Do the Thing You Were Told to Do Before the Thing You Weren’t

This spring, Christians all around the world will celebrate the resurrection of Yeshua (Jesus). Their methods of celebrating and the date may be different, but they will join together to remember His death, burial and resurrection. They will sing songs about the lamb and they will read the narrative from the Holy Scriptures. Some will do foot washing and most will observe the Christian sacrament of communion. Let me say at this point, that I personally have no issue with Christians remembering the death, burial, and resurrection of The Messiah nor do I have a problem with them participating in foot washing, singing songs about The Lamb, or taking communion in remembrance of Him. 

What does concern me is that many Christians over the years have lost the foundation of why they do the things they do. They have separated their practices from the practices of the ones that first observed the very things they are commemorating. Rather than doing what Yeshua and the disciples actually did, they perform rituals based upon what they did. A simple reading of the text, such as Luke 22:7-8 and Matthew 26:17-19, tells us as readers exactly what Yeshua and his disciples were doing in the upper room on the night before His execution.

Luke 22:7 Then came the day of matzah when the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. 8 Now Yeshua sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover for us, so we may eat.”

Matthew 26:17 Now on the first day of matzah , the disciples came to Yeshua, saying, “Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover?” 18 He said, “Go into the city to a certain man, and tell him, ‘The Teacher says, “My time is near; at your house I am to keep the Passover with My disciples.”’” 19 The disciples did as Yeshua had ordered them, and they prepared the Passover.

The meal that Yeshua and his disciples were eating was the Passover meal, an annual memorial meal that G-D had commanded His people Israel to observe every year eternally.

Exodus 12:14 “This day is to be a memorial for you. You are to keep it as a feast to Adonai. Throughout your generations you are to keep it as an eternal ordinance. 

Exodus 12:24 Also you are to observe this event as an eternal ordinance, for you and your children.

It was during this annual Passover meal that Yeshua made the famous statement that is often carved into the front of communion tables around the world and is found in the book of Luke:

Luke 22:19 And when He had taken matzah and offered the bracha, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body, given for you. Do this in memory of Me.” 20 In the same way, He took the cup after the meal, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is poured out for you.

Two important things we must notice about this statement. First, it was while Yeshua was blessing the matzah that He made the statement, “Do this in memory of Me.” Second, He did not make the same statement after He blessed and drank the wine. Why is this important? It is because eating matzah is commanded in Exodus as a part of the observance of Passover, while drinking the wine was not commanded. Look it up. There is no commandment to drink four cups of wine as part of the Passover meal. The four cups of wine became a part of the way we tell the story of the Passover during our Seder meal.

So, when Yeshua picked up the matzah, blessed it, broke it, gave it to his disciples, and said, “This is My body, given for you. Do this in memory of Me,” He was fulfilling one of the commandments for keeping Passover given by G-D. He wasn’t starting a new sacrament but rather sharing an additional understanding of His role in the Lamb of G-D who would take away the sin of the world. In fact, when Yeshua said “do this in memory of me" he was directly speaking of eating the matzah while participating in the annual Passover meal. 

This is not to say that it is wrong to participate in other opportunities to remember Yeshua. If people choose to eat matzah and drink wine to remember what Yeshua said on that night when He and His disciples celebrated Passover, I think it is a wonderful thing. I just think that it is more important for us to actually do what Yeshua said for us to do, than it is for us to do something extra to remember what He said to do while not actually doing the thing He said to do. 

Let me provide two examples of what I mean. First, if I took my wife out every month on the same day on which we were married in order to celebrate our marriage, but I chose not to take her out on the actual anniversary, it would be weird and maybe even a little insulting to her. She would wonder why I did the extras but didn’t actually celebrate our actual anniversary. Second, each week in synagogue when we read from the Torah, we say a blessing thanking G-D for giving us the Torah. However, because we thank Him every week, we don’t stop celebrating the Day of Shavuot (Pentecost), the traditional day on which we believe the Torah was given. 

While each of the examples above help me make the point I am trying to make, neither of them are as serious as I believe it is for people to choose to observe a man-made memorial of something to replace the actual memorial that G-D commanded us to observe. Passover was commanded by G-D as an eternal ordinance. It was this commanded observance that Yeshua told us to do in remembrance of Him. As time went on after Yeshua’s death, communion became a replacement memorial rather than an additional memorial. 

By doing communion, while not observing Passover, in essence you are telling G-D I remember what You told me to do and I remember what Yeshua said at His Passover meal, but I choose not to do what you said to do. Instead of remembering Yeshua during Passover as Yeshua told us to, you choose not to remember what He said and instead you choose how we want to remember Him. 

By doing so, you separate Yeshua from the Passover and weaken the prophetic connection between Yeshua and the Passover Lamb. You separate the blood of the lamb from the Blood of the Lamb. When believers in Yeshua fail to observe the Passover and only celebrate communion, they dilute their testimony to the people of Israel and fail to uphold your biblical responsibility to provoke Israel to Jealousy as Paul taught Non-Jews to do in Romans:

Romans 11:11 I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be! But by their false step salvation has come to the Gentiles, to provoke Israel to jealousy. 

When non-Jewish believers in Yeshua love and honor G-D’s Appointed Times, such as Passover, something that the people of Israel, the Jewish people, believe is theirs, this is exactly what Paul wrote about when he told the non-Jewish believers to provoke Israel to jealousy. 

Now before anyone says the Passover is a Jewish feast and that it is not for the Gentiles, please reread the Exodus and you will find that there was a mixed multitude that G-D redeemed from Egypt, along with the Children of Israel, who stood at the Mountain when G-D spoke the commandments. The redemption of the Passover Lamb was not only for Jews and the Redemption of The Lamb of that Passover in Jerusalem when Yeshua died for all was not only for Jews. Likewise, the observance of Passover which Yeshua instructed His disciples to celebrate as a memorial for Him isn’t just for Jews.

So, if you want to eat unleavened bread and drink wine in remembrance of Yeshua daily, weekly, monthly or whatever, I am not trying to stop you. But if you are going to do something to remember Him through, let me encourage you first to honor Him by doing the thing He actually told us to do before you do something extra.