Lord's Shl

Introduction

I think that no doctrine inside Christianity was as arguably and problematic as the doctrine of the Lord's Supper (Eucharistic). Not only that century-old fighting's is going on around the text: "This is my body" (1.Cor.11:24) between Roman Catholics and Protestants, but there is nonconformity regarding the question among Protestants themselves. The first notification of the Lord's Supper set a division among Christ's disciples, as they were shocked when Christ told them about the suffering that He must go through, so they said: "This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?" (John 6,60). The cause of this fighting is based on a question of understanding the nature of Christ's presence in bread and wine as in understanding the nature of Christ body, the Church.

Those fighting became so intense that the concept of Eschaton in the Lord's Supper (Until he comes, 1.Cor. 11, 26), i.e. the connection of the Lord's Supper and the Kingdom of God that will come , was totally forgotten. And tendency of neglecting the eschatological concept of Lord's Supper would not be so important if it would not have for its consequences the way and oftness of its maintenance , the religiousness of believers and life of a Church and its missionary orientation.

In this paper we will not discuss the questions of Christ's presence in the sights of bread and wine during the Lord's Supper and we will not talk about Luther's, Calvin's or Zwingli's view of Lord's Supper. We will not define it nor will we discuss how often we should participate in it. In this paper we assume that the Lord's Supper for many Christians does not implicate the eschatological concept (which guides the Church and its believers to the Heavenly Kingdom) and has became something static and local. The Lord's Supper is always talked about by its meaning in the past, not its future. It has been forgotten (as the Second Vatican Council says) that "The Lord's Supper (Eucharistic) is the wellspring and the crown of all Christian life, and without it the Church would not exist nor be alive" because she wouldn't have its purpose, and that is eternity. Miroslav Volf in his book After Our Likenes quotes famous catholics theologian Ratzinger,

"Through, baptism, human beings spet out of isolation and into the trinitarian communion, and thus also into the communion of the church, thereby becoming ecclesial beings. As ecclesial beings, however, they live from the Eucharist. The church itself, which participates sacramentaly in making individuals into Christians, realizes its own being as church in the Eucharist."

To this statement I would add the words of professor Janos Pasztor: "The sacrament of Lord's Supper is not only an addition to the Church, but it is an energy of the Church" that binds a humanity with the Kingdom of God that will come.

In order to understand the meaning of Lord's Supper when we talk about Eschatology we will talk about the Passover because Lord's Supper lies on its grounds. We will see what was the goal in Christ's choosing the Passover to establish the Lord's Supper. First part of this paper will talk about Passover in the Old Testament (its establishment, celebration and meaning) and in the New Testament. In the second part we will talk about the Lord's Supper, its establishment, meaning, names and connection with the Kingdom of God. Since the relationship between Lord's Supper and Kingdom of God is faintly investigated, it would require much more space then we are able to use in this paper, so because of the limited space we will concentrate on the, in my opinion, most important elements.

The Passover in the Old Testament

The Passover is for the first time mentioned in the Bible in Exodus 12. In this chapter one event is described which is placed before the Israelis coming out from the Egyptian bondage. In the Bible we read (Genesis 46) that Jacob on a call of his son Joseph came to Egypt and settled there (Genesis 47,11). But, after Joseph and the Pharaoh from Joseph's time died, hard times came on the People of Israel. There was an open hate from the side of the ruling dynasty towards the People of Israel (Exodus 1,11). Little by little the people of Israel fall totally under the control of the Egyptians and become their slaves. In order to save his People, God gives special directions to Moses. Those directions that God gave to Moses where called Passover and in fact that was the first participation in Passover in the Bible. After Israelites had done what God asked them to do, at midnight He struck down all the firstborn in Egypt (Exodus 12:29). Pharaoh, realizing that God Jehovah is bigger then he is decided to let the Israelites go (Exodus 12:31). After they went out of Egypt and settled in the Sinai desert, God gave the Israelites special directions considering the maintenance of Passover, and we read about them in Exodus 12:43-51 and Leviticus 23:4-8. After the Egyptian bondage, the Passover became one of the most significant festivities. The Hebrew's celebrated the Passover every year on 14th of Nissan and it was always directed to the Passover lamb that will be sacrificed and its blood that will be spilled as a sign of salvation from the Egyptian bondage during the rule of Pharaoh Amenhotep II (he rules in Egypt 1450-1425 BC). The Passover became the festivity of salvation and liberation that contained in itself the past, the presence and the future.

1. The Past Ð'- Passover reminded the people of Israel that once they were liberated from Egyptian bondage, and how the houses, marked by the blood of the lamb, were saved by the grace of God.

2. The Presence Ð'- Passover celebration always started with a prayer of thanksgiving for everything that God has done, after which followed drinking of wine, eating of the Passover lamb, unleavened bread and bitter cabbage.

3. The Future Ð'- by coming out from Egypt, the Passover received a new eschatological dimension. The expectation of that what will come, the final liberation. Liberation from the Egyptian bondage was only an image of that final Messianic liberation.

The Passover was the past, the presence and the future, remembrance and hope. A present joy for liberation that came, and certainty that more important liberation will come in the future when the real Passover lamb will be offered , when the sacrifice for the forgiveness of the sins will be laid on, and when the freedom of sin will be granted to all mankind. That means that the Passover became an obligation, in a way, for humanity and for God. Man had an obligation to participate in it and God