Chapter 2 of N.T. Wright’s small book on the Jesus meal (The Meal Jesus Gave Us) finds us joining a new friend and listening in on a Passover celebration in her Jewish family around 200 B.C. This “freedom meal” is a recollection of the mighty acts of God in rescuing his people from slavery in Egypt:
“Why is this night different from all other nights?”
“Because,” says [the] father, reading still from his text, “this is the night when our God the Holy One, blessed be he, came down to Egypt and rescued us from the Egyptians…”
“But it isn’t,” you whisper to your friend. “All that happened a long time ago.”
“Yes it is,” the girl whispers back. “This is the same night. It’s like a birthday party. And we are the same people. We are the people of Israel, the people God loved and chose and promised to rescue. We are the people who came out of Egypt.”
“But…but…not you, surely?” you ask. “It must have been your great-great-great-great grandparents, with quite a few more ‘greats’.”
“Yes, of course,” she replies. “But that’s not the point. We are not just us, if you see what I mean. We are part of them, part of the whole of God’s people, God’s family. We are the same family that came out of Egypt. We are the same family that are having this meal in every Jewish home, everywhere in the world, tonight. This meal makes us all one.”
This is just a small excerpt, of course. There’s more to the story in this chapter, so to speak, filling out the picture a bit.
I think this element of the Jesus-meal has been somewhat lost in my tradition. We spend plenty of time distinguishing ourselves from other Christians who believe or practice slightly different than us, but do we see the Jesus-meal as a celebration of our unity both with the people of Israel and with the church?
God is redeeming one people, one bride for himself. We are part of that people. The exodus story is our story. Whenever we celebrate this meal, we proclaim that this is our God acting to rescue our people.
