Bread Of Life Cathedral Of Hope Church: Where Faith and Community Meet

 Focal Passage: Matthew 26:26-30 

Background Text: Matthew 26 

Purpose Statement: To discover how the use of established liturgy can help us pray in difficult times 

Matthew 26:26-30 26While they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take and eat. This is my body.” 27He took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from this, all of you. 28This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many so that their sins may be forgiven. 29I tell you, I won’t drink wine again until that day when I drink it in a new way with you in my Father’s kingdom.” 30Then, after singing songs of praise, they went to the Mount of Olives. Key Verse: “Then, after singing songs of praise, they went to the Mount of Olives” (Matthew 26:30). 

 The Special Meal Matthew 26:17 tells us that Jesus’ disciples asked him about the preparations they should make for the upcoming Passover meal. For centuries, and to this day, Jews told the story from generation to generation of God’s delivering them from bondage in Egypt (Exodus 12–27). A meal during this time would have been familiar to the Jewish disciples. Scholars love to debate what ritual and details were in place for this meal during Jesus’ time, but we know that this meal had come to be eaten with ritual, food, and liturgy, all to tell the story of God’s faithfulness to save God’s people. Exodus 12 describes God’s instructions for the first Passover. The details required of the people for this special meal are intricate. From the selection of the lamb to the speed and attire required to partake of it, details mattered. The detailed requirements for the Festival of Unleavened Bread are outlined as well. The blood of the lamb placed Copyright © by Cokesbury.

 All rights reserved 8 Adult Bible Studies with obedience to instruction was to save the firstborn of the household. From the time of Moses to the time of Jesus, many centuries passed. But the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread were still practiced, albeit with changes over time, as all rituals do. Imagine the generational faithfulness that had shared the stories of God’s faithfulness to God’s people. What rituals do you hope are handed down in the coming centuries to those who follow in the Christian faith? What stories and prayers of our faith do you want to tell the next generations? Nothing They Expected When Jesus sat with his followers on the first night of Passover, they would have expected him as their teacher and leader to recount the story of God delivering the Israelites from captivity in Egypt. This was a ritual that his disciples could probably recite with him, as they had heard the story every year with their families. They probably found comfort in this, knowing that the head of the family or the host would offer a blessing and tell the story. But with Jesus as the host, this night was turned upside down. Jesus announced that one of the disciples would betray him (Matthew 26:21), and in the midst of their distress and Copyright © by Cokesbury.

 denial that any of them could be the betrayer, Jesus shifted the tone abruptly from talk of betrayal to a blessing. He offered a blessing over the bread (verse 26). Perhaps the disciples thought that this blessing took them back to the normal expectations of a Passover meal. After all, this was what a host usually did. Instead, following the blessing, Jesus broke the bread and told them to eat and that the bread was his body! If that wasn’t confusing enough, Jesus gave thanks and told them about the cup being his blood of the covenant poured out for the forgiveness of sins (verses 27-28). And the disciples thought it would be just another ordinary Passover meal! Have you ever had an expected event interrupted? How did you respond? The Meaning Ascribed to Ritual Christians will recognize our focal passage, Matthew 26:26-30, as the institution of the Lord’s Supper. 

For churchgoers, it is interesting to notice the brevity of Matthew’s account of this event compared to the much longer length of a twenty-first-century worship service that includes Holy Communion. For centuries, churches have developed rituals of how to prepare, store, and serve the elements of this holy meal. Copyright © by Cokesbury. All rights reserved 10 Adult Bible Studies Like our Jewish sisters and brothers passing down the rituals, the story, and the sharing of the Passover meal from generation to generation, Christians have passed down and practiced the rituals, the story, and the sharing of the Lord’s Supper. But some of these elements within the rituals have changed over the years. At my home church in the 1980s, it was the practice of the congregation to have Communion on the first Sunday of every month. Because I was in church almost every Sunday, the Communion liturgy became so familiar and comforting to me that I could pray the Prayer of Humble Access by memory.

 But when The United Methodist Church got a new hymnal in 1989, suddenly, our Communion liturgy was different! We no longer prayed the Prayer of Humble Access, and the words and rhythms of the Communion liturgy felt different. But different didn’t feel bad. We still confessed our sins, invoked the Holy Spirit, heard the same story of the Last Supper, shared the same elements, and heard of the same hope and salvation that Jesus offers the world! What parts of the liturgy in worship are meaningful to you? What newer components of worship have revealed God’s glory to you in unexpected ways? Copyright © by Cokesbury. All rights reserved March 3, 2024 11 Habits That Keep Us Grounded The focus of the lessons in this unit is on prayer. Jesus prayed two times on this occasion: before he broke the bread and before giving the cup to his disciples. At the end of this unusual meal, he, having told of his death and the betrayal of one of them, still completed the evening in the expected manner of Passover by leading the disciples in singing hymns. This would have marked the end of the Passover evening. 

These hymns were almost certainly Hallel psalms (Psalms 113–118), which are songs of praise and thanksgiving to God. With all that Jesus knew that he would face, he still took time to eat a Passover meal. While telling of his upcoming betrayal and death, he took the time to connect with God through the habits and rhythms of the liturgy of his faith. It was between the expected moments of the Passover night (a blessing, a prayer of thanksgiving, and a song of praise) that he told the disciples what was to come. It was within the rhythm of the expected connections with God that the disciples could begin to process that no matter what was to come, God was still worthy of prayer and praise. 

It is in those practiced habits of our faith that connect us to God that we can stay grounded in times of distress and pain. Copyright © by Cokesbury. All rights reserved What are the habits and practices of your faith that keep you connected with God in prayer? What are the habits you have let go of that you need to reclaim to grow in your prayer life and practice? New Rhythms in Prayer I can no longer pray the Prayer of Humble Access by heart, and I grieve that a little, but the words come back to me when a group of worshipers prays them aloud together. But I learned the rhythms and words of the Great Thanksgiving prayer from the 1989 hymnal by heart. It now is part of the rhythm of my life that I’ll pass along to the generations to come as we tell the story of the one who came to save the world. Daily Bible Readings March 4 Exodus 39:32, 42-43; 40:33-34 March 5 Exodus 24:9-18 March 6 Exodus 33:12-16 March 7 Exodus 33:17-23 March 8 Psalm 19:1-6 March 9 Psalm 57 March 10 John 17:1-16 12 Adult Bible Studies Copyright © by Cokesbury. All rights reserved The Spiritual Practice of Prayer How unfathomable that the one who created the universe desires a relationship with all of humanity. God knows of our selfishness and sinful choices; God knows that we repeatedly work to fulfill our own will rather than doing the divine will. 

The psalmist was also confounded by God’s mindfulness of us mortals and mused: “What are human beings that you think about them; what are human beings that you pay attention to them? You’ve made them only slightly less than divine, crowning them with glory and grandeur” (Psalm 8:4-5). Yet God constantly beckons us into relationship and communion, which we cultivate through prayer. Prayer is intimate, even when corporate. 

It involves being vulnerable with the one who loves us and the one who acts for our good. We can read examples in the Old and New Testaments of prayers the faithful offered to God, but we must find our own way to talk with God––not to God or at God but with God. As we begin this unit of lessons that examine prayers that Jesus prayed, perhaps we can examine our prayer habits.

 If you don’t already do so, keep a prayer journal during these five weeks. Write down the prayers you offer to God and the ways God speaks into your life. Throughout these weeks, look at the ways God answers your prayers, how your prayer life grows and changes, and reflect on your growing relationship with God. May we learn more about our God, ourselves, and the relationship therein as we explore the simple life of prayer with God.