Summary: Food can build bonds and strengthen relationships, evoking strong memories and creating shared experiences. The Passover meal and Last Supper were communal meals that made powerful connections with God's liberating work.
A pizza, a pot of chili, a big pan of paella or an antipasto platter can be happily shared by a group of people at dinner. Potluck meals can feature various traditional recipes, representing a variety of cultures. All these foods build bonds and strengthen relationships, evoking strong memories and creating shared experiences. They are meals that make connections.
What is the most memorable meal you have ever enjoyed? Maybe a special birthday dinner when you were a child. A wedding reception. A graduation picnic. An anniversary dinner. A Virginia man was taken to a Duke basketball game by his wife for his 60th birthday. He was excited because he had graduated from the school almost 40 years before. She took him to a restaurant before the game, and he thought that they were simply going to grab a meal. But when they arrived, he was shocked to see a room full of college classmates and Duke professors and even a dean who had helped him make a career choice, many years before. It was an unforgettable birthday dinner, one that connected him to his past in a powerful way.
The original Passover meal did a similar thing for the people of Israel. It connected them to each other and to their liberation from captivity in Egypt. Years later, on the day we now call either Maundy Thursday or Holy Thursday, depending on our tradition, Jesus gathered with his disciples in Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. They ate special food, including unleavened bread, which connected them to their ancestors in Egypt, who had fled their captivity so quickly that they could not even allow their bread to rise.
This memorable meal included lamb, because the blood of a lamb was put on the doorposts of the homes of the Israelites in Egypt. The blood was a sign that God would save the people from death, because God had said to the people, "when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt."
The Passover took place when the Lord decided to pass over the land and "strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, from human to animal." This was the judgment of God on the people and the gods of Egypt, because they had oppressed the people of Israel. Only the Israelites were spared, because they had followed the instructions of God and smeared blood on the doorposts and the lintels of their houses.
After giving these instructions, God passed over and "struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the prisoner who was in the dungeon."1 In response, Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron in the night. "Rise up, go away from my people, both you and the Israelites!" Pharaoh said to them. "Take your flocks and your herds, as you said, and be gone."2
The Passover meal is memorable for Jews today, and it was also memorable for Jesus and his disciples at the Last Supper. It is a meal that makes connections, linking people one to another and to the history of God's liberating work. As Christians, we experience similar connections whenever we gather for the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper.
The book of Exodus tells us that the people were ready for liberation because God had given them instructions for the Passover meal. "This is how you shall eat it," said God: "your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand, and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the Passover of the LORD."
The Passover launched the exodus from Egypt, in which God delivered his people from slavery and led them "to a land flowing with milk and honey."3 Throughout Jewish and Christian history, this event has been considered central to the life of faith, for it demonstrates God's solidarity with the oppressed and his desire to liberate people from physical and spiritual bondage.
This work is remembered whenever Jews celebrate the Passover, and whenever Christians gather for the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. According to pastor Thomas Mann, the celebrants of the Passover are supposed to dress for the meal in "traveling clothes." They do this because they "are about to embark on a journey to freedom, a journey taken by millions of predecessors for several thousand years, and yet a journey that is as personal and recent as the liberation of an individual soul from its own secret bondage."4
The instructions for Maundy/Holy Thursday differ a bit from Passover. As Christians, we do not "take a lamb for each family" and "slaughter it at twilight." We do not put its blood on our doorways and then "eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread." But we do eat the bread of Christ's body, broken for us, and we also drink the blood of Christ, shed for us for the forgiveness of sin.
We follow the practice of the apostle Paul, who said that "Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed" for us. Therefore, says Paul, we can celebrate the festival "with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth."5 Like the Jews, we understand that this meal is a journey to freedom. It has been taken by people in the past, and it is taken by people today. It is an exodus from political bondage, and an escape from personal bondage as well.
Jesus knew the importance of liberation when he sat down with his disciples for the Passover meal in Jerusalem. He gave them a cup and said, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me"6 ... "this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins."7 His blood, like the blood of the Passover lamb, is poured out to free people from anything that oppresses them. In this case, it brings forgiveness of sin.
From start to finish, the Bible understands sin to be slavery. It is a form of bondage that separates us from God and from each other. Sin "is not the breaking of a rule," says seminarian Jacob Sparks, "but rather slavery to oneself and separation from God and neighbor."8 When you run down the list of the Ten Commandments, from "no other gods" to not coveting "anything that belongs to your neighbor," you can quickly see that commandment-breaking is grounded in slavery to oneself and separation from God and neighbor.
Fortunately, Christ is our Passover lamb, and he has shed his blood to bring us forgiveness. The "good news," says Sparks, "is that regardless of the sins we do or do not commit, Jesus Christ has destroyed sin and death, and we no longer under the bondage of our sin and separation."9 You are now free to put God first, because Christ has liberated you from captivity to yourself. You can now love your neighbor instead of coveting their luxurious house, because Jesus has shed his blood to free you from bondage to sin and separation.
The Lord's Supper is a meal that makes connections. It connects us with each other, it connects us with Jesus and it connects to the forgiveness of sin. Through eating bread and drinking the fruit of the vine, the Lord's Supper gives us freedom from anything that can spiritually hurt or destroy us.
From the time of the Exodus to today, God is always at work in powerful ways to free us from anything that can enslave us. We remember God's liberating work whenever we see the two central elements of the Passover Meal: Bread and blood. Jesus continued God's work when he hosted the Last Supper and focused the disciples on bread and blood. We remember God's work whenever we eat and drink in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. Bread and blood are powerful connections.
In the bread, we share the experience of the Exodus, moving from captivity to freedom. And by eating together, we remember that the Exodus was a communal experience, not an individual act. Lutheran pastor Norman Theiss says that the "communal nature of sharing bread [reflects] the communal nature of the exodus experience."10 It is no accident that the Lord's Supper is also called Communion, which means fellowship and sharing. We do not eat this meal alone, we eat it as a community, as a fellowship.
The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper is a meal that makes connections. It connects us to the blood of Christ, poured out for all for the forgiveness of sins. It is a link to the Passover meal, which reminds us of God's work of liberation. It is also a bridge to the Last Supper, a meal that points us to the everlasting feast that we will enjoy in God's eternal kingdom. "I tell you," said Jesus to his disciples on Maundy Thursday, "I will never again drink of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom."11
The Lord's Supper points us backward to the Passover and the Last Supper, as well as forward to the feast we will enjoy in God's heavenly kingdom. The promise of this meal is that God is working to free us from any kind of bondage, as he connects us to himself, to Jesus and to each other.