“Something strange in the neighbourhood”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Saturday, July 20, 2024
Matthew 26: 26-35 (Forward, p. 83) CEV p. 1019
The yearly Passover meal was already something deeply steeped in meaning and tradition. After all, it commemorated what was probably the most significant event in Israel’s history, its deliverance from its slavery in Egypt. The original Passover was a literal event. The angel of death passed over of the houses of the Hebrew people and yet ‘visited’ the Egyptian homes and struck down their firstborn sons. It was God’s ultimate and final act of deliverance, His final plague, one that would force Pharaoh’s hand into letting the Hebrew people go. No wonder the Hebrew people took pains never to forget it.
But here in today’s passage, Jesus adds another layer of meaning to it, something that, at its onset, seems rather strange. He speaks of the broken unleavened bread, the matzah, as being His body and the outpoured wine as His blood. The necessity of the original unleavened bread, the one in the Exodus, was necessitated by the need of the Hebrew people to hurriedly leave home—without waiting for their bread to rise. And so, the bread itself was a powerful symbol & reminder of their deliverance.
Of course, there are other aspects of the unleavened bread, as now found in the modern Seder meals, which may have roots in antiquity, but of that we will probably never know: that the matzah is scarred and pierced, even as Jesus was, for instance, or that there are three pieces, one of which is broken and hidden for three cups of wine [three days?], which again can apply most powerfully to Jesus.
But, then what about the wine? Some sources suggest that this part of the modern ritual came later in time. However, here Jesus mentions it. So then, what was He about? (More on that later.)
As for the blood, that part seems obvious. In the original Passover, blood had to be applied to the doorframes and lintels of each home. Indeed, without this shed blood, there could be no deliverance, no salvation. Any eldest son in a house where this was absent would likewise be struck down with the rest. The shed blood, personally applied by each homeowner, was the only answer.
And, of course, the shedding of blood in the Temple was part and parcel of the Passover celebration that Jesus and His disciples took part in. And, while it did not originally have the sense of forgiving sins, the vision of Ezekiel (14:21-24) about a future Passover certainly included this. And certainly, all through the Scriptures there is this sense. As John the Baptist cryptically said years earlier about Jesus, “Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).
However, coming back to the wine, or more precisely, to the cup. Jesus has already used this image to describe His suffering (see Matthew 20: 22-23)—this when the two brothers James and John requested the top positions in His kingdom. So, perhaps, it is not so strange, but only natural for Jesus to link this cup of suffering with the shedding of blood, His blood in this case.
What all this says to us is just how deliberate and intentional this saving act was on the part of Jesus, and how essential for our life and salvation. It illustrates just how incredibly He has loved us, and how far He would go in His great love for us. No wonder we repeat it continually as an act of celebration and remembrance. Thanks be to God.
Forward notes: “Take, eat; this is my body” (verse 26).
“After I made my First Communion in second grade, our parish clergy visited my classroom to see who was interested in being altar servers. I raised my hand with delight, only to be told girls were not allowed to participate. Still, I played ‘mass’ with my friends after school and was active in my parish’s music program so I could be close to the altar.
“Decades later, it touches my heart when I raise the chalice after saying Jesus’s words, instituting the sacrament of Holy Communion, and see a glimpse of myself reflected in it. Jesus commands us to gather around God’s table and share this meal in his memory, and it is a joy to follow that call. I love looking into the eyes of each person as I hand them a host, and I treasure that moment of communion between them, myself, and God. I get to share this every week, be it with a newly baptized child, an elderly person dying in a hospital, a couple on their wedding day, youth at camp, or a family on Christmas Eve. I am grateful for this beautiful connection.”
MOVING FORWARD: “What does communion with God, and other people, feel like for you?”