Rabbinic teaching is as much about conveying an example as it is sharing instruction. A rabbi is more like a trainer than a teacher, in the sense that a rabbi is showing you how to live the life and not just transfer information. The heart, in biblical understanding, includes thought, feeling and will. Rabbis address the heart in all of its functions.
On Palm Sunday, Jesus was correctly proclaimed as the Davidic Messiah, but the people did not truly understood what the Messiah would be and do. We need more instruction.
Tonight, on one of the holiest feasts of the Jewish calendar, Jesus takes the foundation story of Israel and reinterprets it. He says, "Exodus is Me." Pharaoh had persecuted and oppressed God's people and ignored God's request. The powerful, hardhearted king refuses to relent, even as Egypt is hammered by plague after plague. He promises to comply, only to back off and dismiss the Lord each time the plagues end. Finally, the divine judgment is manifest and every first born child and beast suddenly and mysteriously lies dead. The helpless slaves are told to leave, but when Pharaoh again changes his mind, the Hebrews run for their lives between two walls of water standing miraculously to either side, the thundering chariots baring down upon them. Then the walls of water come crashing down, encompassing the army and saving Israel.
YHWH is faithful to His promises to Abraham Isaac and Jacob. The exodus story is the central tale of that salvation. However, now, in Jesus, (2 Corinthians) the veil is lifted and at dinner Jesus explains the deeper meaning of that ancient tale of salvation.
This bread...my body
This wine...my blood
Once again, the first born son will be slain. This time, though, it is God, the only Son. Jesus the Messiah King will chooses a cross for His throne and thorns for His crown. He dies for us.
"My blood is a new covenant. My blood shed for the forgiveness of sins." My life the paschal lamb sacrificed and eaten. I am the true Passover.
Each time we gather at this table, we recognize it also as an altar. Both meal and sacrifice in the eternal presence of Jesus.
The deliverance from Egypt is also symbolic of our deliverance from the slavery to Satan, the world, and ourselves. Salvation from Egypt is symbolic of salvation from sin and death. This five-fold gift of life is ours in the Self Sacrifice of the Incarnate Son of God. But like the ancient Hebrews, we must continue the journey and become what the Father saves us to be. Eating the bread of heaven means internalizing Jesus. It means becoming a living sacrifice ourselves. It means becoming what we eat---the Body and Blood of Jesus in the world. This is theosis--complete union with the Holy Trinity--and it begins in church, with bread, wine and the word, and an open, obedient heart.
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