Manariwa

The second tradition we take up is the one most practiced throughout history and throughout the world. People probably perform it at all hours, except when they are asleep – but then, the world never sleeps, does it? Many unknowing, innocent babies (in the Greek Orthodox Church) do it, while many in their death-beds also do. In its many forms and variations, it is the one tradition that marks passionate adherence to a teaching that has been instituted into — and has, naturally it seems, become — a ceremony, memorial, commemoration or ritual that has become the main focus or central point of worship itself and of many religious, civil and even legal functions of some sectarian groups. We need to differentiate between an organic teaching and an instituted tradition or celebration, for in so doing, we can “rightly divide” Christ’s words and, thereby, the Holy Spirit’s teaching on this subject. (2 Tim.:15)

We, of course, refer to the Lord’s Supper, Communion or Eucharist. It derived from a centuries-old practice or feast of the Hebrews known as the Passover, Paschal Lamb or Unleavened Bread Feast commanded by God on the night of their departure from Egypt. From being a tribe of slaves, the Hebrews came out of that idolatrous nation to eventually become the Chosen Nation of God, Israel, which was given the privilege and duty as carrier and preserver of the oracles of God. (Rom. 3:1-2)

We are all familiar with the story; however, not many truly understand the real significance and meaning of the final intentions of God with respect to this historical process and, more so, the culmination or fulfillment of the prophecies and promises contained in the original, as well as the final, teaching of Christ. In fact, this article will prove that God was, in reality, neither establishing an institution nor a tradition but was providing humans – particularly His followers – an organic or natural way by which His name and His legacy will be perpetuated throughout all generations till the appointed end-time.

Since this series has amply laid down the framework and the dynamics by which Organic Faith was introduced to humans by God’s messengers and how His enemies tried to corrupt it, we now reinforce our point by presenting the most critical evidence that shows the complete shifting or distortion of His Truth and Way by the departures made from the “pattern of teaching” — or what we called the Key of Truth of the Spirit. This shifting has, thereby, produced new forms, new practices, new meanings, new traditions and new conceptions which are all entirely detached from the Lord’s original intentions. How did this happen? Why? Who were involved?

It might end up better for the reader to read the book that sparked this series of articles and this article, and, in particular, the historical events and the players engaged in the chaotic drama that has brought nations and peoples to where they are now. A free ebook is downloadable in this blog. We hope this less-detailed article will convey the same message.

The Passover came with the final blow given by God to save the Hebrews from Pharaoh’s evil rule, that is, after 9 other plagues that rocked and devastated unrepentant Egypt. The angel of death whom God sent to kill all firstborn sons spared the Hebrew families who splashed the blood of a year-old lamb on their doors, which each family sacrificed and cooked for their last meal in Egypt. Along with the lamb, they prepared bread without yeast or leaven (since they were told to dress up and depart hurriedly that night), which they dipped in haroset, a paste of apples, crushed nuts and bitter herbs (Matt. 26:23). Notice, then, that it was a complete, balanced meal needed by slaves heading out into the wilderness. What God commanded through Moses was, in essence and, we must add, in its organic quality and intention, a filling meal, not a ritual or token meal consisting of a small bite and a sip. Certainly, they must have drunk wine or a drink to go with the meal. Moreover, it included, obviously, everyone, not just adults but also children and the aged. Is this picture organic enough for us all?

Moses declared the preparation of the meal within short notice, we must clarify; otherwise, they would have had enough time to add yeast and make a more desirable, filling and fluffy bread instead of hard flour-cakes baked in a rush. Also, he told the Hebrews to commemorate that eventful night yearly when they would have reached the Promised Land by preparing the same full meal of a year-old lamb and unleavened bread at the end of one whole week during which they ate only unleavened bread. (Ex. 13:6) So, what else did they eat for 6 days with hard matzo? The Law did not specify; we can conclude that they ate whatever they wanted to or, except for the dip, they ate nothing else. But what would have stopped them from eating fruits and veggies? Christ did eat — or tried to eat — figs on His way back to Jerusalem after His tumultuous entrance, apparently 2 or 3 days before the Paschal Feast of Passover (which means the Passover Week had started before He entered Jerusalem); so, that puts to rest the issue. (Matt. 21:1-19; 26:1-2) But people can become so strict when it comes to ordinances and feasts (traditions, that is); but, remember, they all end(ed) in Christ.

