HOLY THURSDAY - THE NEW PASSOVER

 HOLY THURSDAY - THE NEW PASSOVER

Fra Angelico, "Communion of the Apostles", (1440-1441).

Holy Thursday is the celebration of the Last Supper and the institution of the priesthood. It is the presence of all of us at the new Passover instituted by Christ which was united by His suffering on the Cross so as to be a sacrifice for the expiation of our sins.

Christ spoke of giving us His flesh to eat: It was a ‘hard saying’ that many of His disciples refused to countenance. Many left Him and refused to follow Him because of it. What was the flesh of Christ? And why this particular means of expiating our sins?

This post is taken from Dr Brandt Pitre, “Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist – Unlocking the Secrets of the Last Supper” (1).

“The first covenant between God and His chosen people took place when the 12 tribes of Israel arrived at the foot of Mount Sinai during the Exodus from Egypt,.. the primary objective of which was so that the Israelites could freely worship God. After receiving the 10 commandments, (Exodus 19-20), Moses built an altar on the mountain together with 12 pillars, according to the 12 tribes of Israel. He offered burnt offerings of oxen to the Lord.

He took half the blood and put it in basins and the other half of the blood he threw against the altar. Then he took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And then Moses took the blood of the covenant and threw it on the people and said: “Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you in accordance with these words.”

Then Moses and 70 elders saw the God of Israel. And … they beheld God and ate and drank, (Exodus 24:5-11) (2).”

"The Exodus covenant is sealed in blood – symbolised by Moses throwing the blood of the covenant upon the altar – which represents God- and the people. By means of this ritual, God made Israel to be his own family, his own ‘flesh and blood’ - by this means they now shared the same blood. Notice that the making of the covenant does not end with the death of the sacrificial animals, but with a banquet – a heavenly meal. (3).

“During the first Exodus, the worship of God was centred around the Tabernacle of Moses, a portable temple used while travelling in the wilderness. It consisted of 3 parts: An outer court, containing the bronze altar of sacrifice on which priests would offer animal sacrifices to God, then there was the Holy Place, which contained 3 sacred objects: the golden Menorah, the golden altar of incense, and the golden table of twelve cakes of bread, known as the Bread of the Presence, which symbolised the love of God for His people, (see Exodus 25). In this holy place the priests of Israel would worship God through unbloody offerings of bread and wine. [Note too, that Melchizidek, the priestly King of Salem, offered this unbloody sacrifice of bread and wine]. Then there was the Holy of Holies, the innermost sanctum that housed the golden Ark of the Covenant which contained the tablets of the 10 Commandments, the urn of the manna, (the Bread from Heaven), and the staff of Aaron, (Hebrews 9: 1-5). (4).”

Passover celebrated the saving of the Israelites from the vengeance of the Angel of Death. At Passover, every year, millions of Jews would travel to Jerusalem to celebrate in a specific manner. It was at this time that the priests of the Temple would bring the Bread of the Presence to be raised for the contemplation of the pilgrims, as a means of contemplating the Face of God, with the saying, "Look how God Loves You."

The Passover ritual required speaking about the events of the Passover and the telling of the Exodus in thanks for the deliverance that had been won for them. This retelling was not merely as a story, but was specifically commanded to be a Memorial or Remembrance, that is, the ritual by which the people would both remember the past and bring it into the present, reliving in the present time the events as personally experienced by them. (5). That is, the concept of the "Memorial", the "Remembrance" is that the past becomes the present.

“The original covenant with God was broken by the people in their worship of the Golden calf. Jewish prophecies then predicted that a future redemption would occur – a new covenant, and that this redemption would occur on the same night as the original redemption – the Passover.

“Rabbi Joshua who served in the Temple before it was destroyed said: On that night they were redeemed and on that night they will be redeemed.” (Mekilta on Exodus 12;42) - that is the future redemption will occur on the same night as the original redemption.

“In the ancient Jewish commentary the Midrash Rabbah, God said to His people:

'On that very night-that is Passover night- know that I will redeem you (Exodus Rabbah 18:11)'.”

The Passover required:

First, an unblemished male lamb, a year old, (ie., at the prime of life), to be offered as sacrifice – free of defects and perfect;

Secondly, its sacrifice on the 14th day of Nisan: During the sacrifice of the lamb it was extremely important that not a single bone be broken: ‘You shall not break a bone of it’; Exodus 12:46. The sacrifice of the lamb was a specifically priestly action: in ancient Israel, only priests could offer blood sacrifice.

Third step, to spread the blood of the lamb on the entryways of the homes as a visible sign that the sacrifice had been performed. Moses commanded to take hyssop and sprinkle the lintels, and no-one to go out of the house until morning. (6) That is, the wood of the lintels was soaked and thereby stained with the blood of the lamb.

