Mystery of the Eucharist

Likewise Paul writes, "For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth," 1 Corinthians 5:7-8. Paul makes a Christian moral application about Passover — (in Jewish terminology Paul employs halakah on the Passover). Just as the angel of death passed over a household with the blood appropriately applied to the lintel; so likewise Christ's blood appropriately applied by faith, staves off eternal death. In this sense, Christ is our Passover. God acted at the original Passover to redeem the Jews from physical bondage. God acted through Christ's death at Passover, to spiritually redeem believers from bondage to sin and death. (At our current stage of redemption, the spiritual aspects are greater than the physical aspects of Christ's redemption — for instance spiritually we know death is conquered in Christ, but we still face physical death. We have redemption, but the fullness of it is not yet manifest.) Since Christ is our Passover, wickedness and malice (and within the context of 1 Corinthians 5 immorality) are to be put away — just like leaven is to be put aside (or away) during Passover celebrations. With sincerity and truth we are to do the Christian walk.

What I've done in the previous paragraph is to explain, to the best of my ability, what Paul means by "Christ is our Passover.” Paul's terse phrase provides a loaded hint toward those thoughts. It is akin to reading between the lines — to get an understanding of what the author intends. But I am careful to limit myself to agree with Paul's words of how Christ is our Passover. The exact correlation between Passover and Christ is a difficult study in typology. There are similarities. At Passover, God acted to redeem His people; Christ's death during the Passover Feast, when faithful Jews were required to be in Jerusalem. There are differences. The Passover sacrifice pertains to a hybrid peace offering which is roasted, eaten by all with its remains burned the next morning as a whole burnt offering. Christ's sacrifice is a sin offering whose blood is presented inside the heavenly temple. According to tabernacle/temple law, no one is to eat anything of that sin offering. (But more about this in the next phrase "My body which is given for you.” Everything in the Jewish Seder has symbolic “memorial” meaning. For now, we focus on the changes Christ made in Passover.

Traditional Passover elements consist of unleavened bread, bitter herbs, and an unblemished year-old male kid — either a sheep or a goat. The head of the household slaughters the kid. The family roasts, then eats the kid, as a peace offering. They totally burn whatever remains on the next morning, offering it as a whole burnt offering. Since this is a meal, the Jews logically added wine to the ceremony. By the time of Christ, Passover's tradition incorporated five cups of wine in the Passover ceremony.

There are similarities in the celebrations of Passover and the Eucharist. Both use bread and wine. Both are a memorial in that believers ceremonially recreate the original occasion in an attitude of memorial remembrance with thanksgiving. Several elements differ. In the Lord's Supper, there are no bitter herbs; the type of bread is not scripturally mandated as unleavened (although the first ceremony undoubtedly used unleavened bread); there is no animal sacrificed, no kid roasted, no animal flesh eaten, no remainders of the peace offering burned in the morning as a whole burnt offering. Holy Communion is not necessarily confined to once a year.

A monumental transition is underway — the Passover Seder — the Jewish ceremonial meal — changes to the commemoration of the Lord’s Supper. It is not the addition of another layer of tradition. The old Covenant Passover (or Seder in Jewish terms) is cut off and totally replaced by the new covenant memorials of bread and wine. Every time one participates in the Eucharist, a New Covenant renewal ceremony takes place. Formerly the Israelites sacrificed, roasted and ate the Paschal lamb as a peace offering; now in Holy Communion, believers shed no blood, they roast no peace offering, they eat no meat and they burned no remainders of a sacrifice as a whole burnt offering. In Christ's Last Supper no physical meat procurement took place — no physical sacrifice happened, and, no blood was used. But Jesus' words were loaded with implications of his sin sacrifice at Calvary which would happen within the next 24 hours.

Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). Yes he died for sin at Passover time. Yes he is our Passover, but that does not make him a substitute for the Paschal lamb which is roasted, eaten, with the remaining portions burned the next morning. The disciples did not think they physically ate Jesus' body. Although they had roasted meat as part of the Passover meal, they ate no flesh in the new ceremony of the Lord's Supper. They did not think of the Eucharist as a recreation of the Passover feast (but coincidentally the inauguration of the Eucharist did occur at the time of Passover). They took the Lord's Supper as a new covenant replacement for the old covenant Passover. When Jesus said, "This is my body," the disciples understand "This [bread] is my body." The old Passover meal ceased; the Eucharist is what they continued to do.
“This is my body” is understood in different ways. For now a partial list is given, but explanations follow in the section on Historical Interpretations.

Zwingli and Calvin: This [bread] represents my body.
Catholic Church: This [bread] becomes my body.
Luther: This [bread] is [with] my body.

Where is Jesus now? In his deity, he is always with us. “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” Matthew 28:20. And where is the risen body? …