Come Follow Me LDS- Matt 26, Mark 14, Luke 22 Part 1

'Body, Blood & Covenant'
- The Sacrament as the Higher and Lower Laws
- The Sacrament as Covenant
- The Shewbread and Libations of Wine
- 'Remembering' the Coming of The Lord
- The Sacrament for Bearing Others Burdens

 

 

Come Follow Me New Testament Matthew Mark Luke Bible

 

in this episode we'll cover blood body

and covenant here we go

so this week come follow me has us

covering the sacrament for the third

time if we include the Easter episode of

Thursday night so there's a very strong

emphasis on the sacrament and we have a

lot more to say about it so we'll easily

fill up this entire episode just on the

sacrament looking at the sacrament and

not going even into things we've already

gone into there are two ways to look at

this that brings a lot more context in

richness into the meaning and

understanding of what we do every

Sabbath day first of all we use what I

call the interpreters the four

interpreters that I use for the

scriptures one of those is temple

imagery and drama so we're going to use

that in this instance with some

background knowledge of temple rituals

and an understanding that Jesus as he

goes through this entire week as we have

discussed previously is bringing in

rituals and themes from the festival of

Tabernacles and the Day of Atonement

which actually happens in the fall here

in this Passover week and so all of

these events that are happening

strangely enough are bringing in day of

atonement themes that are kind of

overriding a lot of what is happening

here during Passover now that doesn't

mean that the Passover isn't significant

obviously it is Jesus is the sacrificial

lamb that is sacrificed at Passover he

is a representation

of the blood that was put over the

doorways of the Israelites in Egypt

that's his blood and remember it was the

firstborns that were saved in Israel the

that is that the Israelite firstborns

that were saved in Egypt from that blood

it all has to do with the firstborn it

all has to do with Jehovah with Jesus

Christ

but the theme of the Day of Atonement

and the festival of Tabernacles cannot

be avoided throughout this entire week

this is the focus of the Gospels of the

writers of the Gospels they are making

sure that we understand that he is

Jehovah and that he is the son of God

which has specific emphasis on the Feast

of Tabernacles and the day of atonement

so we're going to look at the Sacrament

in that imagery in a sacrificial imagery

first of all as we've discussed

previously if we look at the sacrament

table we can look at this as an altar it

is about sacrifice it is about the body

and the blood of Jesus Christ this is an

altar that we have inside of our chapels

that is used for a holy priesthood

administered ritual that we go through

every Sabbath day but where does this

come from what is the root of this we

obviously look back to this Thursday

evening here where Jesus is performing

the Last Supper and we're told that he

Institute's the sacrament but that has a

little bit of a vague meaning to it as

far as Institute goes what does that

mean is he bringing this out of thin air

in other words is this the first time

they've looked at bread and wine was he

just alluding to this when he gave the

miracles of the loaves of bread and

walked on water and changed the water at

the marriage of Cana to wine what routes

does this meaning have

and this typology and symbolism have

let's look at a couple of things first

of all a few different renditions that

we get throughout the Gospels and the

Gospel of Luke we have him taking the

cup first and blessing it and then the

bread and blessing it but as we look

through the Joseph Smith translation in

the other Gospels of Matthew and Mark we

see that that's not the case that what

he actually did here is he did take the

bread first and Joseph Smith makes this

a very specific distinction here about

the chronology of what happened here the

sequence he says that he break the bread

first and then he blessed it and then

they blessed the wine and partook of

the wine as well drink the wine so I

want to look here at Matthew 26 and were

just going to go through the few verses

here that goes over basically the

sacrament that is being instituted by

Jesus verse 26 and as they were eating

so there's this is the supper the

probably the Passover supper very

possibly the cedar supper that the cedar

meal that they have each year at

Passover after they had eaten he says

Jesus took bread and blessed it and

brake it and gave it to the disciples

against Joseph Smith has that reversed

he break the bread and then blessed it

and gave it to the disciples and said

take eat this is my body and he took the

cup and gave thanks and gave it to them

saying drink he all of it so he blesses

the wine and then gives them the wine as

well and this is what he says about the

wine you remember he doesn't say this

about the bread in verse 28 he says for

this is my blood of the New Testament a

better word for us to understand this

context here this phrases of the New

Covenant or the everlasting covenant and

it is only new we call it the new and

everlasting covenant but remember

Abraham long long long ago had the new

and everlasting covenant it's the

Abrahamic covenant

so why new well the reason is it's

new because it comes after the lower

covenant and it's new here for Jesus and

His disciples or for Jesus giving this

to his disciples because they only have

the lower covenant right now the lower