Nevertheless, that was to become the annual Passover Feast or Feast of Unleavened Bread which every family, as done in the beginning, was to celebrate in its own home. Later on, it became a practice for a young son to ask the father what the feast meant, to which the father replied by recounting the original event and explaining what the lamb and the bread signified. It was a literal “commemoration” or “recalling” of the mighty salvation done by God for Israel as a nation. Hence, for centuries, the Israelites performed the feast as dictated by Moses.

Wine was eventually added as an ordinary part of the meal. Or was it organically and naturally part of it already? Moreover, the meal eventually included the invisible presence of the coming Messiah wherein each family commonly kept the main door of their homes open (in contrast to the closed, blood-stained doors in Egypt), signifying the promise that the Messiah will enter and participate in the meal in an invisible presence. (Rev. 3:20) For the angel had come to kill; but the Messiah will come to save and even dine with them. In fact, to live with them and not just to pass on or over.

The Passover Feast, then, was both a prophetic and a spiritual act which expressed the hebrews’ faith in a real, loving and protective, as well as a coming and triumphant, God and Savior. From slavery, the nation achieved freedom and looked forward to establishing the promised Kingdom which would then put all of their enemies under the feet of God. Note that a spiritual act is not only heartfelt but life-enhancing and spirit-uniting, whereas a religious act often only involves heartfelt but rigid and shallow compliance to contrived ordinances (as opposed to the organic act of eating a real meal). Hence, in a way, it is no different from the old form or tradition, being still attached to a rite involving death and blood and not a “new and living way” that Christ meant it to be. (Heb. 10:19-20)  

The Israelites did achieve a literal kingdom under their own kings, such as David and Solomon, when their nation established itself as a feared, mighty and prosperous nation and the center of the one and only monotheistic religion in the midst of envious, marauding, polytheistic tribes. Eventually, because of their departure from God’s laws handed down to Moses, that kingdom became divided and, eventually, conquered and exiled into Babylon and Assyria, with the temple in Jerusalem ransacked and defiled by many idolatrous nations.

Upon the Jews’ return to Judah and the rebuilding of the temple, the Law of Moses was revived, although the Romans came and eventually ruled over the whole of Palestine. It was during this empire’s “peaceful” rule that the Messiah came. Pharisees, Sadducees and Scribes had become the religious leaders of Judah and had added the Talmud to the Law, a set of traditions or teachings highly-influenced by Babylonian pagan beliefs that expanded and, in a way, replaced the original Mosaic Law – i.e., with a “Shifted Mosaic Law”. The northern kingdom, on the other hand, had its own temple in Samaria and worshiped Baal, a Canaanite pagan god. The Romans, in more subtle ways, would later on stamp their pagan influences on “Shifted Peter”; but more on that next time.

The above familiar narrative gives us a background as to why the arrival of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, turned out to be an unacceptable and tumultuous event. He was preaching an Organic Faith and a Spiritual Kingdom once more, the one the prophets had all been teaching and foretelling. He preached and practiced love for one another instead of a tooth-for-a-tooth way of life; a self-denying and sacrificial kind of life instead of a self-centered and carnal form of existence. It was natural and essential, not artificial and superfluous. It was spiritual and true, not external and false. All that, He proclaimed for 3 years but was rebuffed and rejected by unorganic leaders. He was, in fact, crucified like an ordinary criminal. Yet, He triumphed by resurrecting and ascending to the Father where He now reigns and continues to teach Organic Faith through His gift, the Holy Spirit.

Understanding this short and clear narrative will help us fully comprehend what He did the night before He offered Himself on the cross. It was the last Passover Meal, not just for Himself and His disciples but also for the nation Israel. Yes, many call it the Last Supper, as if He were truly a criminal eating a special meal and leaving a “special” meal to us as well. That is, a meal that we must all replicate or recall in all its related sordid and morbid elements and not a pleasant meal that pointed to His actual and real intentions and designs for Himself and for His followers. Let us explain this some more.  

