Independence Day and Our Calling in Christ

    I’m studying 1 Corinthians right now, and I read a passage that struck me as super relevant to our upcoming holiday.  In chapter 10, Paul is calling the predominantly Gentile church of Corinth to consider their ancestors (v.1) who experienced the exodus from slavery in Egypt.  In verse 16 he points out ways that the Passover meal, which commemorated that event, was repurposed by Jesus.  He talks about the 3^rd of 4 traditional Passover cups.  This 3^rd cup was called the “cup of thanksgiving” (or “blessing”).  It represented rescue from slavery in Egypt, God’s establishment of covenant with them, and sustenance provided by God, and it was traditionally drank with a prayer of thanksgiving for those things.  Jesus, however, asserted that it should henceforth represent the ultimate, final rescue from slavery to sin and the new covenant and provision through His shed blood on the cross. 

Then, Paul goes on to mention the bread, which Jews called “the bread of affliction” (Deuteronomy 16:3).  The bread, unleavened due to the haste of Israel’s flight from Egypt, was eaten with bitter herbs to represent the great suffering which accompanied their journey to freedom.  Jesus, as Paul alludes, identified personally with that suffering and asserted that the breaking of bread would henceforth represent His bodily suffering for our ultimate deliverance.

Paul uses the Greek word, “koinonia,” however, to describe what all this has to do with his audience (the Corinthian believers).  This word is translated often “participation” or in other places “communion.”  Paul says that believers participate together in the broken body and shed blood of Christ which was offered for mankind’s rescue from slavery.  We too are called into death for the good of the world. 

 

This makes even more sense when seen in context.  In the previous chapters Paul has been calling the Corinthians to give up their rights and freedoms for the sake of caring for those around them.  They were boasting in their freedom to eat and act however they wanted to in Christ due to their recently acquired knowledge of salvation in Christ, but Paul calls them to a different way.  In chapter 9 he gives an example from his own life of how he gave up the right to earn an income from His ministry, take a wife, and to benefit from the fruit of his work, all for the sake of winning as many as possible for Christ.

 

So in chapter 10, Paul emphasizes the call to a counter-cultural life through death way of living as demonstrated by Christ through his reference to the Lord’s Supper.   

 

As we approach Independence Day tomorrow, and enjoy celebrating the freedom we enjoy thanks to the heroic suffering of those who went before us, I think it is appropriate to recall also, as Jesus called His disciples to do on their Independence Day, the ultimate freedom from slavery to sin which Christ invites us to participate in sacrificially.  It is a freedom through participation in death for the good of others.  Yes, we enjoy freedom from slavery to sin and delight in the covenant promises we inherit through Christ, but we also go with Him to the cross, training our bodies for slavery to Christ, participating in His suffering with Him that we, like Him, might offer hope and healing to the world.