law remember we look at the Old

Testament and the better word for that

actually better translation would be the

Old Covenant because most of it is

focused on the period of Israel in

Palestine where they lived mostly under

the lower covenant and then the New

Testament would be better translated as

the New Covenant and that's this is the

focus of that that's where this comes

from is right here in the last supper

this is the only time that Jesus is

attributed with the word covenant that

he mentions so this is the new covenant

that he's talking about right here in

the sacrament so this is my blood of the

New Testament now he never says this is

my body of the New Testament because

that wouldn't be right

that wouldn't be appropriate because his

body represents the Old Testament his

body represents the lower law remember

in the creation story right in Genesis

1:1 we get and God created the heaven

and the earth that is the division here

and looking at ancient scripture that is

how they saw things two different levels

a distinction between higher and the

lower the Melchizedek Priesthood

the Melchizedek law is the higher law and

the lower law of the Aaronic priesthood

or the temporal or carnal priesthood and

so his body is not of the New Testament

his body is of the Old Testament or the

Old Covenant or the ironic covenant it

has to do with earth and there's a

separation in that creation story of

heaven and earth

and the atonement what that represents

being at one represents bringing heaven

and earth back together again or us back

up to God and God coming down below us

through the kind his condescension

through the atonement the sacrifice of

atonement and him lowering himself by

taking on all of our sins and serving

all of us so that's the representation

of the sacrament it is the lower law

with the bread it is the higher law with

the blood of Christ with the atoning

sacrifice and it's crucial as we've

discussed previously that these are done

separately they have separate prayers

and there's separate words in them if

you pay attention one represents that

lower law with Commandments and one

represents the blood of Christ or mercy

that is brought down upon us we see

in other churches where those have been

brought together under one prayer and

into one item right but not with us

because those must always stay separate

so that we have a clear understanding of

that lower law and the higher law

another thing to think about with the

sacrament is this was this was called

the bread anyway maybe the wine also

but the bread the bread of the presence

or the showbread

the shewbread in the temple was called

the bread of memorial or remembrance and

so we think often about what we think

that the prayers tell us to remember him

to always remember him both prayers tell

us that and so we get this

representation this idea of remembering

what he has done for us but I don't know

that it's just that I don't know if it's

just remembering what he's done for us

obviously that's the focus I don't want

to take away from that but there may be

more to it than that

this is what follows in

each of the three Gospels John doesn't

really talk about the bread and the wine

but in Matthew Mark and Luke in the

synoptic Gospels what we get immediately

following this is sometimes it's put in

two places both after the bread and the

wine but here if I follow the wine here

in Matthew 26 in verse 29 he says but I

say unto you I will not drink henceforth

of this fruit of the vine until that day

when I drink it new with you in my

father's Kingdom this is a part of the

Last Supper that we don't talk about and

yet here he's saying it immediately

after he they bless the bread and the

wine and they partake of it it is

coupled with this it is along with it

and what is it

it is a remembrance also that he is

going to return remember that he has

been talking this week about all these

parables about preparing for the second

coming and him telling them about

basically giving them a patriarchal

blessing and prophecy

just like Lehi did just like Nephi did

just like Adam did a kind of a fatherly

blessing where he's telling them about

things that are going to happen he talks

about how Jerusalem is going to be

destroyed but he also talks about his

second coming and that is a part of the

Last Supper that's a part of remembering

him it's not just remembering him for

what he's done these are my thoughts but

it's not just remembering him for what

he's done it's remembering that he's

going to come back this is a big focus

of what he's doing here

with the disciples reminding them to be

prepared and that he is going to return

and so as we think about the sacrament

another thing we might think about when

we remember him is are we preparing for

the second coming

are we preparing for his return are we

preparing to meet him again which may

not be his second coming

but it would be a second meeting with

him each one of us will have that for

sure so I think that's something that we

missed that's something that seems to me

to be a part of what we do with the

sacrament a part of that remembrance so

in that sense remembrance is what he's

done in the past and what we're going to

do in the future what we're going to do

to prepare to meet him again and by the

way this was a big theme to the Essenes

right that sect of Jews that lived in

the wilderness that gave us the Dead Sea

Scrolls they harbored in the caves the

Dead Sea Scrolls and had a lot of