It was the same Passover Meal that Moses had commanded. Christ had told the disciples to prepare it as it was ordinarily prepared, a fulfilling and complete meal – lamb, bread, dip and wine and, perhaps, other food as well. He knew He needed energy to face a noisy, circuitous trial, a painful flogging, a shameful parade with a cross up to Calvary and an agonizing crucifixion. So, imagine how He must have savored – or endured — His lamb chops. Perhaps, it is because His sacrifice was and is so significant to the times as well as to ours that we now see its “institution” and its “constant reinstitution” (or commemoration) that we have lost sight of the simple and organic message He was trying to convey to us. Let us then list those organic aspects we keep missing in our Shifted, Unorganic Faith:

1. First and foremost, a meal is a meal, nothing more. It is organically a biological process carbon-based creatures like us have to digest to sustain physical life. Through it we partake in Creation’s cycle of birth, growth and death, as one day we will eventually give up our bodies back to the Earth. Food then is the fuel that runs our very existence and life. However, a meal is also a social-economic act through which we can enjoy together the bounties from God and granted to humans through the work they must do to produce food and distribute it to all who need it, whether humans or animals. Each meal connects us to the curse of Adam who had to toil to eat and who must one day return to the dust or the ground that sustained his life for a little while. (Fancy food shows and banquets today hardly remind us of Adam — or of suffering– anymore.) All that because of sin. This spiritual knowledge, therefore, puts us in the right position to appreciate what Christ was doing to the meal – and, conversely, what we have done to it. For the spiritual significance of the meal – the ordinary meal, not any human tradition or religious ritual – would carry an entirely new way of seeing Creation, Life, Salvation and Eternal Life in an organic or essential perspective as Christ intended it. Eating is life and through it we receive literal, material and spiritual blessings in abundance from God, whether during a feast or not. Note that the sacredness imputed upon a meal or the Communion or any ritual, for that matter, does not make people or their “worship” any more sacred or righteous before God than eating an ordinary meal does. Objects (bread, host, churches or books) and deeds (rites, liturgies, sacraments or masses) do not have spirits to make them intrinsically “sacred”, “holy” or “blessed”; only humans and spirit-beings can be holy, blessed and sanctified, meaning indwelt by the Spirit. (The act of “blessing” food means giving thanks to God: “Bless this food’ vis-a-vis “We bless (thank) You for this food”. Or, more logically, the food is the blessing itself from God!) Unless you have been made “sacred” or “justified” by the Spirit and live according to His Organic Faith, any act you do or food you eat will be nothing but compliance to unorganic and shifted faith that strays from God’s intentions.     
2. A meal is meant to be a nutritious and satisfying event or activity. Although the Passover was held for a week and culminated at the end with the lamb, it was just a meal but with a historical meaning for the Israelites and for the Lord and His disciples that night. They needed to eat as in previous days; and that night’s meal was a climax to a feast or God-given command that may have seemed as ordinary as the previous ones they ate with Christ, except that they were having it now in Jerusalem. Except for the year-old lamb required, it was no big deal of a meal for the apostles who had had it since they were children, in fact. But that night, it was a big deal for Christ, Who had also eaten it many times as a child.
3. The lamb had always represented the sacrificial offering to God that enabled the Hebrews to escape the angel of death who came to kill. But now, the firstborn son of Mary, was going to show, not merely tell, the apostles that instead of that Egyptian escape, the lamb now represented His body He was offering. After having eaten of the Paschal meal, therefore, He took the bread and said it was His body to be given for them and the world. (Luke 22:19-20) It was unleavened, meaning pure or uncorrupted, signifying the purity of His sinless-life offering to God. (It was a uniquely-Jewish metaphor, not necessarily a universal idea.) Then, He said He will not eat of the bread until He eats it again in the Kingdom. That is, when He eats it with His followers, it is going to be in the Kingdom and with Him being the King already. (Note that they now held the feast with the door closed. Why? Because the Messiah was inside the room!)
4. Note that in the previous cited verse, Christ took the cup or wine “after supper”, thus, already fulfilling Moses command. Next, He took the wine and said it was the blood of the new covenant. And He will only drink it again “new” in the Kingdom. Notice again that they had eaten the Passover, thereby, fulfilling the Law of Moses even before that point. It was only after the Passover, therefore, that He gave the real and ultimate meaning and purpose of the meal, which is His sacrifice or His act of saving the world. Christ, in essence, finished the Passover that night and also for good, signifying the moment when He was about to cross over to the New Covenant He was going to establish with his apostles and those who will believe His message through them. The next day, He was going to finish the entire Law. (It is finished. (John 19:30) However, that New Covenant will only take effect seven weeks after that night. Whatever Passover, Pentecost or Feast of Booths we talk of now are all fulfilled — not abolished, yes, but already neither enforced nor necessary at all. (Heb. 10:1-10)
5. The Passover meal, therefore, was merely a tool or venue or channel by which Christ was going to explain His mission beforehand and afterward, that is, while He is present and when He is no longer present in body. The main thing He was pointing out at that meal was His future act of dying, of defeating death and of reigning in His Kingdom – in the unopened minds of the disciples as yet. Hence, also in our minds, as we follow the process through the aid of the Holy Spirit. Christ alone knew what was going to happen. To understand the meal, therefore, we must see into the Mind of Christ – that is, through the Holy Spirit.

