By Fr. Ben Torrey
The objective of this study is to deepen our understanding of the nature of God¡¯s work among and within us so that we may receive greater benefit from that work. One might compare the gift that God has given us to a check for a large sum of money. We can be said to have received the gift when we hold the check but we do not receive the benefit until we cash it in. Cashing in the check comes through greater understanding of what God does, how He does it and what it means.
What the Lord has done, and continues to do for us is wonderful beyond imagining; yet we often receive only the smallest fraction of benefit because we do not comprehend the fullness of what He does nor how to appropriate the benefit.
In the beginning there was unity in love and obedience. Then came the Fall with the first shedding of blood, shed by God to cover the shame of Man's sin, Genesis 3:21. Still, the consequence of sin remained: separation from God, Genesis 3:22-24, and the curse, Genesis 3:14-19.
The shedding of blood by God prefigured the shedding of God's blood by Man as the final atonement for sin. With the curse came the first prophecy of this, Genesis 3:15.
Sin increased, man shed the blood of the Image of God: Cain and Abel, Genesis 4:8. The earth drank the blood which cried out to God for vengeance and suffered a decrease in fertility, in life, Genesis 4:9-12. Yet, God sought to limit the shedding of blood of the Image of God, Genesis 4:13-15. Still, it increased, Genesis 4:23-24, until the corruption of the earth and the perversion of Man knew no bounds, Genesis 6:5-13. So, God sent the Flood.
¡¤ The covenant with Noah, its sign is the rainbow. (Genesis 6:18, 9:8-17)
¡¤ God reserves the blood for Himself and establishes blood retribution. (Genesis 9:3-6)
¡¤ The covenant with Abram through the broken bodies. (Genesis 15:7-18)
¡¤ The covenant with Abram, again. His name is changed to Abraham. He is charged to keep the covenant through its sign: circumcision. The covenant is now two way. (Genesis 17:1-11)
Note who is to remember, who is bound by the covenant.
Exodus 4:24-26 – Moses, on his way to declare God's promise and His covenant to the Son's of Israel, to lead them out of bondage and into the promised, had, himself, neglected to obey God, to perform his part of the covenant and circumcise his own son. How could God allow him to continue?
Exodus 12:1-14 – The blood of the lamb on the wooden uprights and cross beam of the doors. Those who came under the blood are saved, all others are not. With this is a communion meal and a remembrance. God sees the sign. It is an objective reality. Salvation came by an objective reality, nothing subjective about it. All that was required of the people was enough faith to obey the command, to place themselves under the sign of the Covenant.
Exodus 18:12 – Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, offers blood sacrifices for a peace offering than provides a communion meal with Moses and all the elders of Israel.
Exodus 24:1-11 – The blood of the communion sacrifices, the peace offerings, becomes the blood of the covenant. The elders of Israel beheld God and ate and drank.
¡¤ Leviticus 2 - Grain offering as a remembrance. (a portion is burned; oil and salt; first fruits-vs. 12)
¡¤ Leviticus 3 - Peace offering in blood. (a portion is burned.)
¡¤ Leviticus 4 - Sin offering. (all is burned up—for Israel and the priests; outside the city; individuals and leaders; a lamb)
¡¤ Leviticus 9 – All three together. (on the eighth day)
¡¤ Numbers 15:1-10 - Grain offering and peace offering together.
Numbers 21:6-9 - The fiery serpent lifted up. In order to receive healing, the people must look squarely upon the consequence of their sin and thereby acknowledge it.
The rainbow, circumcision, Passover, remembrance prayers (Ps. 85, etc.)
Biblical remembrance is not a memorial in the sense that we remember something or someone past and so honor them, nor is it a reenactment to bring the past into the present. The first is faithless idealism and the latter is pagan magic. Biblical remembrance is the calling of the parties of an agreement to remember what they have promised.
In Jesus, all these things come together
¡¤ Sin offering - the Lamb of God. John 1:29, etc.
¡¤ The lifting up. John 3:14.
¡¤ The Pascal Lamb. Luke 22:7-8, John 19:14. (Please see end note .[1])
In all these instances, Jesus performs three distinct actions. He blesses, He breaks and He distributes.
We see how Jesus Christ brings it all together. Now let¡¯s see what He did and what He gave us to do.
¡¤ Feeding of the 5000 – Matthew 14:19
¡¤ Feeding of the 4000 – Matthew 15:36
¡¤ Jesus recognized at Emmaus – Luke 24:30-31
¡¤ Institution of the Eucharist – Matthew 26:26
¡¤ Baptism by water and the Spirit (cloud). I Cor. 10:1-2 (Cf. John 3:5)
¡¤ Sustained on spiritual food and drink. I Cor. 10:3-4 (Cf. John 6:32-33, 53-55.)