interesting rituals and traditions that

they followed that are very similar to

Christianity and they had a meal they

had a Thanksgiving meal that would be

like a Eucharist or a sacrament in which

they would take the bread they would

break it they would bless it and they

would distribute it and then they would

take the wine and they would bless it

and they would distribute it and only

certain people that were within the

Covenant would be able to partake of

this but part of what that was a

remembrance of Melchizedek the great

Melchizedek returning to the earth so

this was actually they're doing this

thing that's it's a Jewish tradition

here you know maybe not with all Jews

but with this sect anyway they had a

tradition of a sacrament as we would

call it where they were not just

remembering something from the past but

they were using that remembrance of

something for the future that a great

the great milk acidic would return or a

second to Melchizedek would return that

is Jesus Christ they probably didn't

know that although who knows how many

Essenes became converted through John

the Baptist out in the wilderness

and through Jesus and the disciples

could have been many many it seems there

are a lot of similarities between what

they believed in they believed in an

older tradition that was tied more to

the first temple before the Jews were

taken out of Jerusalem and into Babylon

and that's why they were pushed out from

Jerusalem they may not have been

considered Jews at this time they were

not in power they were not part of the

establishment at all they were forced

out into the wilderness just as John the

Baptist was so they have an example of a

sacrament before the institution or

Jesus instituting the sacrament so there

are roots for this type of a practice

that existed before the Last Supper I

think that's important to understand

because it gives us more context into

what the meaning is here of what Jesus

is doing by the way in that As Seen

ritual of the their sacrament the high

priest the highest priest there would be

the first one to partake of each of the

bread and the wine before anybody else

we're just like we do with a bishop

today or whoever's highest in priesthood

authority in our sacrament meetings it's

pretty interesting and that's what the

Jews did actually also when they had a

sacrifice that was made an animal

sacrifice or a cereal sacrifice yes the

priests the highest priest there with

them with that group that little

congregation at the sacrifice would be

the first to partake of that sacrifice

so one of the ways I want to look at the

sacrament here is with covenant and as

we've discussed often often before here

covenant is something that has been

pulled apart and is going to be brought

back together right it's been cut it's

been pulled apart to be brought back

together that's the goal of the gospel

is to bring what's been separated back

together again just like heaven and

earth that's the bread

that's the wine or water and so Jesus

returning in the future or us meeting

Jesus again is again a completion of

Covenant

it's a completion of bringing us back

together it is a completion of the bread

which would be a little more

representation of us temporally now

reaching up to God being brought back

together with the water or the wine

which is the blood of Christ and

those two things being brought together

so how does that happen through

atonement or at one mint and that

happens from the sacrifice of Jesus of

the Son of God as well as him returning

returning back to him that's also a

representation of at one man had being

together with him

so covenant is key just as he says here

the bread or rather than the wine is a

representation of the New Testament or

New Covenant this is about covenant the

other way to look at this is through the

temple and you might say well what does

the sacrament have to do with the temple

well an awful lot if you look back at

the temple and what has been taken away

two of the primary things that have been

taken away from the first temple is an

understanding of the shewbread or the

bread of the presence and the wine that

was with the libations and the ritual of

the Day of Atonement we don't know at

all specifically not directly told

through the Scriptures what each of

these items signified we have to run

through scholarship and other context

archaeology non-canonical books other

civilizations at that time to get a

clearer picture of what these things

might mean but the bread of the presence

is something interesting to learn about

this the bread of the presence was 12

that would be baked every week every

Sabbath and these twelve loaves would be

brought into the temple up toward the

veil not inside the veil they were

outside of the veil back somewhat close

to where the altar of incense would be

so this would be out in what we might

call a an ironic location I'm just going

to say that for right now it's in more

of an ironic location it's outside of

the veil and these twelve loaves would

be brought in on a marble table and they

would be placed there along with incense

and along with libations of wine so here

we have a representation of bread and

wine now where do we hear about this

outside of the temple itself well what

about going back to Abraham and

Melchizedek you remember as Abraham goes

out to get lot to save lot and he comes

back with all of this booty from war and

he pays his tithings to Melchizedek

now kids attic has a Thanksgiving meal

