How Do We Keep The Passover?
Enjoy this meditation from the Questions of Jesus .
Q. 120 Where is the Guestchamber?
Luke 22:11, Mark 14:14, “And ye shall say unto the goodman of the house, The Master saith unto thee, Where is the guestchamber, where I shall eat the passover with my disciples?”
The rituals and traditions of some faiths are a fascinating study. I once heard a story of a young girl learning from her mother how to cook the holiday roast. “You must cut it like this before you put it in the pan” mother said with conviction as she removed four full inches from the end of the roast. “Why?” the young lady asked. “I don’t know,” the mother answered with a look of confusion, “but I’ve always done it – perhaps we’ll ask Grandma tonight. After all, she told me to do it” That night at dinner, the matriarch of the family was finally asked by the granddaughter, “Why did you teach Mom that the end of a roast should be removed?” She answered, “Back in those days… we had a very small oven!” So it is with rituals and traditions. The actions last long after the reasons are forgotten.
In order to look at traditions we need to stand back to consider them. Objectivity and reason must rule the deliberation. We also must realize that while all ordinances may be ritual all ritual may not be ordinance. The Church has found itself involved in liturgies and observances that have done much harm and little good over the years. People, otherwise civilized and kind, tear apart congregations and families with questions of rituals and all the intricacies of their observance. Are they required? How often? So on and so on, ad infinitum.
Let us examine Christ’s question, “Where is the guestchamber?” What a wonderful question to ask those who think it compulsory to prepare and participate in the Eucharist. What a question for those who feel it is essential to place common bread in their mouth and call it the body of Christ and those who pretend to drink His blood by drinking wine or juice.
They may find themselves in debates about how and why and with whom it is to be done. Churches split, families quarrel, while theologians (Catholic and Protestant alike) bark out Scriptures to “prove” their points. Should the wine be fermented? Is the bread allowed to be leavened? Should we serve the cup first or the bread? Should we use individual cups or share one? What should the cup be made of? Who is qualified to serve?
Who is qualified to partake? Is this service essential for salvation? Does the bread actually become the flesh of Christ? (Transubstantiation) How often should we do this each year…each month… each week? The questions go on indefinitely. One question, however, about this night that is never asked is the one Jesus asked, “Where is the guestchamber?”
Bread is easily purchased at the market or from church supply stores – perfectly round (if you are into Sun worship) or square if you like matzos or broken into tiny pieces, whatever is your tradition. We can find certified leaven free, kosher, salted or unsalted, crackers, or matzos.
The wine can be bought at the same places and may be from California or Israel, it may be fermented or unfermented, red or rosé (never white). Some see nothing wrong with using water in its place and to others that is sacrilege. Are all these concerns valid or can we participate in the Lord’s supper with a coffee and doughnut? (This is not said to offend but to provoke thought.) What is important and unimportant about the way this communion with Christ is carried out.
Another Idea
Quakers did not hold to the conventional idea of the “Lord’s Supper.” The Quakers (as indeed we all should) focus more on the communion and less on the supper. As a matter of fact, the supper becomes a symbol that complicates and obscures the Truth of this service.
You may meet an old friend and you say, “Let’s have dinner.” Don’t you assume that your intention is, not to eat, but to fellowship with your friend? When a gentleman asks a lady out for dinner, should we assume he is hungry for food? The symbolic gesture is just as much apparent in the Lord’s supper. The Lord is not hungry, nor does He care what is served. He comes for the fellowship, the communion, and the company. He does not ask, “Where is the unleavened bread I require?” Nor does He ask for pedigrees on participants. He asks, “Where is the guestchamber that I may eat the Passover with my disciples?”
The fellowship that Jesus requires is the communion of the heart. The company He desires is the humble disciple, eagerly awaiting words from the lips of his Lord – awaiting orders, awaiting corrections, awaiting encouragement. This is the fellowship He desires “as oft ye do this” (as often as you eat) to meet with Him and fellowship. As often as you raise a glass to quench your thirst, consider the blood with which you were purchased.
As often as you place food in your mouth to give yourself strength, gain strength from the body that was broken for you as well.
This fellowship is carried on in the heart. This is the guestchamber where resides the Savior, the lover of our soul. It is the guestchamber that is swept and garnished, where the door is opened to receive the Savior whenever He knocks. “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will SUP with him, and he with me.” (Revelation 3:20) Herein lies the fellowship, the communion, the company, it is the Lord’s SUPper that He desires. There is no fussing about who is invited, no worries about condition, color or location of the bread and wine, no silly debates, no presumptuous priesthood to serve these “holy elements,” just the pure fellowship of the heart. This is the true communion in the true guestchamber with the true bread.
The Guestchamber Is Key.
If it is a room, then the furnishings of the room become important. If it is a place we are to go, then when we go and where we go and who goes becomes very important. If the table of the Lord is a tangible table, then even its composition may be of some importance. But if the table, and the bread, and the wine, and the room are only a symbols of a greater spiritual existence, then it all becomes totally unimportant and diverting, dividing and distracting, illusory and bothersome.
Where is the guestchamber?
It is within us!
Most of the problems we encounter are problems that could have been avoided with ease if we had been fresh from fellowship with the Captain of our Salvation. The communion we need is daily communion, not a yearly or a monthly or even a weekly eating and drinking of “holy” bread and grape juice. The symbols mean nothing compared to the fellowship they represent. Paul, teaching on this very thing says, “For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men. Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another.” (Romans 14:17-19)
But is anything wrong with an actual guestchamber and a tangible table and physical bread and wine? Yes, they are to be rejected. These items are to be rejected because they occupy a place in our minds that only the real and true articles should occupy. For example if I asked you, “When was the last time you had communion?” You may think back to the last time you sat with others in a service and participated in the Eucharist (or Lord’s Supper if you prefer).
If you asked me the same question I would answer, “This morning.” If we participate in “communion” at church, do we feel a need to do so at home? If a person partakes of the Lord’s Supper in church to satisfy the Scripture’s request to do so, is there a desire to continue that supper throughout the day? No, unfortunately the satisfaction of the pure Commandment cannot come from two sources – one source real, the other merely a symbol.
To live in truth, we must choose – let us choose the substance over the symbol. The question that settles the issue is “Where is the guestchamber?”
