Passover and the Lord's Supper
By Karen Boydston
In forum discussions from the fulfilled eschatology perspective, the question
is often asked about the necessity of the Lord's Supper after A.D. 70.? Here is the particular passage in question and some
thoughts on it from my present understanding.
And He said to them, "I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover
with you before I suffer; {16} for I say to you, I shall never again eat it
until it is fulfilled in the
In regard to the Passover, I believe it ceased. Read Luke 22:1-20 and
look at it carefully. It is clearly the Passover. Therefore, if
A.D. 70 has come and we are drinking it (wine) new with Him, then it follows
that what they were eating before A.D. 70 was old. That is, the
Passover was an Old Covenant ritual that typified Christ's blood.
Hence, this is (or this represents) the New covenant in my blood.
The Passover has passed away. They were observing it as a
Jewish ritual until A.D.70. It was done
away. Ward Fenley
I agree with the above statement. This article attempts to give several
reasons why it seems the commandment of Christ to celebrate the Lord's supper has past. It appears that Jesus ate the
Passover meal with His disciples to show His disciples that the New Covenant
life would be Himself --that He was the perfect Lamb
who would take away sin. They were eating all the elements of that Old Covenant
Passover meal, but only the bread and wine were emphasized for some very
important and perhaps obvious (to the Christian) reason--namely that Christ was
the bread and wine. The thrust of Jesus teaching was that every time they ate
together, they should remember His death on their behalf, which was symbolized
in those two elements.
Verses 15 and 16 of Luke 22, seem also to be quite
significant:
And He said to them, "I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover
with you before I suffer; {16} for I say to you, I shall never again eat it
until it is fulfilled in the
It, the Passover, would be fulfilled when He came again. He would be the
reality depicted in those physical symbols. He is our new wine and
bread. We now have Him. They were expecting Him to come
and fulfill that Passover meal, and drink it
anew with them in the realized Kingdom.
The closer I look at the Scriptures, the more I realize that the hope
for which they were awaiting was Christ in them
their glory . (Col. 1:27) During the transition period
(approximately AD 31 to AD 70) the Spirit of Christ was their
hope of glory . This seems to be an important aspect of the
New Covenant life as opposed to the New Covenant beginnings that the early
Christians were experiencing. I think you will begin to see as you
progress through this article how that relates to why we no longer must
practice the Communion ritual any longer.
Remember Christ prayed for the time when He, Himself, would be in them.
"O righteous Father, although the world has not known Thee, yet I have
known Thee; and these have known that Thou didst send Me; {26} and I have made
Thy name known to them, and will make it known; that the love wherewith Thou
didst love Me may be in them, and I in them." John 17:25-26
Until I began to see the preterist view of the Bible, that verse had always puzzled me. I used to
ask, So, who is in me now--the Holy Spirit
(Spirit of Christ), or Christ Himself. (Some may disagree with me, but it
seems pretty clear according to many passages, for example,
2 Cor
2 Cor 5:5 Now He
who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a
pledge.
"In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel
of your salvation-- having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy
Spirit of promise, {14} who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a
view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His
glory." Ephesians 1:13-14
"The Holy Spirit is signifying this, that the way into the holy place
has not yet been disclosed, while the outer tabernacle is still standing, {9}
which is a symbol for the present time. Accordingly both gifts and sacrifices
are offered which cannot make the worshiper perfect in conscience" Hebrews 9:8-9
"seeking to know what person or time the
Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of
Christ and the glories to follow." 1 Pet 1:11
As I began to study this out, here is what I have concluded thus far:
Christ promised the Holy Spirit would come to indwell them as the Comforter, or
Helper, when He went away (Ascension). That promise was realized at
Pentecost. They then had the promised Spirit of Christ as an earnest , deposit or pledge
--guaranteeing their inheritance to come:
Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us
the Spirit as a pledge. 2 Corinthians 5:5
In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of
your salvation-- having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy
Spirit of promise, {14} who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a
view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory.
Ephesians 1:13-14
It seems clear that this sealing with the Holy Spirit produced a certain
hope within all that belonged to Christ. It was a
done deal for them by promise, but not in reality. The
believers were not yet fully present with the
Lord until He returned. The New Testament Church of the first century was
alive and growing stronger and maturing by the indwelling Holy Spirit.
At the same time, the Old Covenant was also made obsolete and was fading
away. It would soon disappear.
"is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready
to disappear." Hebrews 8:13
Christians were being brought into that reality...into the
Holiest of All which the indwelling Spirit was signifying to them
at that present time-- approximately A.D. 68.
"The Holy Spirit is signifying this, that the way into the holy place
has not yet been disclosed, while the outer tabernacle is still standing, {9}
which is a symbol for the present time. Accordingly both gifts and sacrifices
are offered which cannot make the worshiper perfect in conscience" Hebrews
9:8-9
The destruction of the
You may remember Christ also promised to return to receive them to Himself.
"In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would
have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. {3} And
if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto
myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." John 14:2-3
When the prepared holy place was ready, Christ indeed came to them and
received them to Himself. They and we (by virtue of the consummated Kingdom and
through our personal faith in Christ) have been brought into the place where
Christ dwells. As I see this, all of what Christ prayed and promised has been
fulfilled. It is ongoing in that it is repeated every time a person is brought
into God's Kingdom family.
Many preterists partake of the Lord's Supper not
as a remembrance of His death only, but as a celebration of His presence with
us post A.D. 70. I myself do not refuse to participate and do celebrate His
Coming and completed Kingdom whenever I am in a situation where the
"Lord's Supper" is administered. In my view, the practice should not be
taught as a commandment to be obeyed, or even as one essential to
producing worship to God. If it helps some folks to worship God then that is
fine. However, it seems to me proper scriptural teaching concerning His LIFE in
the believer should do the trick~especially for the
one who believes Christ already returned! When people begin to be taught
His Presence with us now, rather than a future event, or worse, a place we will
go at physical death, great will be their rejoicing because He IS drinking wine
anew with us!
For the glory of Christ,
Karen Boydston