By Stuart Powell
When an actor departs from the script during a play, it is not a minor occurrence. It will throw off all the other actors, the stagehands, and the stage manager. Everyone has practiced hours to prepare for the production by learning the words and cues necessary to tell the story. When someone misses a cue, the rest of the cast and crew work to reestablish the story line. That is the only way they know to move the play forward.
First century Jews followed a script when they celebrated their festival. At the Passover, the leader would ask or answer a series of scripted questions. This was the traditional method for retelling the story of God’s deliverance of Israel from Egyptian slavery.
Even though Jesus was not the father of his disciples, as their rabbi he led the ritual and retold the old, old story. Those gathered had grown up participating in this annual story telling event. They longed to celebrate it again. They remembered the difficulties of slavery as they ate the bitter herbs. They tasted the tears that accompanied the cries of their ancestors for God’s deliverance as they dipped the bread into the salt water. They savored the meat of the lamb and recalled how the first born of Israel were spared because of the blood. Everything followed tradition.
Then Jesus went off script in Mark 14:22-24 (New English Translation): “While they were eating, he took bread, and after giving thanks he broke it, gave it to them, and said, ‘Take it. This is my body.’ And after taking the cup and giving thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank from it. He said to them, ‘This is my blood, the blood of the covenant, that is poured out for many.’”
When Jesus did this everyone in the room froze with uncertainty, thrown into confusion as Jesus changed the story. One might imagine mouths hung open in shock as Messiah Jesus was doing what he came to do and reshaping the story of God’s grace. A new Passover lamb was now present in that room. A different firstborn became the object of attention. And a better deliverance was unfolding before their very eyes. Did any of them see it? Do we?
As we eat and drink these emblems today, consider again the price Jesus paid for our spiritual freedom. His body was beaten and hung on the cross. His blood was poured out on the ground to grant us eternal life. Remember his love for all of us as we eat and drink together.
Stuart Powell lives outside of Terre Haute, Indiana, where he serves with the North Side Christian Church.
Contact us at cs@christianstandardmedia.com
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