I have no idea what an evangelical would interpret it as, except possibly that they themselves should be the kings of the world.
It was meant to be a one time event between Jesus and the 12 apostles. There’s not supposed to be anything literal during a future reenactment of it.
Luke 22:19
εἰς τὴν ἀνάμνησιν
Into the myself nostalgia
2 declension singular noun, The phrase is written in the accusative case as a vocative. The indirect object receives the direct object. The accusative receives the dative. That’s a law of grammar.
The Eucharist (dative) can only be given (verb) by Jesus (nominative) to the apostles (accusative).
It has already been done. It cannot be done again until the kingdom of God is here.
Evangelicals are supposed to have a more literal interpretation of of the New Testament. Why do no evangelicals celebrate the Eucharist as commanded by Jesus at the Last supper: “Do this in memory of me”?
I grew up in a fundamentalist Baptist church and its relationship with the “Lord’s Supper” was rather strange, looking back. As if they didn’t know quite what to do with it. They were horrified at anything that suggested ritual of any sort so as important as it obviously was, it became a perfunctory performance. It was scheduled quarterly as if to get it out of the way. (Baptisms were performed once or twice a year.) The center of the culture was the preaching of the word, the sermon. You were more likely to hear a sermon about the Lord’s Supper or Baptism than to participate in them. Strange.
In my denomination, baptism…
I have always been fascinated by the Rite of Baptism and consequently, fascinated by religious communities for whom baptism is a central ordinance. The genesis of this interest was the overwhelming…well, let’s just use the word, mystical experience I had at my own baptism. There was nothing in the circumstances to anticipate such a thing. The church had a small raised cement pool behind the choir loft illuminated by a single blue bulb, backed with a painting of someone’s fanciful idea of what the Jordan River looked like. And yet when I was submerged – we practiced total immersion – I felt myself leave my body and for a timeless all-time float in a depthless blue light. I never talked about it to anyone at the time. I had no way to put it into words. We had no vocabulary provided to express such things. Our approach was doctrine doctrine doctrine. Personal experience was always highly suspect. “Emotionalism” it was called. So I had to search elsewhere for understanding. It has been a long revealing search.
διαμερίζω Luke 22:17
κλάω Luke 22:19
I thought the dividing of cups and breaking of bread was to symbolize the schisms and conflicts that have been a phenomenon of every system of government that ever existed.
The kingdom of God was to be the first and last kingdom that does not have this problem. Even the End has a schism between heaven and hell. So that’s the meaning of life: there will be schisms, conflicts, division.
Nothing to worry about. That’s just the way it is. The Last Supper and Eucharist is a summary of history.
the overwhelming…well, let’s just use the word, mystical experience I had at my own baptism.
How fascinating that you had such an experience during your baptism in a church that played down one’s personal experience, while I, in a church that emphasized this over almost everything else, had none. As I rose from the tank and opened my eyes to see the congregation singing and clapping to “I’m so glad I’ve been buried in the name of the Lord…” the only thing I experienced was a flashback to a scene from Rosemary’s Baby! Needless to say, I pushed that out of my mind as quickly as I could as I sought to be filled with the Spirit, the evidence of which was said to be tongues. There would be no tongues that evening; it eventually would come much later.
This is not to say I didn’t have spiritual experiences at other times, which I suppose is only natural, considering the emphasis placed in my church on feeling the presence of the Lord and on the movement of the Spirit.
There would be no tongues that evening…
There was also a class distinction detectable in the small southern town I grew up in which only became clear to me in retrospect. The congregations for the Pentecostal/Charismatic churches that practiced speaking in tongues tended to be working class and blue collar. The congregations for the Baptist and Methodist groups which did not tended to be white collar and in the professions.
I think my experience during Baptism was so powerful precisely because it was so unexpected. I think if I had grown up in a community where such experiences were constantly observed and expected it might have actually been harder to have such an experience. I note the two contraries. In one situation you can’t talk about your experience because it is suspect. (How many people suppress an inner spiritual life because it is frowned upon?) In the other you can’t talk bout your lack of experience because the lack is suspect. (How many people perform spiritually because they are expected to do so and not because of any genuine inspiration?)
From my current perspective it seems pretty clear that so-called “spiritual” experiences are part of the natural human repertoire. The fact that there are strains of this activity in all cultures is rather revealing. The religions provide the context with which to interpret these experiences. The Roman Catholic experiences the Divine Feminine through The Blessed Virgin Mary. A Tibetan Buddhist has a vision of White Tara. Would it be “reductive” of me to speculate that they’re both having the same physiological experience but filtering it through different symbol systems?
@Robert,
I am an evolutionary biologist. I study how fossil fueled machines and electronic powered technology have an impact on the humans. I do field work as a truck driver.
Maybe the Eucharist and Baptism can prevent more people from becoming serial killers. Society usually frowns upon the serial killer.
In one situation you can’t talk about your experience because it is suspect. (How many people suppress an inner spiritual life because it is frowned upon?) In the other you can’t talk bout your lack of experience because the lack is suspect. (How many people perform spiritually because they are expected to do so and not because of any genuine inspiration?)
In the church I was a part of, if you didn’t speak in tongues, you weren’t saved. This isn’t to say you had to speak in tongues constantly or anything, but you had to at least once. At the end of the service, you’d be surrounded at the altar by people urging you to yield to the Spirit and allow God to speak through you. Who wouldn’t just blurt something out?
It would be months after my baptism that I finally said a few words. My pastor was elated and told me to claim it. While outwardly I did so, inwardly I was troubled, wondering if it was real at all.
It wasn’t until my 2nd year of Bible School that I began to speak in tongues fluently. I could so now if I wanted, but I can only imagine what a look the wife would give me.
BDEhrman
FreedomBen
evgendob
Robert
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