From the Feast of Agape to the Nicene Creed - Part 7

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

 

We concluded with:

 

(p.21) " We do not know for sure whether Jesus actually said these words. Some

historians believe that he must have said something like them; others believe

that as his followers struggled to come to terms with what had happened, and

began to reenact Jesus' " last supper, " they formulated these enormously powerful

(p.22) words. In any case, Jewish tradition suggested a wealth of associations

with sacrifice that Paul, Mark, Matthew, and Luke incorporated into various

versions of the story. [50] In the process, as we have seen, the sacred meal

took on not a single meaning but clusters of meanings that became increasingly

rich and complex. Justin tells us what second-century Christians actually did,

in various groups he visited as he traveled from Asia Minor to Rome (c. 150

C.E.):

 

All those who live in the city or the country gather together in one place on

the day of the sun, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the

prophets are read....Then we all rise together and pray, and then...bread and

wine and water are brought [51]

 

to be shared as Jesus commanded. Christians to this day, including those who do

not center their worship on communion, know that how they interpret Jesus'

death--whether as sacrifice, and what kind of sacrifice--has much to do with how

they understand their faith. "

 

Beyond Belief (The Secret Gospel of Thomas) Chapter 1, pg. 21-22.

 

Notes:

 

[50] For a summary of discussion and for references, see Bradshaw, 'Search for

Origins', 48-51. On sacrifice, see, for example, Robert Daly, 'The Origins of

the Christian Doctrine of Sacrifice' (London and New York, 1986); and Rowan

Williams, 'Eucharistic Sacrifice: The Roots of a Metaphor' (Bramcote, Notts,

1982).

 

[51] Justin, I 'Apology 67'. But see, for example, the references in note 23,

which question whether--or to what extent--Justin describes actual practices,

and if so, which he may have in mind.

 

Here now is Part 7.

 

Enjoy,

 

violet

 

 

From the Feast of Agape to the Nicene Creed - Part 7

 

(p.22) Seen as sacrifice, the meal could suggest not only forgiveness and a new

relationship with God but also, like Passover, divine deliverance. Thus Paul

recalls how the Passover lamb was slaughtered before the feast and invites his

hearers to " the Lord's supper, " proclaiming that " Christ, our Passover [lamb],

has been sacrificed for us; therefore, let us celebrate the feast. " [52] Mark

actually writes the Passover feast into the narrative, declaring that Jesus'

last supper with his disciples 'was' a Passover feast--one that Jesus had

carefully, even miraculously, directed his disciples (p.23) to prepare. [53]

Luke and Matthew each expand Mark's version of the story, Luke adding that after

the disciples

 

prepared the Passover, when the time came, he sat at table, and his apostles

with him, and he said to them, " With [great] 'desire I have desired to eat this

Passover with you' before I suffer; for I tell you, no longer shall I eat it

until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. " [54]

 

According to Luke and Paul, Jesus not only blessed the bread and wine but also

told his followers to " do this in remembrance of me. " [55] Thus they imply that,

just as Passover recalls how God delivered Israel through Moses, so those who

celebrate 'this' Passover are to recall simultaneously how God is now delivering

his people through Jesus.

 

The author of the Gospel of John gives a 'different' chronology for Jesus' last

days, though John, as much as--or even more than--Paul and Luke, nevertheless

intends to connect Jesus' death with Passover. However, John writes that

" 'before' the feast of Passover " [56] Jesus shared a meal with his disciples for

the last time, a meal that obviously could not have celebrated Passover. John

says that, at that final meal, Jesus washed his disciples' feet--an act which

millions of Christians, from Roman Catholic and Orthodox to Baptist or

Mormon--have turned into 'another' sacrament. But John does 'not' tell the story

of the last supper that, from the accounts of Paul, Mark, Luke, and Matthew, has

shaped Christian worship ever since. Instead, John says that Jesus was arrested

on the 'previous' night--Thursday--and brought to trial the following morning.

 

(p.24) Because John believed that Jesus 'became' the Passover lamb, he says that

at " about noon, on the day of preparing the Passover " [57]--Friday, the time

prescribed for preparing the Passover lamb--Jesus was sentenced to death,

tortured, and crucified. Every detail of John's version of Jesus' death

dramatizes his conviction that Jesus himself 'became' the sacrificial lamb. [58]

Thus, to show that Jesus, like the sacrificial Passover lamb, actually died

before sunset on the evening of the first day of Passover, John says that a

Roman soldier thrust a spear into Jesus' side to make sure that he was dead. At

that moment, John says, " out of his side came blood and water, " [59] a

physiological observation which also shows how Jesus' sacrifice provides the

wine mixed with water that his followers would ritually drink as " his blood. "

[60] John adds that when the soldiers saw that Jesus was dead, they refrained

from breaking his legs, and then he quotes from Exodus that, when preparing the

Passover lamb, " you shall not break a bone of [it]. " [61] For John, these

instructions have become prophecies; thus, he declares, " not a single bone of

[Jesus'] body was broken. " [62]

 

Although John omits the story of the last supper itself, he does say that Jesus

told his followers to eat his flesh and drink his blood--a suggestion that, he

says, offended " the Jews, " including many of Jesus' own disciples:

 

Jesus said, " I am the living bread which comes down from heaven...whoever eats

of this bread will live forever; and the bread which I shall give for the life

of the world is my flesh. "

 

The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, " How can this man give us his

flesh to eat? "

 

(p.25) So Jesus said to them, " Truly, truly I say to you, unless you eat the

flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you...For my

flesh is truly food, and my blood is truly drink.----- " Many of his disciples,

when they heard it, said, " This is a hard saying: who can listen to it? " [63]

 

Yet despite the weirdness of such images--and perhaps because of it--every

version of this last supper in the New Testament, whether by Paul, Mark,

Matthew, or Luke, interprets it as a kind of death-feast, but one that looks

forward in hope. So Paul declares that " whenever you eat this bread and drink

the cup, 'you proclaim the Lord's death, until he comes.' [64]

 

Beyond Belief (The Secret Gospel of Thomas)

Chapter 1, pg. 22-25

Elaine Pagels

Vintage Books, New York, U.S.A

ISBN: 0-375-70316-0

 

Notes:

 

[52] 1 Corinthians 5:7.

 

[53] Mark 14:12-16.

 

[54] Luke 22:15.

 

[55] Luke 22:19b; 1 Corinthians 11:24-25.

 

[56] John 13:1

 

[57] John 19:14.

 

[58] For discussion of John's view of the passion narrative in general, and his

special chronology in particular, see Raymond E. Brown, S.J., 'The Death of the

Messiah: From Gethsemane to the Grave' (New York, London, Toronto, Sydney, and

Auckland, 1993).

 

[59] John 19:34.

 

[60] Although John does not offer an account of the " Last Supper, " in the John

account Jesus does urge his disciples to eat " [his] flesh " and to drink " [his]

blood " (6:35-58).

 

[61] Exodus 12:46. The Revised Standard Version offers here a translation that

makes the passage sound as if it applied to Jesus, not to a sacrificial animal:

" Not a bone of 'him' shall be broken. "

 

[62] John 19:36.

 

[63] John 6:35-60.

 

[64] 1 Corinthians 11:26.