¡¤ Cup of Blessing - Peace offering. Bread that is broken. I Cor. 10:16-17
¡¤ Took bread, gave thanks, broke, gave. The cup of the New Covenant in His blood for a remembrance. I Cor. 11:23-25
All these things, the signs of the Covenant, the actions, the elements are objective realities. They are things commanded by God. They are not subjective ideas or feelings to be interpreted by men. Jesus, Himself, in John 6:43-66 is very careful to make sure no one can "subjectify," idealize or explain away His statements.
We can know objectively whether or not we have obeyed in these things. (Ps 119:62)
¡¤ Have we lifted up Christ by lifting up (literally) His Body and Blood?
¡¤ Have we taken, blessed, broken and distributed His Body?
¡¤ Have we shared in it?
¡¤ Have we come under the Sign of the Covenant?
¡¤ Have we obeyed Christ's command to do the Remembrance?
Faith is not a subjective feeling, it is objective obedience to His commands.
Worship is not subjective emotional response to God, it is objective obedience to Him in the Eucharist, in lifting up voices of praise, in proclaiming His Word.
Subjective feelings, expressions and teaching normally accompany these things, and rightly so, but they are not to be central. If they squeeze out the objective actions, they become false worship. To worship "in spirit and truth" does not mean to worship with deep feeling, it means to accept the Word of God, as given, as truth and to act in obedience to it for the purpose of obeying and exalting God.
We seek to enjoy our worship, and well we should, for a whole host of reasons. However, if we seek to structure our acts of worship so that they are more pleasing to us, so that we are more greatly ¡°blessed,¡± rather than to better honor God, we are not worshipping Him, we are pleasing ourselves! Feelings follow faith.
In worship, honor God, first, second and last. If we seek this with a true heart, then He will bless us in return (Pr. 3:8-9) and may also give us great pleasure in it. (More often than not, He will, but some of my most painful times have been in worship. Other times of worship, which seemed particularly dull and empty, turned out to be greatly pleasing to the Lord, as I later found out.) Read Psalm 116.
The
medicines of salvation of body and soul are administered by the divine
Physician through the wheat, the olive and the grape.
Mar Aprem (ca. AD 306-373)
Hymns on Virginity XXXVII
[1]
Issue: The Synoptics put the Last Supper on
the first day of Passover, Mt. 26:17, Mk. 14:12, Lk. 22:7-8, while John has the
crucifixion on the Day of Preparation.
Explanation: The Last
Supper actually preceded Passover, it was not the Passover Seder. All elements
of the order (the seder) at the Last Supper were common to communion meals
among groups such as Jesus and the Twelve. None of those things peculiar only
to the Passover are included in the Gospel account. That meal became the
Passover by virtue of Jesus¡¯ giving of Himself as the Sign of the New Covenant,
His blood for the remembrance. The author of the synoptic account implied that
it was the first day of Passover to emphasize the connection. John, on the
other hand, kept to a more explicit chronology for two reasons. First, he did
not need to draw attention to the Last Supper in this way, the whole Gospel being
an explanation of the Eucharist. Second, he chose to emphasize the actual fact
of Christ's death as the sacrifice of the Passover lamb by alluding to the
sacrifices being carried out at that moment in the Temple on the Day of
Preparation. (Jn. 19:14)
Other
points: The Last Supper occurred
on Friday (after sundown of Thursday), the Synoptic Gospels agree that it was
Preparation Day. The Disciples were commanded to ¡°prepare the Passover¡± while
those conspiring against Jesus wanted to kill Him before the Feast. The
Synoptics never actually refer to the Last Supper as the Passover meal.
It is also worth noting, in this context, the ancient tradition of the Church and most especially that of the Church of the East. From the very beginning, the Church assembled to celebrate the Eucharist on the day of Resurrection—the Lord¡¯s Day, the first day of the week. (See Acts 20:7, I Cor. 16:2, Rev. 1:10) as well as at other times. If the Last Supper had actually been the Passover Seder, it is quite unlikely that the Church would have felt free to celebrate this sacred remembrance on any other day. Furthermore, in the Church of the East, there is an ancient tradition relating to the Sacrament of Holy Leaven. According to this tradition, St. Thomas took some leaven from the Last Supper and preserved it. He then passed this leaven (yeast) and its descendants on to the churches that he founded. It is still preserved in the East. In the Church of the East, the communion bread is to be bread leavened with this very same yeast, with that which descended from the Last Supper itself. If this is so, then the Last Supper could only have occurred prior to the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Passover. It is possible to conceive that, in the midst of the grief and turmoil of that fateful night and its aftermath, the complete preparation for the Passover, which includes burning all leavening in the household, would have been neglected, preserving the yeast used to make the bread eaten then, the very bread which Christ Jesus declared to be the Passover in His flesh.