So, what did He mean by not eating and not drinking “until I eat it again in the Kingdom” and “drink it new”? And when did the Kingdom come? When did He eat and drink again? Does eating the Communion or Lord’s Supper, the way we understand and do it today, fulfill His intentions and the real purpose of His spiritual-words/spiritual-truth that night? If we do not then see His Mind as He told it that night, how can we then do what He wants us to do today?

Let us look at what the Mind of Christ wants us to see, through the Spirit’s Key of Truth.

1. The Paschal lamb was a continuing prophetic metaphor in that its blood saved a family from the angel of death. It was a yearly commemoration of a historical event. But that night in Jerusalem, Christ did not use the lamb to point to the Kingdom but the bread. Why? Because He fulfilled that prophetic metaphor (lamb) by dying on the cross as the Lamb of God. He did not refer to the lamb as to be eaten in the Kingdom. He fulfilled that on Calvary in order to satisfy the wrath of God against all sins. The lamb saved the Israelites through a bloody, animal body sacrifice; Christ, the Lamb, saved humans through His own bloody, body sacrifice. Lamb is a spiritual word with two spiritual references, pointing to freedom from Egypt (slavery) and from sin (death), both fulfilled by God by command through Moses and by His own offering of Christ. All those centuries of Jewish sacrifices ended with Christ’s death. Christ is the end of the law. (Rom. 10:4)
2. The unleavened bread now held the key to Christ’s new design, not for Israel alone but for His coming Heavenly Kingdom. It was also a prophetic metaphor (food or bread) that gave the Hebrews life and strength to travel through the wilderness but now pictured Christ’s sinless life He was offering on Calvary. Unleavened bread is a spiritual word/spiritual truth signifying both physical sustenance (food for the body) and spiritual sustenance (food for the spirit – Christ is the Bread of Life, the Manna from Heaven). He did not fulfill this on the cross but in the Kingdom because He promised to eat it again in the Kingdom. The word fulfill also has two meanings: to satisfy the body through food and the spirit through the Truth of God. That is the crucial point here to consider in order for us to understand when the Kingdom came and how He fulfilled His promise or prophecy in His Kingdom.
3. The wine, unlike the bread, held another prophetic significance. Why? Because they never drank the blood of the lamb – an abominable act which Shifted Peter performs daily, nonetheless, like cannibals do. (Gen. 9:4-5) But Christ now pointed to drinking wine again new in the kingdom. He is prophesying at that moment that the wine, which is the Blood of the New Covenant He will offer on the cross, He will then drink it new when the Kingdom has come, as prepositioned by the bread He ate earlier. Yes, He drank it as wine but wine is a spiritual-word/spiritual-idea pointing to His own blood He was offering on the cross. (Let this cup pass from Me – shedding His blood — Matt. 26:39-42) Thus, He fulfilled His own prophecy (and His own will by submission) of offering or pouring His blood on the cross; however, He did not drink it “with the apostles” in the Kingdom yet, as the Spirit-filled converts on Pentecost did later together with the apostles, and as we should also do today. Why? Because He had not ascended to Heaven. His participation, as in ancient days, will be an invisible or spiritual presence through the Holy Spirit. (As Paul later on wrote, the Spirit that we drink is the Blood or the life from the Spirit that believers share in communion, not in merely drinking but in experiencing and living in the grace of God in His Kingdom. — 1 Cor. 10:16)

