Tag: communion

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A Cannibal Meal

Passover Haggadah

I had a cannibal meal last night. Let me explain. A few years ago, I studied up on the Jewish Passover, which is the meal that Jesus celebrated with the disciples in the upper room. We have come to know it as the “Last Supper.” You know. . .the one where Jesus asks us to eat of His flesh and drink of His blood – the cannibal meal. (Sorry the whole cannibal thing was just a hook I was trying to use to lure you into reading this stuff. If you’ve gotten this far, maybe it worked?)

Anyway, I was amazed at the connections between Moses and Jesus and between the Passover lamb and the “Lamb of God.” The Lord’s Supper (or Communion) took on brand new meaning for me. I especially loved the wedding imagery that Jesus used that night and how He spoke of cultural things that the Jewish disciples would have understood perfectly which fly right over our heads.

Out of my excitement, I was telling some other people about what I was learning and ended up leading our whole church through a Passover/Seder experience which was a combination of the meal with some teaching about it. I also led my small group through it last night. We ate/celebrated last night. I guess that means I’m a cannibal. (By the way, Romans accused the first Christians of cannibalism for these very same misunderstandings.) Anyway, I love teaching this stuff!! Tomorrow night (Maundy Thursday) is the traditional night that Jesus would have celebrated it with his disciples in the upper room (John 13, Luke 22:7, Matthew 26:17, Mark 14:12) and so I wanted to post this material so my on-line friends could remember/understand the “Last Supper” in deeper ways too. I’d love to talk to you guys about all this stuff, so please make comments or better yet – give me a call!!

Anyway, if you’re interested in the guide (also called a Haggadah) I wrote and used, you can just click the links or the picture to the right. It should take you right to it. (There is a regular guide and also a leaders guide with notes marked in blue.) If you prefer a version which can be printed and then folded together to make a booklet, you can get it here: Christ in the Passover (There are actually 2 versions of this one too – one for copiers that will print front to back without rotations and the other for those that rotate. If you’re not sure, do a test run on the first 10 pages and then try again with the last 10 pages.)

I’d also highly recommend watching the Zola Levitt videos: Miracle of the Passover pt1 and Miracle of the Passover pt2

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Jesus in the Passover – Maundy Thursday

I had the pleasure of leading our congregation through a Seder/Passover meal a couple of years ago. I put together a little booklet called a “Haggadah“ to explain the symbolism behind each element of the meal. I made the booklet into a slide show for anyone interested. I’d encourage everyone to step through it and truly think about depth of Jesus’ participation in this meal as the actual Passover lamb. You can also download the booklet and print it out here along with an extra leaders guide: Christ in the Passover (It has a few extra meaningful notes in blue.) For a better understanding of the fact that Jesus deviated from the normal Passover meal during the 3rd cup (Cup of Redemption), I’d also encourage you to read this blog I wrote about Jewish wedding customs.

Click on the first pic and the rest will come up in “book” form.

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Catholicism

CatholicI hope I don’t offend any of my Catholic friends, but I just read about some of their beliefs and it jut seems crazy. It seems like their view of Scripture has just kind of watered down things and confused them over the years. Here are some of the things they believe:

1. Authority comes from the Scriptures (which include some extra Apocryphal books), but tradition is also considered authoritative as well as the popes. The Popes are able to interpret the Scriptures however they’d like and the people are to obey – the difficult thing is that one pope may interpret things one way, and then a few years later, another pope can come and and say that he was wrong. To me it just doesn’t seem like that  represents the unchanging God very well.

2. Salvation can only come to those who are members of the Roman Catholic Church. According to Paul Enns, it is considered the “only ark of salvation and anyone who does not enter it  must sink in the flood.”
So salvation is – to believe in Jesus Christ and join their church? I guess Jesus’ death and resurrection wasn’t enough to save me? His grace isn’t enough according to them.

3. Mary – Jesus’ mother is worshipped by Catholics. She is considered to have “perpetual virginity” and to be “sinless.” (How did she have any other children and still be a “perpetual virgin?) According to Enns, they also believe that no one can come to Jesus unless he/she goes through the Mother. This is why they pray to her. Another interesting point is that they believe her body did not decompose when she died, but that she was resurrected with her same earthly body. I guess that she could keep that body in heaven since it was sinless.

4. Purgatory – When you die, you go to heaven, hell, or purgatory. Purgatory is like a jail for people who have sin which has not been paid for. (Since Jesus’ death wasn’t enough.) You can stay there for varying amounts of time depending on your degree of sinfulness. But the good news is that your living relatives can pray and do good works to shorten your stay. None of this is Scriptural by our standards, but by using their extra books, they find validation.

5. Communion – Catholics believe in a concept called “transubstantiation” in which the bread and wine actually become Jesus’ flesh and blood when the priest blesses them. Yuck!!! I don’t know about you, but I don’t wanna eat anybody’s flesh – even Jesus’. I also don’t think He asked us to do anything but remember His sacrifice symbolically. At the Lord’s supper, Jesus used bread and wine.

Well, these are just a few of the ideas from Catholic Theology. It’s sad to me that so many people could be led astray simply because the Scriptures have not been upheld. By putting man’s (popes) opinions in as high a position as the Scriptures, they have confused their theology. God’s word has been mixed with man’s opinion and it has hurt them tremendously whether they realize it or not.

How does this change my life? With this understanding, I find myself with a bit more compassion for my Catholic friends. I understand what to pray for a bit more now, and if given the opportunity, I know what kinds of questions to ask to lead them into conversations about faith.

(Info from “The Moody Handbook of Theology” by Paul Enns, pg 527-539)

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The Last Supper

Passover Alright, this past week was Holy Week. I had shared in a previous post that I was going to have the opportunity to lead our church through the Passover Meal. Anyway, I thought I’d give you a little report about how it all went.

I was certainly nervous as we started the whole thing, but once I got going, I settled into it all and really enjoyed it. Delia and Debbie did a great job of putting together all the food for the plates and decorating so all I had to do is teach. Santhia also helped out by doing some music and reading the Passover story. Miranda was supposed to do that part, but ended up being sick. (That’s a whole other story.) Anyway, it was fun to watch as the “lights” went on for people regarding the passover meals relationship to communion. I also got lots of compliments from people following the whole thing. I think it’s something I’d enjoy doing again. Maybe next year, I’ll even be more comfortable with the material and be able to teach it even better.

Here’s the “Haggadah” (guide) that I put together for the meal.

Passover Haggadah