“The things of the OT are the shadow, those of the NT are an image and truth is the state of the future things to come.”
St. Maximus the Confessor, 7th
century AD.
In this New Year it’s important to emphasize this future, Christian hope of the coming KOG on earth that has been at times muted, at times lost, from the
communion service.
We find a reference to this double meaning when Jesus prays to the Father:
“May Your Kingdom, may your will be done on earth…Give us bread today for the coming day.”
[Luke
11.2-3; Mat 6.10-11].
Luke explicitly
shows this service as inextricably bound up with the Kingdom promise:
Luke
22.15 “I have been earnestly looking forward to eating this Passover meal
with you before my sufferings.
16
I tell you, I shall not eat it again until the time when it is fulfilled in the
future Kingdom of God.”
17
Jesus took a cup, and after he had given thanks, he said, “Take this and share
it among yourselves.
18
I tell you that I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the
Kingdom of God comes.”
Luke
22.29 And so I now covenant with you to grant you a Kingdom and the
authority to rule just as my Father covenanted it to me,
30
and you will eat and drink at my table in my Kingdom, and sit on thrones
governing and administering the regathered 12 tribes of Israel.
And Paul adds
a reference to the 2nd coming when he repeats the lord’s
commandments: 1Cor 11.23-26.
“Paul
urges a deeper awareness of the meaning of the new covenant shared in the
Lord’s Supper, and thus an authentic
proclamation of the Lord’s death until he comes in glory.” The Eucharist in the New Testament,
Jerome Kodel, p 82.
As a result, the Kingdom promise was center stage
in the communion service of the earliest churches, as shown in the 1st
century document called “The Teaching”:
“Even as this broken bread was scattered
over the hills, and was gathered together and became one, so let your Church be
gathered together from the ends of the earth into your kingdom; for yours is
the glory and the power through Jesus Christ forever.” Didache 9
Admonishment:
Hebrews
10.25 Continue to keep a firm grip on the promises that keep us going. He
always keeps his word. And let us not stay away from church meetings. Some
people are doing this more and more. Take this opportunity to comfort,
encourage and warn each other, especially
as we see the Big Day approaching.