Christ meant to eat the bread — and to drink the wine “new” — in the Kingdom, meaning they will have new spiritual meanings or truths other than what we have seen. Our errors lie in failing to see this spiritual nuance. The Greek word used is kainon (having a new nature or character). Hence, apart from eating the bread again in the Kingdom, He was going to drink a new kind of wine He was offering to humans in the Kingdom – not on the cross anymore. To understand that, we will have to look at another Jewish feast: Pentecost or Feast of the Firstfruits. In Lev. 23:17, Moses commanded the Israelites to offer two loaves of leavened bread at the temple, using flour from the first harvest of wheat they had each year. Those loaves were given by each family to the priests who then waved them to God as wave offerings. It was holy to the priests, meaning they alone ate it as their sustenance from God. Priests did not have to work in the farms.

When Pentecost Day arrived 50 days after Christ’s death, He had already ascended to Heaven. Peter’s sermon that day specifically declared His reign as Lord and Savior. The same Jews who had crucified Christ were convicted (by the Spirit, of course, not by “Peter the Rock”) and were told to repent and be baptized. Those 3,000 became the “firstfruits” that Moses prophesied through the Pentecost spiritual-word/spiritual-truth combination: leavened bread referred to God’s yearly first harvest of material blessings to the Jews in Israel and, later on, fulfilled the first spiritual harvests of God in the Kingdom that was now established by Christ. (Note: Christ is The Firstfruit from the dead; but those were also firstfruits from sins, and, it follows, from spiritual death. All those who are in Christ will become latter-fruits from the dead at the same time in the Resurrection. (1 Thess. 4:15-18) Christ is, therefore, King on a throne and seated with the Father, ruling over His Kingdom He came to establish, as prophesied by Daniel to be established during the Roman Empire and as proclaimed as well as by John the Baptizer. Those who wait for a Kingdom are still asleep outside the door.

Yes, those first converts also fulfilled Christ’s parable of the leavened dough which represented the rapid growth of the Kingdom. (Matt. 13:33) And the “bread of the firstfruits” which the priest waved or presented to God, the apostles and the Holy Spirit also presented to God that day as the pleasing and pure offering of Christ through salvation by His blood and life in the persons of those 3,000 converts. The apostles were merely harvesting those firstfruits for God. The fishermen had become fishers or harvesters of souls. Who provided the fish or souls? God. And they could not have harvested without the Holy Spirit’s manifestations of powers. Today, we preach and preach; but without the Spirit’s Key of Truth, we only harvest church-members, not real Kingdom fruits. We collect mostly unorganic, in-church worshipers, not organic, living worshipers. What we have customarily come to “gather and keep within Jerusalem”, so to speak, or in the confines of our city, community, church or building, God had intended to sow abroad in order to propagate the Eternal Life He came to give freely and liberally to all.

Hence, the “new wine” Christ promised to drink would mean the Holy Spirit Who was given to those apostles, disciples and converts who were made to drink of Him, that is, to be filled by His presence, His grace and His power through signs and wonders and as the abiding gift of faith and life from God. Christ’s blood, He shed on the cross. The wine He drinks with us is the same Spirit that raised Him from the grave and the same Spirit that gives us genuine spiritual life as His pleasing latter — or even His final — fruits. The Spirit seals our New and Eternal Covenant with God, as prophesied by Christ at the Last Passover (Blood of the New Covenant); for a testament or covenant is sealed only by the shedding of blood. (Heb. 9:16-22) (Apply the Key of Truth on that last spiritual phrase by yourself as a test of learning. For, sadly, many remain attached to drinking literal wine and blood today. God is Organic but is also Spirit and has no use for physical bread or literal blood, neither for Himself — nor for His people, in essence.)

