Good Friday

It was spring, time to rejoice and reflect despite the COVID-19.

Jesus the Anointed still spoke in metaphor at his last sader meal. He did the usual blessing of the bread, broke it as per usual, gave it to his devoted students. Then it changed.

He said, “Take, eat. This is my body.” What?? Then again, he took the cup, gave the usual sader thanks for the filled cup and gave it to the disciples, “Drink of it all: this is for the blood of me, of the new covenant [contract] which concern many is being poured out for forgiveness of sin.” So, he wasn’t naïve after all. He knew about all the plotting, but he carried on for the sake of a new beginning for everyone. The Roman Empire had its boot on their necks for quite some time. A radical shift was due. The old Jewish ways had to make a more cosmopolitan shift.

As many of you know, the wine was to represent the lambs that were slain in order to smear the blood on the door posts of the enslaved Hebrews in Egypt in the 1250 to 1230 BCE era. It was the residents’ protection from the plagues roaring through Egypt. Then the angel of death would pass them by.

Unleaved bread during sader meals represent the haste in which the Hebrew slaves escaped Egypt. There was no time to raise bread. Whatever and however things occurred way back then, it is a powerful image of ancient contractual ritual. In this case, it was with the Hebrew people and the Great I AM.

Jesus certainly mastered the gift of metaphor and allegory.

Click to access 2006-1-02.pdf