with him if you will

he has a sacrament with him something

like this in Genesis 14 18 it says the

following in milk isn't a king of Salem

brought forth bread and wine and he was

the priest of the Most High God and here

Joseph Smith gives us a translation of

this verse he specifically changes this

verse and listen to what he says and he

break bread and blessed it and he

blessed the wine he being the priest of

the Most High God what does that sound

like well it sounds like two things to

me first yes it sounds like our

sacrament maybe they were together and

they knew the true gospel at that time

and they understood already the

symbolism of the bread being the body of

Christ and the

wine being the blood of Christ looks

that way to me

and the other thing is the it looks

like it's the bread of the presence and

the libations of wine that were on this

table inside the temple and so they may

have been going through some type of a

temple ritual this may have been

something only that was done in a

sanctuary but why are they specifically

bringing up that they're having this

meal with bread and a wine and they

break the bread and they bless the bread

and they bless the wine it is

specifically a ritual that they are

going through here so this table would

be out in the Aaronic area just like the

Aaronic altar of incense was outside of

the veil these are Aaronic rituals

that take place here just like the

sacrament is an ironic ritual and ironic

ordinance that we go through and that

bread was called the memorial bread

or the bread of memorial so we think

about the sacrament prayers and how they

are focused on remembering the Lord it

seems to me like there's a trace of an

understanding that that's what this was

about

it was committing yourself to remember

Christ to remember for them back then

mushiya Hamish the Messiah and to

remember the bringing together of the

lower law and the higher law of heaven

and earth and representing the ironic

and the Melchizedek priesthoods this is

Melchizedek that we're talking about and

by the way what is the mystic priesthood

named after it's named after Melchizedek

why because they didn't want to keep

calling it after the order of the Sun

that's important to understand I'm going

to go over that a lot more in other

episodes in the future but the Sun

that's what the bread and the wine

represent

and so the author of Genesis here we're

getting just traces of it coming out of

this but the author of Genesis probably

Moses or perhaps he's borrowing from

somebody else previous to that maybe

Abraham he is focused in on this

sacrament like ritual where Melchizedek

is kind of the stand-in for the son if

you will just like we have represented

in in the name of the higher priesthood

so this bread of the presence was the

only cereal offering that was allowed

inside of the temple and what they would

do is they would bake these this bread

leave it in there for seven days and

then they would bring it back out on a

gold table and the representation here

remember the whole inside of the Holy of

Holies was plated with gold the

representation here is that the bread of

the presence became holy as it was in

there it didn't just become holy it

became most holy and that's just not an

exaggeration or an emphasis there's a

difference anything that is holy is set

apart and is viewed as itself something

that is sacred but anything that we see

in the Old Testament that is called most

holy means that it's not just holy but

that it imparts holiness so it makes

everything around it holy so what does

that mean well if they are partaking of

the bread then they are taking holiness

into themselves so that would be

important that it would be most holy

that it imparts holiness to the priests

that are partaking of that bread of the

presence and the word presence is

oftentimes used especially non-canonical

e is oftentimes used as a substitute for

the Lord so interestingly enough this

could just be the bread of the Lord or a

representation of the Lord the bread of

the Lord and

line of the Lord and so again they would

be partaking of this as a representation

of the Messiah and of

his sacrifice that's what happened with

the sacrifices that would happen

inside the temple they go for example

when they when the priest partook of

that this is interesting when the priest

partook of that they took it because

they needed that holiness inside of them

they needed that that meat of the

goat to impart holiness to them so they

could withstand the guilt what guilt the

guilt that they take upon themselves for

the offering of sin so again I'll say it

again two goats for the Day of Atonement

high priest puts his hands on one goat

takes all of the sins off of that goat

it's purified it's perfect so he's

taking the sins onto himself and he's

put the sins on to the other goat and

that goes that go goes out that goat is

for Azazel that's Satan he's banned from

Jerusalem and run off a cliff for most

of the time that's what's happened

that's what happened and the pure goat

is sacrificed the blood is used to clean

the altar that blood is used to clean

the temple the Holy of Holies the Ark of

the Covenant and the people and the land

so it's a cleansing just like a baptism

is a cleansing and remember in the

baptism there's two baptisms we usually

think of the baptism is just the water

but if there's a baptism of water and

there's a baptism of fire one is the

lower law the ironic law is of water and

