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So I was taking a client to temple the other day (it was a Friday, right?) and after two hours of chanting in Hebrew and discovering that a lot of modern music sounds like temple music we walked out of the sanctuary and lo and behold they gave us dixie cups of grape juice and the Rabbi blessed a big loaf of challah and told everyone to eat it and we had communion!? (my client emphatically denies any similarity but read on...)
I asked her if that was a local tradition or if it was ancient and she said that it had always been done this way... and I thought about the scripture in a new way --
It was this scripture:
23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. (1 Corinthians 11:23-26, ESV)
I suddenly saw the whole scenario playing out before me, for the first time making sense -- maybe Jesus was taking a symbol that was very familiar to them and reframing it as foreshadowing.
It had always been foreshadowing His death. He knew it was imminent, and wanted to underscore AGAIN that it was part of the plan of God from the beginning. He knew that they would be traumatized and confused in a few moments, and that they would mentally scramble through the night over and over to try to make sense of what was happening. And then for the rest of their lives they would remember that night; every sabbath, every Passover, they would consider it over and over and the unfathomable plan to pardon all, once and for all, would work its way into them through it.
Just as it is working its way into me now. I believe it. I really believe that He was the scapegoat, He was the Lamb, He was the Afikoman, and the gentiles have stolen it just as Jacob stole the blessings that rightly belonged to Esau.
My exact comment to my client about it was, "Hmmm. So that's where communion came from." I didn't know what she would make of it and was almost astonished that she even bothered to respond. She told me that there is a big difference in the Jewish way of looking at things, and that there is a passage in their rabbinic commentary that I will quote here:
"Johanan ben Zakkai, Hillel’s last pupil and a contemporary of Jesus, is quoted as saying, “If you are planting a tree and you hear that Messiah has come, finish planting the tree, then go and inquire.”
What a wise thing for her to say. It was the perfect response and has opened my eyes to the deep disappointment, even sense of betrayal that underlies Jewish tradition concerning the coming of the Messiah. I think it's interesting that she didn't go into the meaning of what she was saying, being something like "Messiah, Schmessiah", or that people are always claiming to be the Messiah so don't stop doing something of importance to the wellbeing of earthly life to look for a savior. It made me really glad that I hadn't engaged her in conversation without having researched the comment beforehand. I would really have made a big goyim mess of it for sure, and there is absolutely no reason to muck about in someone's world with muddy boots.
So I was taking a client to temple the other day (it was a Friday, right?) and after two hours of chanting in Hebrew and discovering that a lot of modern music sounds like temple music we walked out of the sanctuary and lo and behold they gave us dixie cups of grape juice and the Rabbi blessed a big loaf of challah and told everyone to eat it and we had communion!? (my client emphatically denies any similarity but read on...)
I asked her if that was a local tradition or if it was ancient and she said that it had always been done this way... and I thought about the scripture in a new way --
It was this scripture:
23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. (1 Corinthians 11:23-26, ESV)
I suddenly saw the whole scenario playing out before me, for the first time making sense -- maybe Jesus was taking a symbol that was very familiar to them and reframing it as foreshadowing.
It had always been foreshadowing His death. He knew it was imminent, and wanted to underscore AGAIN that it was part of the plan of God from the beginning. He knew that they would be traumatized and confused in a few moments, and that they would mentally scramble through the night over and over to try to make sense of what was happening. And then for the rest of their lives they would remember that night; every sabbath, every Passover, they would consider it over and over and the unfathomable plan to pardon all, once and for all, would work its way into them through it.
Just as it is working its way into me now. I believe it. I really believe that He was the scapegoat, He was the Lamb, He was the Afikoman, and the gentiles have stolen it just as Jacob stole the blessings that rightly belonged to Esau.
My exact comment to my client about it was, "Hmmm. So that's where communion came from." I didn't know what she would make of it and was almost astonished that she even bothered to respond. She told me that there is a big difference in the Jewish way of looking at things, and that there is a passage in their rabbinic commentary that I will quote here:
"Johanan ben Zakkai, Hillel’s last pupil and a contemporary of Jesus, is quoted as saying, “If you are planting a tree and you hear that Messiah has come, finish planting the tree, then go and inquire.”
What a wise thing for her to say. It was the perfect response and has opened my eyes to the deep disappointment, even sense of betrayal that underlies Jewish tradition concerning the coming of the Messiah. I think it's interesting that she didn't go into the meaning of what she was saying, being something like "Messiah, Schmessiah", or that people are always claiming to be the Messiah so don't stop doing something of importance to the wellbeing of earthly life to look for a savior. It made me really glad that I hadn't engaged her in conversation without having researched the comment beforehand. I would really have made a big goyim mess of it for sure, and there is absolutely no reason to muck about in someone's world with muddy boots.
So here, once again, I see God opening my eyes to other ways of thinking and doing things that make me more competent in loving people with respect and letting Him do the work, just as He did that night. There was no way the men who ate with Him could have grasped what He was saying. Causing them to comprehend was going to have to work itself out, and only the One who made the plan had the ability to reveal it to the people the plan was designed to pardon. That is still true.
Definitely a greater-than-the-sum-of-its-parts moment.
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