In short, the real celebration of the Last Passover pointed forward and was going to be fulfilled on Pentecost Day when Christ, the Bread of Life, gave life and salvation to the first believers and when the Holy Spirit, the Living Blood of the New Covenant, now flowed in the life of those believers as an indwelling and empowering life-giving, spiritual sustenance, just as blood gives us physical life. The Communion or Eucharist today remains stuck in the past and, therefore, does not fulfill Christ’s prophetic words. So, how then do we celebrate or rejoice with Christ and the Father within this magnificent spiritual work accomplished by the Godhead for all sinners? Let us now deal with that.

Again, to eat of the “Lord’s Supper” or the “Last Supper” once more would be anti-climactic since no one is dying! The dark night is over and the Sunrise of Peace has risen! (Luke 1:78-79) And, hey, who still talks about death with Christ reigning in Heaven? Who still wants to think of His bloody and agonizing death on the cross when He has done and finished that for us? We can, however, partake of a communion or, simply, an ordinary meal that is satisfying, not a bite or a sip in a ritual ceremony. And that is exactly what the early disciples held at their homes: agapes or love-feasts. (Acts 2:42; I Cor. 11:26) They ate ordinary food and had it daily, not just weekly or monthly or yearly, to “proclaim” (not “remember” or “celebrate”) Christ’s death as a historic fact and a foundation of joyful faith and life.

Can you imagine Peter telling those “firstfruits“, who felt so guilt-stricken when they realized they had crucified the Messiah to believe, repent and be forgiven of their recent murderous sin, among other sins, to then eat unleavened bread — on Pentecost Day at that! — and then telling them to “remember” how blood flowed from Christ’s body and how the spear punctured His heart? What then was the whole purpose of Peter’s declaration that Christ, the Revealed Messiah, was , in fact, alive and seated at the right hand of the Father and ruling as King of Kings! True, their grievous sin of murder led to Christ’s crucifixion and His fulfilling His mission to save all humans from sin and death. But just to be told right after feeling so guilty that through faith they would be forgiven and receive the gift of life — the Holy Spirit Himself — must have brought such unimaginable euphoria to anyone of them or to any of us. Would you rather dwell on the guilt over the death that you caused or in the joy and reconciliation through the resurrection and reign that saved you? Yet, today we still dwell in Calvary’s shadows and not totally bask in the light of Heaven’s grace.

Ultimately, the agape is the culmination and confluence of the fulfillment of the 3 main Jewish feasts (Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles) as a simple, home-based, organic and spiritual celebration of Christ’s believers through an ordinary meal within any cultural setting at any time of the day or day of the week they may choose. And do not forbid the children! They were already in the Kingdom even before adults were allowed inside. (Matt. 19:14)

What we do today, in effect, are traditions, not organic and essential meals that Christ wants us to enjoy and celebrate. Does He still want us to recall His death and sacrifice through the Passover Bread? Is the way we do it really the spiritual-word/spiritual-truth combination handed down by the Holy Spirit? Or does He want us to think of Him as He really is today in Heaven? We will close with that clarification.

The word Christ used to proclaim His death was anamnesis, meaning to think of or to put into mind, in Greek. However, this word has been translated or shifted into “remember” or “recall”. Thus, people often read His words as “Do this in remembrance of Me” instead of the proper “Do this to think of Me”. There is a great difference there; because to remember something or someone, one will have to be an eyewitness. To the apostles, it was proper. But what about us? We cannot remember what really happened. Yes, we can recall or put into mind the testimonies of those people; but do we really need to recall it in all its gory details, as some would want us to do? Does Christ really wish that for us today? And did He even say “remember or think of My death and sufferings”? NO, NEVER! Only Shifted Peter does. (For a more extensive discussion on this word, please visit this link: Anamnesis.)

