Eric Frey
October 25th, 2010, 07:42 AM
I am going to be doing a sermon series on Holy Communion which will be primarily a set of teaching sermons exploring such things as Christ's institution, what it means to be a means of grace, the question of frequency, etc. A while back, an Anglo-catholic friend suggested that to understand the Eucharist, I must first understand Todah sacrifice in the Old Testament. I didn't really do much with it at the time, but now as I have been working on this series, I have looked into it a little. One website says this:
The Todah Sacrifice
The ancient Jews had a special ritual meal called the Todah (Hebrew: thanks) (pronounce: Taw-DAH). Although the Todah sacrificed an animal, it was greater than other animal sacrifices because it added the suffering of one's own life. David wrote, Ps 40:6,8 "Burnt offering and sin offering Thou hast not required. … I delight to do Thy will, O my God; Thy law is within my heart." Again, David wrote, Ps 51:17 "The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit." And again, Ps 69:30 "I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify Him with thanksgiving. This will please the Lord more than an ox or a bull with horns and hoofs." Isaiah spoke the words of God, Is 1:11 "I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams." God called instead for a baptism: Is 1:16 "Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from My eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good."
The seventy elders who went up with Moses to see God offered the Todah: Ex 24:11 "They beheld God, and ate and drank." Twelve centuries later, twelve apostles beheld God, and ate and drank as Jesus prepared to offer His Todah sacrifice: Lk 22:19 "He took bread, and when He had given thanks He broke it…" From the beginning, Christ's Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity has been called Holy Eucharist (Greek: eucharistia, thanksgiving).
The ancient rabbis believed that when the Messiah would come all sacrifices except the Todah would cease, but the Todah would continue for all eternity. In 70 AD the Temple fell to earth and all of the bloody animal sacrifices stopped. Only the Todah remains, the eucharistia, the Final Sacrifice at which the last words spoken are Todah l'Adonai, "Thanks be to God."
What I have realized as I have dug into this topic is that I am not nearly well enough versed in sacrificial theology to really know what I think of the connection being made between the two practices. If there is any connection, then it would certainly speak to eucharist as both thanksgiving and as sacrifice, both of which have been major components of historical eucharistic theology (as well as Wesley's own understanding) but which have also both fallen away from our evangelical understanding.
I was wondering if any of you have any experience to this concept, or have much deeper understanding of the sacraficial system to comment on eucharist as todah. Any help would be appreciated.
The Todah Sacrifice
The ancient Jews had a special ritual meal called the Todah (Hebrew: thanks) (pronounce: Taw-DAH). Although the Todah sacrificed an animal, it was greater than other animal sacrifices because it added the suffering of one's own life. David wrote, Ps 40:6,8 "Burnt offering and sin offering Thou hast not required. … I delight to do Thy will, O my God; Thy law is within my heart." Again, David wrote, Ps 51:17 "The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit." And again, Ps 69:30 "I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify Him with thanksgiving. This will please the Lord more than an ox or a bull with horns and hoofs." Isaiah spoke the words of God, Is 1:11 "I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams." God called instead for a baptism: Is 1:16 "Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from My eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good."
The seventy elders who went up with Moses to see God offered the Todah: Ex 24:11 "They beheld God, and ate and drank." Twelve centuries later, twelve apostles beheld God, and ate and drank as Jesus prepared to offer His Todah sacrifice: Lk 22:19 "He took bread, and when He had given thanks He broke it…" From the beginning, Christ's Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity has been called Holy Eucharist (Greek: eucharistia, thanksgiving).
The ancient rabbis believed that when the Messiah would come all sacrifices except the Todah would cease, but the Todah would continue for all eternity. In 70 AD the Temple fell to earth and all of the bloody animal sacrifices stopped. Only the Todah remains, the eucharistia, the Final Sacrifice at which the last words spoken are Todah l'Adonai, "Thanks be to God."
What I have realized as I have dug into this topic is that I am not nearly well enough versed in sacrificial theology to really know what I think of the connection being made between the two practices. If there is any connection, then it would certainly speak to eucharist as both thanksgiving and as sacrifice, both of which have been major components of historical eucharistic theology (as well as Wesley's own understanding) but which have also both fallen away from our evangelical understanding.
I was wondering if any of you have any experience to this concept, or have much deeper understanding of the sacraficial system to comment on eucharist as todah. Any help would be appreciated.