For “Scripture Sunday”:
The Passover Bread and Wine
“The Meaning of the Passover Symbols,
The significance of the bread and wine commanded by Jesus Christ.
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When we partake of the bread and wine, are we merely following a tradition? Does this ceremony have meaning for us in our era?
Jesus Christ, at His last meal with His disciples, commanded His friends and followers to remember Him in a specific way. Although He had earlier warned them of His approaching death (John 12:32-33), they found that certainty hard to accept.
But less than 24 hours later Jesus would be dead, His body hastily entombed and His disciples shocked, confused and scattered.
At that last meal, Jesus Christ told His disciples to eat bread and drink wine as symbols of His body and blood.
“…When He had given thanks, He broke [the bread] and said, ‘Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’ In the same manner He also took the cup [of wine] after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me’ ” (1 Corinthians 11:24-25).
The New Testament Passover is one of the most widely celebrated observances of the Christian faith.
When we partake of the bread and wine, are we merely following a tradition? Does this ceremony have meaning for us in our era? How important is it that we understand the meaning of the Christian Passover?
Lack of comprehension
The first-century congregation of Corinth did not understand the significance of the Passover. They observed it “in an unworthy manner,” not “discerning the Lord’s body” (1 Corinthians 11:27-29); they did not comprehend its real meaning.
Because of their lack of understanding, Paul warned the Corinthians they could be “guilty of the body and blood of the Lord,” and if they failed to properly judge themselves they would be “eat[ing] and drink[ing] judgment” to themselves (verses 27, 29).
Paul took the Passover ceremony seriously. His warning makes it clear that Christians should not only observe what Christ commanded, but should understand the meaning of eating the bread and drinking the wine at the Passover service. It is vital that we understand the intent behind Jesus Christ’s commands concerning the Passover. Christ said that unless we (symbolically) eat His flesh and drink His blood, we have no life in us (John 6:53). It is that important.
Once each year, on the anniversary of the night on which one of Jesus’ own disciples betrayed Him, Christians should recall and contemplate the meaning of Christ’s death through the observance of the Passover service (1 Corinthians 11:26). Paul told the Corinthian members that “Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us” (1 Corinthians 5:7).
The Passover service commemorates the death of Jesus Christ. By participating in the service, we personally proclaim the death of our Savior (1 Corinthians 11:26). We acknowledge that His dying paid the death penalty for us (Ephesians 5:2).
While the “blood” and “body” of Christ refer to the same sacrifice, Jesus Christ shows there is a clear distinction in the meaning attached to each of the two words.
Representing that differentiation are the two specific symbols: bread and wine. Let’s examine the special significance of Christ’s body and blood as represented by the two simple, unadorned aspects of the observance.
Jesus Christ’s body a sacrifice
Let’s first understand the meaning of the bread. “…As they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, ‘Take, eat; this is My body’ ” (Matthew 26:26).” Continued at: https://www.ucg.org/the-good-news/the-passover-bread-and-wine-the-meaning-of-the-passover-symbols
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The Passover and Divine Healing
“Christ’s Role as Healer as Well as Savior.
At the Passover and throughout the year, we must “discern the Lord’s body” and remember that God’s offer of divine healing is a critically important part of God’s plan.
Trusting God for healing strengthens our faith, fosters a more intimate relationship with God and helps us to grow spiritually.
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Beyond God’s love for everyone, He is joyfully committed to generously caring for the needs of His spiritual children!
God’s gift of divine healing is a dramatic demonstration of His love, grace, compassion and generosity toward all humanity. God is especially devoted to offering healing to those He has called to be part of His Church and the children in their care—plus others whom God heals when they call upon Him in humble submission and faith.
Consider that healing was a fundamental, dramatic and inspiring part of Christ’s earthly ministry and also the ministry of His disciples (Matthew 4:23-24; 8:16; 9:35; 10:1, 6-8; 12:15, 22; 14:14; 15:30; 21:14; Luke 4:40; 5:15; 6:17-19; 9:1-6, 11). And when Jesus was stating His commission to the apostles, He said one of the “signs” of the true Church would be that “they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover” (Mark16:17-18).
Healing and the Passover
The Passover is a service of rededication. For Christians who dedicated their lives to God and Jesus Christ at their baptism, the Passover service should be a deep, sincere rededication to that commitment. That is part of the reason that the service is so significant and serious.