"Fourth, to eat the flesh of the Lamb: After the lamb had been killed and its blood poured out and spread upon the entries of the homes the Israelites would then eat the lamb. The lamb had to be spitted with wooden rods and roasted over a fire - significantly, the wooden rods held the lamb in the form of a cross. It had to be roasted whole over a fire and eaten that night with nothing left at morning. Any remaining had to be destroyed by fire.

"That is, the Passover sacrifice was not completed by the sacrifice of the lamb but by eating its flesh – by eating the sacrifice that had been killed on their behalf. (7)

The ritual also specifically demanded the consumption of four cups of wine, set at different times during the meal, and finishing with the Hallel cup, the cup of praise. It appears that Our Lord drank the third cup at the institution of the Eucharist and is then recorded in the Gospel accounts as expressly saying that He would drink no further "fruit of the vine" at the meal. Without the consumption of the fourth cup, the Passover meal was not completed. Jesus therefore left the Upper Room and commenced His Passion with the final cup of the Passover not consumed and the Passover meal not consummated.

In this context, it is noted that Christ, in His agony in the Garden of Gesthemane, did not pray in terms of ‘crucifixion’, ‘suffering’ or ‘death’ but instead, prayed of God that ‘this cup be taken away.’

THE NEW PASSOVER - THE BODY OF CHRIST

“Jesus was not only the ‘Son of Man’ who would come one day on a cloud of heaven’, (Mark 14: 61-62; Daniel 7:14), but the new Passover Lamb who would be sacrificed in order to inaugurate the new exodus and whose blood would be poured out for the forgiveness of sins. (7A)

“The reason Jesus’ identification with the lamb matters is that the sacrifice of the Passover lamb was not completed by its death. It was completed by a meal, by eating the flesh of the lamb that had been slain. Therefore Jesus commanded that His disciples eat His flesh.

Dr Pitre discusses John’s Gospel, (6:14), in which the apostle tells how Christ fed the 5,000 miraculously in the desert. At this, the people viewed Him as the new Moses. The people experienced a miracle and demanded that He perform – “and guess what they demanded of him? To bring down manna from heaven:

“So they said to Him: Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work will you perform? Our fathers ate manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat’.

Jesus said to them, ‘Amen amen I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven; my father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven, and gives life to the world. They said to Him; Lord give us this bread always.’

“That is, the Jewish crowds knew that the Messiah was supposed to be the new Moses. They also knew He was supposed to bring back the miracle of the manna. So in order to test Jesus to see if in fact He was the one, they asked Him to establish His messianic pedigree by performing a miracle. They challenged Him to give them the new manna from heaven, with a twist. They wanted Him to do so not just for 40 years like the old manna, but for always.

“This request for the new manna is what prompted Jesus to launch into the bread of life discourse, (John 6: 53-59).

“Jesus said: I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and they died. This is the bread which comes down from heaven that a man may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he 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? So Jesus said to them: Amen, amen I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life; and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him. As the living father sent me and I live because of the father, so he who eats me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever.”

The question is then posed by Dr Pitre: Was He speaking symbolically?

Significantly, in this discourse, “He did not refer to the bread of life as the Passover Lamb or the Bread of the Presence. He referred to it as manna from heaven – that it would become ‘real food’ and ‘real drink’.

Dr Pitre comments: “From the Jewish perspective, if the Eucharistic bread is manna from heaven it can’t just be a symbol. It must be supernatural bread from heaven. The old manna of the exodus was no ordinary bread, it was miraculous – that is why the Israelites put it in the Tabernacle with the other miraculous objects, Aaron’s rod and the 10 commandments, written with ‘the finger of God,’ (Hebrews 9:4).

“If the old manna was supernatural bread from heaven, then the new manna must also be supernatural bread from heaven.

“How did the disciples react? Not too well, as John tells us in the very next verses:

“Many of His disciples, when they heard it, said: This is a hard saying: who can listen to it? But Jesus, knowing in Himself that his disciples murmured at it, said to them: Do you take offence at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before? It is the Spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no avail: the words that I have spoken to you are Spirit and life. But there are some of you that do not believe.’ For Jesus knew from the first who those were that did not believe, and who it was that would betray him. And he said: This is why I told you that no-one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father,’

“After this many of his disciples drew back and no longer walked with him, Jesus said to the twelve: Will you also go away? Simon Peter answered: Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life; we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:60-69)

“First we must emphasise the negative reaction of the disciples – like the other Jews in the synagogue, Jesus’ disciples took Him literally. They took offence at his words, deciding to leave His company and let Him go. It was so offensive to them they could not listen to it. The disciples’ dilemma was not that they misunderstood Jesus by taking him too literally. This had happened before and when it did, Jesus would clarify himself.

“After the bread of life discourse, Jesus did not say that he was not talking literally – instead he turned to his disciples and said: Do you take offence at this? Many of his followers abandoned him and he let them go – they abandoned him because they took his teaching literally. And did he back down? No. (9)

“In fact, not only did Jesus let them go, but he turned to Peter and the twelve and invited them to leave too: Will you also go away?

