Jesus at the Center
One of the things I think I’ve definitely missed is just how important Jesus is. I know the gospels are all about him and what he did. And orthodoxy has created such a high status for Jesus, one that we find unbelievable. I know I’ve thought Jesus to just be the medium for God’s ultimate timeless message. But that idea strips Jesus of his humanity, and brings up its own hardships. One of the major differences of Jesus compared to the other Messiah claimants is what he thought of himself. Sure, they all on one level or another thought they were Messiah, but Jesus seems to go further. Of course, some of the scholars presume it impossible that Jesus ever spoke or thought about himself in such ways. It seems strange to deny Jesus that ability. Surely other notable figures in history thought far stranger things. Harry Truman thought he was Cyrus from Isaiah because he restored the Israeli state! One of the things I’ve been missing is the centrality of Jesus to the Kingdom message and activity of his ministry.
Leaning specifically on what Jesus did, broadly, in the context of Second Temple Judaism can get us very, very far. For the longest time everyone has always gone straight to the specific words and argued over what they mean, specifically what they mean in the abstract, and timeless sense. In a way this plays right into the hands of the critics who can always object over definitions, or that Jesus’ couldn’t or wouldn’t have said anything like that, or even that the early Church invented it. Finding the symbols and beliefs of the Jewish world and looking at Jesus’ actions in and with those symbols and beliefs can create a giant setting for us. A setting in which to place the words we want to try and understand. A setting which reinforces those words as authentic and belonging to Jesus. By looking at the actions first, we can confirm the meaning and value of the words. Again, what I think I did in the past was push the words of Jesus (since that is easier to redefine) around to mean something other than what they mean. When Jesus’ actions place him squarely at the center. Actions are much, much harder to misrepresent.
Personally, the Last Supper has always been hard for me to understand based on just the words. It seems very abstract and disconnected. I think tying in some actions really brings some context to help understand it. The first action that is brought to mind is the Passover meal. This is also one of the first places our method of looking at actions helps us. It doesn’t much matter which day this meal took place on. We know that each of the meals that festival week were very similar, in effect each meal was a Passover meal, the main meal had the lamb sacrificed by the priests. So, all of the disciples, who ate this meal every year of their lives knew what was going on, no matter which day it was. The meal meant remembering what God did in Egypt. How he saved Israel. And each year in Jerusalem the Jewish people expected God to save them again. To end their exile and forgive their sin. That is what this meal represents to all those eating it. There is one other specific and undoubtable event: eating and drinking of Jesus’ body and blood. This is where Jesus becomes the center of the story.
We must always remember that Jesus works just like the long line of prophets before him. Jeremiah, as a symbol in chapter 19, smashes a pot to show that Jerusalem will fall. Ezekiel, as a symbol in chapter 4, takes a brick and carves Jerusalem in it and puts siege engines around it, again to show that Jerusalem will fall. Jesus walks into the Temple and creates a ruckus in one corner stopping the sacrificial system for a few moments. Jesus is performing a similar action showing that the Temple will be judged, and the sacrificial system will stop. This happens in the same week as the Last Supper – strangely enough I never thought the two were related, but it makes sense they would be. Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, enters on a donkey, denounces the Temple, shares a Passover-esque meal with his close followers, and is crucified. It is all related and it all ties to symbols and beliefs in that Jewish world.
The unleavened bread represented Jesus’ body. Gamaliel, a contemporary of Jesus who we see in Acts, said that the unleavened bread of Passover represented the Israelite salvation from Egypt. Jesus was saying that his body represents salvation using the same symbolism that Jeremiah and Ezekiel used. The wine represented Jesus’ blood. In 2 Sam 23 David uses a similar phrase about drinking blood. Jerusalem is under siege and three strong men broken through the siege to get the King water. They return with the water, and David refuses to drink. He says: “Shall I drink the blood of the men who went in jeopardy of their lives?”. David knows it is water, but says it is blood – because of their self-sacrifice. Likewise, Jesus knows it is wine, and says it is blood, because of his self-sacrifice. Jesus says this is “the blood of the covenant”. Remember Jesus’ triumphal entry? In that passage from Zechariah 9 “blood of the covenant” is also mentioned. That part of the passage is talking about the restoration, the freedom and return of prisoners. Jesus’ blood will be shed for the renewal of covenant between YHWH and Israel. Jesus’ body will be for the forgiveness of the sin that has driven Israel into exile. God will return and sin will be forgiven. Why? Not because of the Temple or any sacrifice made there, but because of Jesus and his own sacrifice.
To “drink of the cup” is to partake in what Jesus is doing. It is to align oneself with his mission. To join yourself to him. If Jesus’ self-sacrifice results in vindication, triumph, and victory if you are joined to him you will have the same. Earlier in Mark 10 “drinking of the cup” clearly meant to suffer and be persecuted. Surely Jesus suffered intensely in his crucifixion. And the early Church was persecuted heavily. With Jesus’ resurrection comes the vindication of who he said he was. If you are tied to Jesus, then you will be resurrected as he was. You share the same fate, both the suffering and the blessing, in the ways he suffered and the ways in which he was blessed. I think this is the foundation of several ideas we find later in the Epistles.
When there are disputes about the law, like in Acts or Galatians, we see Paul saying the Mosaic laws are limp, unable to save. I think this is primarily true because of what we just saw Jesus do. The Temple could not save the people, it actually led to their destruction! In 66AD the Jewish people revolted, took over the Temple and burned the records of debt. Clearly they were more interested in their own economic outlook than YHWH’s gospel proclamation. Because of that the Roman response was to burn the entire city down. The Temple could not save the people – but Jesus did. He saved those that heard his message. Jesus’ sacrifice made a new creature in each one who believed in him, removing the hold of sin and satan from them. Since Jesus preached a message of peace his followers fled and did not participate in the revolution. They lived. Keeping Torah is no longer the boundary marker for who is God’s people. Allegiance and “drinking of the cup” with Jesus is what makes the difference. That is how you know who God’s people are. They have Jesus at the center. The second idea that I think the Last Supper creates a foundation for is “being in Christ”. For the longest time I haven’t had a clue what precisely that means. It has something to do with “drinking the cup”. Being aligned with Jesus. Taking up his mission as your mission. I don’t think it means believing a specific set of codified laws. I don’t think it means signing on the dotted line to a creed, or being a baptized “member” of a church. I think it means having Jesus at the center, being joined to him as a conscious decision. Trusting that what he did brought God close to you and wiped away your sin. Again, Jesus is at the center.
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