Christ is Not a New Moses

He comes not give a new way to righteousness but to give you his very own

The Old Testament lectionary text this week is Exodus 12.1-14 a passage with which Jesus summarizes himself the night he’s handed over to the cross.

On the night we betrayed him, Jesus’ Passover table in the upper room would’ve been set according to the Seder instructions in the Haggadah from the Book of Deuteronomy. The reason the disciples fall asleep later that night in the garden is because the Haggadah requires enough wine for four cups for each of them. Four cups of wine not one. Four cups, each of which represents one of the promises God makes to Israel about their deliverance:

Cup 1: ”I will take you out of Egypt…”

Cup 2. "I will save you from Pharaoh…”

Cup 3. "I will redeem you from captivity…”

Cup 4. "I will take you as a People…”

Along with the four cups, at the center of Jesus’ Passover table would have been brick-shaped mixtures of fruits, nuts and vinegar symbolizing the bricks that Pharaoh forced them to build, a plate of bitter herbs and a bowl of salt water symbolizing the bitterness and tears of their captivity, unleavened bread, symbolizing the urgency of their escape, and the lamb itself which the head of the household, the host, would’ve taken home from the Temple to skin it and then roast it for the feast.

Presumably Jesus is the one who kills and skins and roasts the lamb as he’s the host who leads the script that night. According to the Haggadah, that night in the upper room Jesus blesses the first cup of wine and invites them all to drink.

Then the bitter herbs, which Jesus blesses and invites them to eat with the salt water. Then comes the bread and the dried fruit and the lamb.

Next, Jesus the host would have poured the second round of wine, retelling the story of the Exodus, before inviting his disciples to drink.

Then, according to the script, Jesus breaks the bread.

And according to the script, according to the Haggadah, what Jesus is supposed to do next is bless the bread, mix it up with some of the herbs and fruit and lamb and say to his table mates, ‘This is the body of the Passover.”

But Jesus changes the script.

He inserts himself into it. He doesn’t say, ‘This is the body of the Passover.”

He says, “This is my body.”

He connects the body of the Passover Lamb to his body and then he connects it to their bodies by saying, “Take and eat.”

Jesus changes the script.

Jesus takes the symbolism and promises behind the herbs and the fruit and the bitter herbs and the bread and the lamb and he ties them not to his teaching or his preaching, not his miracles, not to his compassion for the poor or his prophetic witness against power.

Jesus changes the script.

Jesus takes the symbolism and promises of the Passover meal and ties them to his body. To his death. “Take and eat. This is my body broken…”

As the host of his last Passover, Jesus doesn’t just change the script.

He adds to it.

According to the Haggadah, after they feast on the meal, Jesus is supposed to pour and bless the third cup of wine, and invite the disciples to drink it. Then, according to the script, they’re supposed to sing from the Book of Psalms before blessing and drinking the fourth cup of wine.

Except, after they feast on the meal, when the time comes, Jesus takes the third cup of wine, the cup symbolizing God’s redemption promise (“I will deliver you from captivity”,) and Jesus says, “This is my blood…drink from this all of you…”

Hang on. Drink what?

What’s blood doing on our table?

Leonardo DaVinci didn’t quite capture it in his Last Supper but if there was a WTF moment in the upper room it went down right there and then.

They’d be better off going back to eating and drinking with hookers and thieves. Blood shouldn’t be anywhere near their table. You didn’t need to be a rabbi like Jesus to know that according to the Law it was verboten to consume blood much less drink it. The law stipulated that "anyone of the house of Israel who eats any blood, I the Lord will set my face against that person who consumes blood, and will forsake that person as accursed…”

Blood is forbidden.

Anyone who consumes it in any way is accursed.