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
The post Formed By Ritual first appeared on Reflecting God - Embrace Holy Living.