Worship

The Eucharist as a Shared Meal

In biblical times every common or shared meal had a religious significance. The great festival meals were particularly important. These included the weekly Sabbath [seventh day] meal and meals at the great festivals such as Passover, Pentecost and Weeks [the time when the first harvest was taken to the temple]. As well as attending the Temple or the synagogue, the festivals were celebrated at home around a meal.

Pause for thought
Can you think of any similar traditions in Christianity?

The most important annual meal was the Passover Meal

This meal remembered the Exodus, the escape of the Israelites from Egypt under Moses [Exodus 12]. It celebrated the freedom of the Jewish people; that they were no longer slaves, that God was their saviour. The meal told the story of the Exodus, a story of deliverance or redemption. The food illustrated parts of the story. For example, bitter herbs recalled the bitterness of slavery in Egypt. The unleavened bread was a reminder that the people left Egypt in haste – there was no time for the dough to rise. The four cups of wine reminded them of God’s four promises [Exodus 6:6-7]. ‘I will bring out’; ‘I will deliver’; ‘I will redeem’; ‘I will take you as my people’.

  • Passover looked back: to a past act of deliverance under Moses.
  • It was a present celebration: God is our Saviour today
  • It looked forward to the coming of the Messiah to bring in God’s kingdom.

Meals were very important in the ministry of Jesus

They were central to his mission – he ate with people he should have avoided: tax collectors and ‘sinners’, those Jews who failed to live by God’s commandments. Read Luke 5: 27-32

Such meals looked forward to the great feast of heaven, prophesied in the Old Testament [see Isaiah 25:6] and fulfilled in Jesus [see Luke 14: 12-15].

Also, Jesus made miraculous provision of food for the crowds: the feeding of the 5,000 [Mark 6: 30-44] and the 4,000 [Mark 8: 1-10]. Note how Jesus in each case took the bread, blessed it, broke it and gave it to the people. So, Jesus shows himself to be the source of universal nourishment.

Every meal included thanksgiving

The accounts of the feeding of the multitudes are explicit that Jesus ‘gave thanks’. Saying grace was a natural aspect of Jewish spirituality; God was blessed as the provider of all good things. Ancient Jewish prayers over bread and wine include the following benedictions:

Blessed are you, Lord our God, King of all creation, you bring forth bread from the earth.

Blessed are you, Lord our God, King of all creation, you create the fruit of the wine.

Other prayers at festivals included thanksgivings for spiritual benefits as well as material things. So at the heart of the Eucharist, as the word’s Greek root suggests, is thanksgiving – for God’s mighty acts in creation and redemption; for all the spiritual blessings we receive; for the material gifts of bread and wine.

Thanksgiving was also central to St Paul’s spirituality. In almost all of his letters, he begins with thanksgiving – even when there were great problems in the life of the Church. Read 1 Corinthians 1: 4-10

Pause for thought
How does the Eucharist help us to be a grateful people?

Jesus gave us [or instituted] the Eucharist at the Last Supper.

Read Matthew 26: 17-30
It was the night of his betrayal; the first three Gospels tell us the last Supper was the Passover Meal. Jesus used bread and wine, elements used at every Jewish formal meal. Just as at the Passover, the bread and wine were given new meaning and significance. ‘This is my body which is given for you’; ‘This is my blood, which is shed for you and for many.’

Pause for thought
How do you understand these words of Jesus?
How do they help us to understand his sacrifice for us on the cross?

Rather than being an annual celebration like the Passover, the Eucharist is celebrated regularly. In the early church, it was part of a larger meal. While for us, the meal is a small piece and sip of consecrated bread and wine, it is still in essence the great Christian family meal celebrated around the Lord’s table.

Like the Passover, the Eucharist:

  • is a remembrance of a past act of redemption on the cross [1 Corinthians 11:26]
  • is a present encounter with Jesus, risen from the dead [Luke 24: 28-34]
  • looks forward to his coming again [1 Corinthians 11:26]

‘Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.

‘Remembrance’ is something dynamic: what Jesus achieved on the cross two thousand years ago is made effective in the here and now. We receive afresh forgiveness life, salvation – ‘The body of Christ keep you in eternal life.’