“The point is clear: Jesus would brook no compromise on the mystery of his body and blood – it was a litmus test of discipleship.

“And how did Peter respond? Essentially what he was saying was: Lord, I don’t fully grasp what you just said, but I do know who you are.

“That is; Jesus’ shocking words of eating his flesh and drinking his blood call for supernatural faith – that is what he meant when he said: No-one comes to me except through the Father. (10).

“He also gave them the key to understanding His mysterious words: Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the Spirit that gives life - the flesh is of no avail; the words that I have given you are Spirit and life.’

In His response, Jesus gave the 12 disciples two clues to help them grasp the meaning of his difficult words: First, the mystery of his identity; Secondly, the mystery of his bodily resurrection and ascension through the power of the Spirit. (11).

The mystery of Jesus’ Divine identity:

“You cannot understand His claims about the Eucharist without first grasping the claims of His divine identity: You cannot understand how He as Son of Man can give His body and blood as food and drink unless you understand that He as Son of Man has divine power: He is greater than the Temple, He is the Lord of the Sabbath, He is the one who bears the very name of God. That is why in His response to the disciples’ disbelief, Jesus pointed first of all to His identity as the heavenly Son of Man, who existed before the world was made: “What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?” (John 6:62). (12).

“Jesus went on to declare: It is the Spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no avail”, (John 6: 63). When we look at these two statements together we see that Jesus was not speaking about eating the dead flesh of His corpse – this would be cannibalism. Rather, He was speaking about eating the living flesh of His resurrected body which would be raised to life by the power of the Spirit and then taken up to heaven in the ascension.

“That is another clue that the new manna is miraculous: in the Eucharist, Jesus will give His crucified and risen body and blood. It is not the dead body and flesh but the resurrected body, full of the Spirit of Life and not bound by physical constraints.

“With the words “And I will raise him up on the last day” Jesus directly links eating His body and blood with the bodily resurrection of the believer on the last day.

THE FINAL CUP OF THE PASSOVER:

Then, according to the Gospel of John, Jesus requested a drink before he died:

After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished said (to fulfil the Scripture): ‘I thirst” A bowl full of sour wine stood there; so they put a sponge full of the wine on hyssop and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the wine, he said: “It is finished” / ” It is consummated”, (John 19:23-30).

Dr Pitre commented that "Jesus did in fact drink the 4th cup of the Passover – He did, in fact, finish the Last Supper. But He did not do it in the Upper Room. He did it on the cross. He did it at the very moment of his death. (13)

“It is the Last Supper which makes Calvary sacrificial: As the memorial of the new Passover, the Eucharist therefore not only makes present the actions of Jesus of the Upper Room, it also makes present the sacrifice of Jesus on Calvary. (14).

“Jesus deliberately identified the Eucharist with the new manna from heaven – in doing so, he revealed it as miraculous. The Eucharist was to be the new supernatural bread of the new exodus, (Matthew 6: 13; Luke 11:3). This manna would give supernatural life: he who eats this bread will live forever, (John 6:58). The new manna is a miraculous foretaste of the bodily resurrection – that is why it was necessary for them to eat it in order to be ‘raised up’ on the last day. If they wanted to receive the ‘life’ of the resurrection, they had to eat the miraculous food of the resurrection – ‘the bread of the world to come’ and the world to come was no symbol – it was real. (15).

“The Last Supper was not just a Passover sacrifice; it was a miracle of the new and greater exodus. At that final supper, Jesus miraculously transformed bread and wine into his own body and blood. In doing so he gave his disciples a share in both his bodily death and his bodily resurrection. In doing so, he gave his disciples the ‘supernatural bread’ that would sustain them each day on their journey towards the new promised land of the new creation, a foretaste of the reality of the life of the world to come. (16).

“The Catholic Church teaches that the first Eucharist, and every other since, was not just a sign - it was, and is, a miracle. For this reason the Church holds that not just anyone has the power to transform bread and wine into Jesus’ body and blood, but only a validly ordained priest. And it’s because of the belief in the real presence of Christ – body, soul, blood and divinity – that the Church not only honours the Eucharist but gives the Eucharist the worship due to God alone. (CCC 1378). (17).

(1) Image, New York, 2016.

(2) Ibid., at p. 29.

(3) Ibid., at p. 30.

(4) Ibid., at pp. 64-65.

(5) Ibid. ;Exodus12:14.

(6) Ibid., at p. 54.

(7) Ibid., at p. 55.

(7A) Ibid., at pp. 74-75.

(9) Ibid., at p. 107.

(10) Ibid.

(11) Ibid., at p. 108.

(12) Ibid., at pp. 110-111.

(13) Ibid., at p. 128.

(14) Ibid., at p. 170.

(15) Ibid., at p. 181.

(16) Ibid., at p. 187.

(17) Ibid., at p. 197.