What Christ meant was for us to “think of Him” as Lord, Savior and Ruler. Even to the apostles that night, they would not have understood it as remembering His death because they did not even know He was going to die. He wanted them to think of Him as He was (and is) that moment – living, loving them, serving them and saving them always. Fix our eyes on Christ seated in Heaven – THE GREAT I AM, WHO WAS, IS AND IS TO COME. (Heb. 12:2; Rev. 1:8) Now, that we can all do at any time and any place! How do we think of Him? Triumphant, reigning and alive forevermore, the same way we would all want to experience His life (not His death) by His grace and as He has desired. We shall all reign with Him. Yes, we do all suffer and die on Earth; but how is that the “abundant life” He promised if we mentally, emotionally and physically dwell on His own death and sufferings by eating His flesh and drinking His blood and remaining in constant fear of reproach, in despair and in defeat, instead of in His victory and reign as King of Kings, through the rituals we do as a form of service or worship?

The shifted paradigm we present here as it is practiced and adhered to by many today has a historical narrative apart from what we have shown. Like Christmas, it is a tradition that blinds people from the Truth. Like our previous Christmas story, we see an angel whispering to Christ on His throne, “It’s Good Friday!” (Or, on a daily or hourly-basis, “It’s Communion and people are eating Your flesh and drinking Your blood!” If you think that is a foul or cruel joke; imagine how Christ feels about what a big joke we have made of His simple, refreshing agape.) Perhaps, there is an evil pun in the saying “Thank God it‘s Friday”. For many people end up being dead-drunk on Black Sabbath Day! The dead will always be dead until they see and experience the light and power of Christ’s resurrection through the Spirit’s Key of Truth. For the “spirit of wine” leads to stupor and death. (Eph. 5:18)

To continue missing the great gift Christ performed and gave to us is to remain in the old parameter and symbolism of the Law of Moses when, in fact, Moses prophesied a better covenant for us. The New and Living Way is now available through Organic Faith. Can we not see the reviving and life-giving difference? It is all up to us now to decide what to believe and follow: the traditions of humans or the leading of the liberating, eternal Holy Spirit.

In leaving this topic, let me share that every time I mention or refer to leavened bread, friends point out my “bias” because they (and many “shifted-minded” believers) inevitably think within their theological or denominational framework and not within the Spirit’s organic pattern of spiritual-word/spiritual-truth framework. Many people have definitely belabored their own obvious, misplaced bias for unleavened bread for centuries (except for the Orthodox Church) and have totally rejected the Spirit’s testimony in Scriptures. I can eat either kind of bread; but the Kingdom is not about food or drink but “righteousness and peace and joy in the Spirit”. (Rom. 14:17). Besides, this organic teaching is not my own but the Spirit’s. Argue with Him, please, not with poor, old me. I cannot convict or judge you; but He will. (John 16:7-11)

Obviously, eating soft bread is much more preferred by most people than hard bread; so, why force yourself and others to eat the latter? Why keep eating the “bread of sorrows” and not the genuine “Bread of Life”? Would Christ eat with one who thinks more of His death than of His victorious life and reign? I have cured your sickness, why do you keep thinking of it and the cure I provided? There is work to do; live mightily and conquer through your new life! He eats and drinks with us through the Spirit He gives us and Who teaches us the proper ways to serve God. As Paul warned, we must test every spirit; for we could be serving God improperly. For the Spirit of Life will never teach us to remain attached to Passover instead of Pentecost, to death instead of life, to suffering instead of rejoicing, to sin instead of freedom, and to the spirit of tradition instead of the Spirit of Truth. There is no other way to explain the unorganic status quo than through the Mind of Christ as revealed by the Holy Spirit.

Finally, the diagram below will summarize this article’s main points.  

In the next part, we will look at a brief history of how this simple and organic meal had been shifted and corrupted.

(Note: Leonardo da Vinci’s depiction of the Last Passover courtesy of www.google.com.)