Thursday, May 27, 2004 AD
The Lord's Supper and the Passover
Last night's membership class with our pastor covered the Lord's Supper. Couple of interesting points which I'll post over the next day or so. First up, the Passover origins of the Lord's Supper.
Our pastor mentioned some of the symbolism in the Passover meal. For example, the cup used by the Lord in the institution of the Supper was the "cup of salvation", the third cup in the Passover meal. This in turn brought to mind one of my favourite psalms - see Ps.116:12,13 (there is a beautiful anthem setting of vv12-19 of this psalm, perfectly juxtaposed with 1 Cor 10:16 as a refrain, on a CD by Manchester Cathedral Choir called Sing Praises. I must warn you, though, that this recommendation is quite literally nepotistic - my uncle owns the small independent record label which produced the disc!).
But the point that really struck me was our pastor's comment on the blood of the lamb which was put on the lintel and door-posts on the night of the original Passover. Think about how you'd do that in practice: lintel, door post, door post. The sign of the cross!
OK, maybe not a point on which to rest too much weight; but a striking and felicitous echo of the Gospel, like one of CS Lewis's "good dreams".
Our pastor mentioned some of the symbolism in the Passover meal. For example, the cup used by the Lord in the institution of the Supper was the "cup of salvation", the third cup in the Passover meal. This in turn brought to mind one of my favourite psalms - see Ps.116:12,13 (there is a beautiful anthem setting of vv12-19 of this psalm, perfectly juxtaposed with 1 Cor 10:16 as a refrain, on a CD by Manchester Cathedral Choir called Sing Praises. I must warn you, though, that this recommendation is quite literally nepotistic - my uncle owns the small independent record label which produced the disc!).
But the point that really struck me was our pastor's comment on the blood of the lamb which was put on the lintel and door-posts on the night of the original Passover. Think about how you'd do that in practice: lintel, door post, door post. The sign of the cross!
OK, maybe not a point on which to rest too much weight; but a striking and felicitous echo of the Gospel, like one of CS Lewis's "good dreams".