the baptism of fire is the higher law

the lower one requires the erotic

priesthood at least a priest of the

Aaronic priesthood could administer that

ordinance but the baptism of fire or the

gift of the Holy Ghost must be done by

someone with a Melchizedek Priesthood

that's the bread and the water the

Aaronic priesthood and the Melchizedek

priesthood the lower law and the higher

law

but the police would take that consume

that so that they can withstand the

burden of the sins so what do we do when

we make a covenant at baptism as we

learn in the Book of Mormon we commit we

covenant to bear the sins of others to

bear their burdens and the sacrament is

a communal meal that's what it is is a

communal meal and we are agreeing to

bear each other's burdens and this is

imparting holiness onto us so that we

can bear those burdens

that's the covenant part of the Covenant

that we make at baptism and that we

renew with the bread and the water so

that's another thing to remember and

another thing that gives us a little

more context it's not just about us when

we partake of the sacrament

it is about bearing others burdens just

like Christ did when he made his

sacrifice we partake the holiness so

that we can bear each other's burdens

and then quickly just a last couple

of references to give us a little bit

more context here when Moses went up to

Sinai one of those times he was followed

by a few others and then a lot of others

the elders so he had also 70 that came

up with him who saw God and on their way

up there this is what happens

this is Exodus 24 11 he says also they

saw God and did eat and drink I wonder

what that refers to

remember Sinai is a temple setting think

of the shoe bread or the bread of the

presence and the libations of wine

they had a communal meal upon Sinai

little campout Sinai is a representation

of the temple

and another reference is in a song that

is very familiar to us maybe the most

familiar to us which is Psalm 23 the

Lord is my shepherd right

it says David Psalm that most of us have

heard many many times but down in that

song I think it's only six verses long

this is what he says in verse 5 thou

prepare a table before me this is the

exact word that is used for the bread of

the presence with the bread of the

presence was put on now prepares the

table before me in the presence there's

a word presence of mine enemies thou

anointest my head with oil today this is

about him becoming a Davidic King also a

temple reference and then he finishes it

with my cup runneth over

so we see here the temple imagery of

anointing the temple imagery of the

bread of the presence and the temple

imagery of the cup that is running over

these have got to all be temple specific

references of course all of the Psalms

are simply poems and songs and probably

script all about the temple and actually

one more thing I want to bring up that I

forgot to bring up about the Day of

Atonement origin one of the Christian

fathers early Christian fathers had a

reference to the sacrament to the

Eucharist day and this is what he says

about it it's very interesting again

imagery of the Day of Atonement

he says Christ the true high priest who

made a tongue it for you hear him saying

to you and he's talking about the

sacrament this is my blood which is

poured out for you for the forgiveness

of sins now if we look at the Gospels

and how Jesus talks about his blood

being poured out for the forgiveness of

sin

what he says is which is shed for many

for the remission of sins he talks about

his blood being shed we've heard that

many times origin refers to that blood

being poured out at the day of atonement

when the ox and the goat were sacrificed

in and all of the temple and altars and

and people and land were purified with

this blood what was left over is that

blood would be poured out at the base of

the altar and that was concluding and

solidifying firming up the cleansing of

everything so that's how Origen sees the

shedding of Jesus's blood here

referenced to the day of atonement and

the sacrament so again a imagery a

temple imagery of the day of atonement

that happens here this whole week is

really about the Day of Atonement and

the Feast of Tabernacles even above the

Passover so in conclusion the sacrament

that we partake of every week is an

understanding of covenant it is a

bringing together of us and Christ us in

God it is the lower law and the higher

law it is us reaching up to him from a

temporal position with the bread and him

reaching down to us from a heavenly

position with his sacrifice and mercy

and love and those two being brought

together it is heaven and earth from the

creation that were separated that are

being brought back together

it is the Aaronic priesthood and the

Melchizedek Priesthood the baptism of

water and the baptism of fire this is

all about covenant it is about us

meeting Jesus again preparing for the

second coming or preparing to meet him

again being brought back together and

then we can also see the sacrament

through the temple

and through the first temple at

least we can see it through the imagery

of the bread of the presence and of the

libations of wine that it is most holy

and imparts that holiness upon us so

that we can bear each other's burdens

and part of that covenant being with

those around us a communal meal that's

the second I hope that adds to your

experience each Sabbath days you're

there taking a second it is rich in

meaning symbolism and spirituality

I'll talk to you next