In keeping with the theme of the house church being the best model, one area where Christians could improve their practice is in the observance of the “sacrament” (a term and concept which would have baffled the earliest believers) of the Lord’s supper. The practice began as a potluck meal but became a magical ritual, as some pagan ideas began to make their way into the community of believers. The trajectory is understandable, but not applaudable. The tendency in religion is to accumulate ritual practice and expand, often to the point of causing problems for the practitioners. Take the Jewish siddur, which started as a rough outline of themes for extemporaneous prayer, but which evolved into an encyclopedia of prayers, originally options to choose from, but that eventually all became somewhat obligatory to say. This makes the praying of daily services in the morning last anywhere from forty-five minutes to an hour, if one prays all of the words in a siddur.
In rabbinic Judaism, the practice of regular meals imbued with religious meaning are frequent and highly valued. Every Friday evening, observant Jews gather at home or in someone else’s home to have the weekly Shabbat dinner, with a robust menu, home made or store bought challah and wine. Observant Jews gather again on Shabbat afternoon for a special kiddish lunch and many again at home or synagogue for the third meal of Shabbat. Some Hasidic Jews also have another meal at havdalah at the close of the Sabbath. Of course, some of these practices have arisen later in time, such as the European-style challah bread which first century Jews would not recognize. However, the core of the family and home-based religion goes back to the time of Christ. There are countless examples of people eating in homes in the New Testament, such as when Matthew hosted a dinner (Matthew 9:10, when Jairus, a synagogue official welcomed Jesus into his home (Mark 5:38), when Jesus joined Zacchaeus for a meal (Luke 19:5–9), Jesus dining in the home of Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38–42) or at the house where the paralyzed man was healed (Mark 2:3–4), are among the many examples from the life of Jesus and the early believers of meeting in homes, usually for a meal.
The early Jesus movement followed the same practices and values as rabbinic Judaism. Believers met in homes, around a full table with robust conversations, discussion, song and prayer and those practices constituted their “Christianity.” I would argue that the loss of a home-based religion was the beginning of the end of the early, authentic Jesus movement and the shift towards the imperial religion later known as Christianity, crafted by elites who wanted to distance the movement from Judaism.
One can imagine the meal in a Pauline community, perhaps several families gather together in a larger home, with dates, figs, wine, bread, perhaps fish, some legumes and other vegetables and garum. The leader of the community, the episkopos, maybe stood up and gathered everyone’s attention. He reached to the center of the table and grabs a pita or some other kind of flatbread and mentions the remembrance of Jesus and breaks the bread with a blessing. He passes the bread around the table and each person tears off a piece. He takes his own cup of wine and blesses it and then takes a healthy drink. Each person takes their own cup and drinks in remembrance. The meal resumes with discussion of Jesus’ teaching, perhaps a song to the God of Israel and prayers for healing for sick friends and family.
The last meal of Jesus might have been a Passover meal or not, the question is debated. It was a meal in a home and the meal that Christians shared in was one based in homes. This topic is debated among scholars and there are good points on both sides of the debate. However, it need not be a choice, but can include both elements. Looking to the settled practice of Judaism, there are home-based rituals for both Shabbat, Passover, and all the other holidays. It could be that the Lord’s supper could be celebrated at any meal with remembrance of Jesus’ life as a mental focus of the celebration.
This does not necessarily deny a sacrificial meaning to the meal, it might have had that connotation, which I will explore in the future. Yet, it was not a highly ritualized affair, but a common or Passover meal with real food and drink. All meals in Antiquity were sacrificial in nature, meaning that libations were offered to pagan gods at every meal. The early Christ followers likely sought a way to honor Israel’s God by offering bread and wine to him at communal meals. This does not mean that the meal needed to be highly ritualized or liturgical in nature. Not that there is anything wrong with a home-based liturgy.
What could this look like in practice? A community can gather on Sunday or any day in someone’s home for a meal, perhaps dinner. To imitate Jesus and the early movement, Friday evening could be selected in honor of the Sabbath. The group could follow the brief kiddush ceremony with candle-lighting, some songs, a blessing and grace after the meal, or not, depending on their preference and especially in the makeup of the group. The “words of institution” are not necessary elements in the sense that one does not have to say the words to have the Lord’s supper, but only to remember the life of Jesus, using whatever words seem appropriate on the occasion. There could be discussion of Scripture, communal prayer, communal singing, reading of poetry or other inspirational readings, silent meditation, sharing, or any other type of spiritually edifying practice. It could vary week-by-week or settle into a similar pattern. The community decides and lives together to decide those matters.
The important thing is to try to revive this impulse, which is both restorationist, bringing back lost practices from the past, and restorative in healing the damage caused by over-institutionalization, especially in Christianity.
