of God was coming, and every family that did not have their door-posts painted in blood would lose their first born son. Those whose doors and mantles were covered would be passed over. After the death of his son that night, Pharaoh told Moses to leave Egypt with of all Israel with him. And thus began the exodus from slavery, from the old ways to a new land and home.
Redemption, by blood.
There was a saying throughout the generations when speaking of Passover,
“In that night they were redeemed, and in that night, they will be redeemed.”
For Jews, the Passover feast is not a time to simply remember what God had done for their ancestors in Egypt. Mysteriously, it’s a way to participate in the Exodus, to share in the original act of redemption. In each home, the father presiding over the feast would not speak of it in past-tense, but as if they were participating in the Exodus themselves at that very moment. Not a memory, but a living story. The salvation experienced in Egypt by the Israelites was not just for back then but for ‘now,’ too.
The night of Passover is called the ‘Night of Watching.' Just as they ‘kept watch’ in Egypt as the Spirit of God passed over and through them (Ex 12:42), on this night, there is an expectancy that God will do something throughout each generation. But rather than visiting with death, the expectation is that he will bring life and freedom.
Just days after he had entered Jerusalem and the crowds declared his Kingship, after he had rid the Temple of the money lenders, and delivered his sermon on the Mount of Olives, Jesus gathered with his disciples on the Night of Watching to share a meal loaded with possibility. Passover: the night of expected redemption.
Jesus intended on leading them through a new kind of Exodus.
“Taking the bread, he blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, given for you. Eat it in my memory.” He did the same with the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant written in my blood, blood poured out for you.” (Luke 22:19-20.)
Bread and Wine. Flesh and Blood.
Jesus was wholly divine and totally human: God incarnate in humanity, a mash-up of holiness and dust. One of the things that sets the Christian tradition apart from other religions is that our God clothed himself in our humanity. “God became flesh. The bread of life. Anyone who drinks of him will never grow thirsty again.” (John.)
Richard Rohr says, “[Jesus] did not say, “Think about this,” “Fight about this,” “Stare at this;” but He said, “Eat this!” A dynamic, interactive event that makes one out of two… He is bringing this whole mystery of presence to the material, physical level.”
And not just presence “with” us, but present in us. This is the redemption already seen in the incarnation: That God wouldn’t just come to us, but he became one of us.
“The hiding place of God, the revelation place of God, is the material world.” – Richard Rohr
When Jesus said to the disciples, “Eat in remembrance of me,” he wasn’t encouraging them to have a nostalgic thought about him every now and then. No; he was referencing the night of watching, not just remembering the Exodus, but becoming it, incarnating it into their lives. We are to participate in his redemption, eat it in, become one with it. Eat his bread (body), drink his wine (blood), and let it mix into our lives. Get as close to his sacrifice as we possibly can.
Christ is our good gift, our Eucharist, broken and poured out for us, to lead us in a new kind of Exodus.
Go to Part 2 – Eat This Bread »
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