The most obvious reason for Christ’s sacrifice was to pay the penalty for our sins so we can receive God’s grace, forgiveness and spiritual healing. However, His sacrifice is also fundamental in God’s plan for offering miraculous healing of physical health problems. The annual Passover service is a sobering and inspiring reminder of Christ’s sacrifice and the many benefits of God’s amazing grace.
Trusting God for healing strengthens our faith, fosters a more intimate relationship with God and helps us to grow spiritually.
The Bible makes an important parallel between forgiveness and healing (see Mark2:1-12 and Psalms 103:3). Every consequence has a cause (Proverbs 26:2). When God forgives, He removes the consequence of sin, which is the death penalty. When God heals, He removes the health problem, regardless of who or what caused it. (Health problems are often the combined consequence of multiple causes.) An added blessing is that if certain sins caused a sickness and God heals the sickness, He also forgives those sins (James 5:14-15).
This article is follow-up to the article “Divine Healing: God’s Loving Gift of Miraculous Healing” that was published in the Sept.-Oct. 2017 issue of United News. In that article is this paragraph about Matthew8:16-17: “Matthew is quoting Isaiah 53:4 which proves that one of the purposes for Christ’s excruciating suffering was to take our infirmities and sicknesses upon Himself so they can be removed from us! He ‘suffered for us!’ (1 Peter 2:21). Further evidence of this is seen in 1 Corinthians 11:29-30.”
Now let’s clearly understand the meaning of 1 Corinthians 11:29-30. The Modern King James Version says: “For he who eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks condemnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this cause many among you are weak and sickly, and many sleep.” “Many sleep” means many have died.
What is the connection between partaking of the Passover “unworthily” and staying sick or dying?
First Corinthians 11:17-34 contains Paul’s instructions about the Passover service—the proper procedure, the spiritual understanding of it and the required reverent attitudes. To accurately understand any one verse in this section, it’s important to understand the whole context.” Continued at: https://www.ucg.org/members/united-news/the-passover-and-divine-healing-christs-role-as-healer-as-well-as-savior
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Update.
As I said last week, our church and many other churches around the world are starting to celebrate Passover tonight. It has something to do with the way one calculates from the Spring Equinox, and the next new moon. Some churches do it one way and some do it another.
The only thing that happened in the renovating of the mini-house is that Zack painted some of the kitchen and bathroom cabinet doors. The other helper struggled with trying to figure out how to connect the kitchen drain into the main sewer line, gave up and didn’t come back. As the road was finally re-paved, Zack washed my van so that it would be all clean for Passover.
We went through my kitchen cupboards and moved anything that might have leavening in it and took it over to the vacant mini-house. The frozen food was put in the freezer part of that refrigerator, the one we cleaned and got ready last week. The leavening didn’t need to be out of the house until Monday sundown, but why wait until the last minute.
Because our pastor likes it so much I made a couple of Gefilte Fish loaves, with jars of gefilte fish, chopped up onions, carrots and parsley for the Holy Day, the Feast of Unleavened Bread on Tuesday, and froze them. I worried that I might get busy and not have time to bake them later on. People turn up their noses at the gefilte fish in a jar, but this recipe makes it taste good.
For our regular Sabbath potluck I made ground Bison and gluten-free penne with a tad of taco seasoning. Also a Zucchini and Tomato dish. We haven’t had penne for ages, but another person also brought penne pasta, too, great minds think alike! All the dishes were great and we had a super meal, as usual, with lots of fellowship and laughter.
The Bible readings were Lev. 14-15:33, about clean and unclean things, 2 King 7:3-7:20, and Matt. 8:1-17. The Teaching was about “Climbing up The Spritual Mountain”, which was about the 8 attributes in The Beatitudes. Matt. 5:3-11.
Anything with leavening in it in the church kitchen was given for me to store in the mini-house until the week of The Feast of Unleavened Bread is over.
Tonight, Sunday, we will be going to church to do what Jeusu did when he was at the last supper, washing each other’s feet and going over the symbols of the bread and wine. “Do this in remembrance of me” . Tomorrow evening we will be doing what Jessus would have done if he hadn’t been crucified, celebrating the start of the Passover, a Holy Day.
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