PODCAST
Formed By Ritual
March 21st, 2024
Luke 22:7-16
Jesus was a good Jew. This fact is often overlooked when talking about Jesus. We can forget that He did not seek to eradicate Judaism and He wasn’t anti-Jewish. He was seeking the fulfillment of Judaism. This means that He did not protest against Jewish holidays or rituals, but celebrated them.
We find Jesus celebrating the Passover, which is a meal of life. It is a meal that celebrates God being a God of the living. The blood on the door is a sign for life. (In the Bible, blood is rarely, if ever, a symbol for death). Jesus and the disciples celebrate this ritual every year because so often the world operates in the paths of death, destruction, and scarcity. The ritual celebration of Passover is a reminder of God’s life, restoration, and abundance.
We all have rituals; most often, we don’t even recognize them. What rituals do you embrace? Where did you get them? How are they shaping you? The church chooses rituals to train us to embrace life in a world bent on destruction.
Author: Ryan Quanstrom
March 21st, 2024 at 9:03 am
Luke 22: 7-16 provides a view of reality to me in that God is a /the creator. I am pleased to be drawn to be a follower of Jesus the Messiah and understand the perhaps part of Christlikeness is celebration properly done and focus upon the goodness and a reminder again on blood of Jesus.
As to my rituals versus church rituals is one of asking in petition first each morning to respond to the sharing of God’s love with someone provided by His Spirit and secondly that I will be a husband to my wife that God wants me to be opposed to what I want or even that she wants. Rituals are family worship daily and has been throughout my life. I have not always engaged some church rituals beyond Eucharist and Baptism. Human church rituals we have are potlucks, men’s meetings that include inviting a non-believer, community events at our church to celebrate the holidays for the community.