Entering the Triduum with Christ

Hi everyone,

This weekend is the Holiest Weekend in our Church calendar, beginning with Maundy Thursday so you are receiving this on Thursday morning.

It begins with the Passover meal, which we practice each Sunday.  Attached is an excerpt that explains how our Lord's Last Supper is linked theologically to our Eucharist.

Pastor Tim

"God has led you to the desert, and spoken to your Heart."

Mount of Olives Lutheran Church

3546 E. Thomas Rd

Phoenix, AZ 85018

602-956-1620 office

Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist

Scott Hahn and Brant Pitre

It was that first Eucharist that transformed Jesus’ death from an execution to an offering.  At the Last Supper he gave his body to be broken, his blood to be poured out, as if on an altar.

As Paul retold the story of the Last Supper (1 Corinthians 11:23-25), he spoke of the event in sacrificial terms.  He quotes Jesus as calling it “the new covenant in my blood,” an evocation of Moses’ words as he made a sacrificial offering of oxen: “Behold the blood of the covenant” (Exodus 24:8).  It was the sacrificial blood that ratified the covenant, because Moses said so, in the one instance, and because Jesus said so in the other.

Paul also quotes Jesus calling the Supper a “remembrance,” which was another technical term for a specific type of Temple sacrifice (the memorial offering).  Paul compares the Christian Supper (the Eucharist) with the sacrifices of the Temple (1 Corinthian 10:18) and even with pagan sacrifices (1 Corinthians 10:19-21). All sacrifices, he says, bring about a communion, a fellowship.  The offerings of idolatry bring about a communion with demons, but the Christian sacrifice brings about a communion with the body and blood of Jesus (1 Corinthians 10:16).

Paul’s vision of the Passion is stunning.  He shows us that it is not merely about how much Jesus suffered, but how much he loves. Love transforms suffering into sacrifice.

The death on Calvary was not simply a brutal and bloody execution.  Jesus’ death has been transformed by his self-offering in the Upper Room.  It had become the offering of an unblemished paschal victim, the self-offering of a high priest who gave himself for the redemption of others.  He is both priest and victim.  For “Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Ephesians 5:2).  That is love: the total gift of self.

The Eucharist infuses that love in us, uniting our love with Christ’s, our sacrifice with his.  St. Paul preached: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (Romans 12:1).  Paul teaches us that the Eucharist is ordered to the cross, and the cross is ordered to the resurrection.  It is the crucified and resurrected humanity of Jesus that Christians consume in Holy Communion.  We come to it by way of suffering, but we receive the Host as a pledge of lasting glory, and we have the grace to endure the rest.