Abridged Worship – October 6, 2024

With the children, we titled this command of Jesus to be, Celebrate the Lord’s Supper, and this is a summary title of the wider invitation to participate in the Eucharistic induction to the new covenant, which was set out for the forgiveness of sins.

Since many of us are told what the Last Supper is all about, before we ever read the scripture for itself, we often miss little details which are greatly important to the context and the depth of what is being revealed to us by God. One of the things people may overlook is that Jesus and his disciples were celebrating the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread is one of the seven feasts of the Lord and held major importance to the Jewish people at the time of Jesus and throughout history. This observance lasts seven days and follows the celebration of Passover which commemorates the swift departure of the Israelites from Egypt.

A key element of this feast is unleavened bread, which symbolizes the haste with which the Israelites left Egypt. As they hurried to leave Egypt, they did not have enough time to let their bread rise, leading to the tradition of consuming unleavened bread during the week of the festival. This avoidance of yeast in food, became a spiritual exercise of dietary restriction, as Exodus says,  “seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day, there be a feast to the LORD. Unleavened bread shall be eaten for seven days; no leavened bread shall be seen with you, and no leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread became an embodied reenactment of one of the major defining moments of the Jewish people. And by reenacting it, they participate in the moral, spiritual, and cultural lessons once learned by those enslaved in Egypt.

The Feast reminded them of the tyranny which once held the Israelites captive, and how God, who was true to His promise, liberated them from that tyranny. It reminded them of the people’s eagerness to trust in God’s promise to deliver them, a trust so thorough they would abandon what was comfortable – what was known to them, and venture into the desert in faith. In addition to that important lesson, the absence of yeast symbolized spiritual purity. And unleavened bread’s simplicity was a reminder of the humility and dependence that God desires from His children.

So, when Jesus is gathering his disciples around the table, they are not just breaking bread, but they are interwoven into this historic revelation of God’s love, promise, and liberation from tyrannical captivity and slavery.

And then Jesus invites them to adopt a new understanding, not to replace but to fulfil this practice, he brings them into a conversation about God once again liberating them from tyranny. But this time the tyranny is not from the state, it is not the tyranny of emperors or pharaohs, but from something that resides in each of us, the tyrannical enslavement of the creature, which was created in the image of God, being enslaved by sin.

And if it is new for you to think of sin in terms of tyranny and slavery. Let me explain.

One of the key traits of tyranny is viewing other people or groups as instrumental, seeing them as objects, not people. When we think of the nature of sin this of the key components, sin in us and against us is often like a lion lurking to take advantage of what may fall prey to its gaze. This may sound dramatic, but when you lie, you see truth and reality as instrumental to your whim and those whom you deceive as a pawn in pursuits. When you covet and steal, you see others’ work, prophet, or well-being as an instrument to your satisfaction and greed. When you abuse by word or force, you see people as instrumental obstacles that need to be broken, altered, or eliminated by your standard. When you manipulate or gossip you see people as toys to play with for your own amusement. When you hate, slander, and mock, you degrade people to at best monsters or worse, as the “reject”, not worthy of love.

Tyranny in the political sense is an amplification of what is already poisoning us inside as individuals. It is our tyrannical impulse organized and empowered by the masses, but no matter what scale, it is all built upon the same foundation. It’s a sin of self-love, self-pride, self-worship, and hunger to turn God’s creation into a vessel for personal gratification.  And the tyranny of sin always seeks to enslave. It will try to enslave others, and unbeknownst to the sinner, it enslaves themselves.  Sin is the very shackles of our enslavement.

And if you don’t believe that sin enslaves, I implore you, to think of the sin in your life you continue to repeat. Lying, cheating, gossip, envy, lust, greed, pride, whatever your sin is, if you don’t think that has enslaved you, stop. Really with your whole being try and stop. You see people don’t know the weight of sin until they try to resist it.

Jesus knows the slavery and the tyranny we are all under. The tyranny of the world, the tyranny of our own hearts, and on that day, Jesus told them to remember, a new covenant, a covenant fulfilled by Christ’s broken body, and his spilled blood, a covenant that would be the greatest Exodus the world had ever seen, and freeing of the captive of slavery of sin, from meeting their death by sin whilst bonded to sin.

On that day, when Jesus passed that unleavened bread, and poured out that wine, he was setting the stage for the freeing of those oppressed by their iniquity and transgressions.

Jesus would become the new Moses, by the cross, he would demand, with the power of God behind him for sin, death, and the devil to let his people go free.

And this covenant was not a one-time deal, this covenant, like the festival of unleavened bread was meant to be remembered, it was meant to echo throughout the ages, reminding every generation of the tyranny inside which is trying to enslave them, but reminding them of the Good News of Jesus Christ who sets the captive free.

It is our time to hear this covenant, it is our time to respond to this command, to rise up and away from our shackles, it is time to rise and run toward God’s salvation, toward the Exodus from Sin into the arm of Jesus. We can’t wait for the bread to rise, in fact, we can just forget the bread we are cooking, because the table of our Lord is already set with the best bread, at Jesus’ table we have the bread of life and a cup of blessing.

Let us pray.

We have feasted upon the Word of God, let us be satisfied with the bounty that is the Gospel. Today, we quenched our thirst for Life Eternal, let us be satisfied with the endless well of Living Waters. Today, in communion, we encounter the Body and Blood of our Lord. Let us rejoice in our New Covenant, for we are blessed by God’s grace.  Amen.

Homework:

Seek a church service to partake in communion, if you don’t have a church, reach out to one to see how you can join in to feast.

While I was with Villages United Church in Granton Ontario, we looked at the commands of Jesus, as part of it I posted a video series. Follow this link -> HERE and check it out

If you need help on this reflective journey email: minister@mountainviewunited.ca

Closing Prayer:

We have been fed, nourished, renewed by God.
Let us go out knowing in our hearts, that our God is good! Amen.

    Meme of the Week:

Thank you for joining us this week. If you have any thoughts, feelings, or prayers, feel free to leave them in the comment section below. Please be respectful of others’ posts and make room for all those joining us.