Feasting on the Meals of Lent
Lent is a time of letting go of distractions so we can feast on more of Jesus. How can you feast to prepare your heart for Easter?
“This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.”
In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup
is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever
you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
1 Corinthians 11:23425
The last thing Jesus did with his closest friends before He went to the cross was break bread with them around a table. However, that Last Supper wasn’t His final feast.
You may have noticed that Jesus ended His first resurrected day by dining with His disciples again. Breaking bread was the last thing they did together before He laid down His life and the first thing they did together once He picked it back up!
The Feasts of the Old Testament
The first feast mentioned in Leviticus 23 is a weekly sort of feast. It’s called the Sabbath or Shabbat in Hebrew. A day of rest. The Old Testament is full of instructions, telling and retelling the Israelites to rest from all work on the seventh day of every week, because God created the heavens and the earth in six days and then rested.
As Christians, we know that it is only the finished work of Jesus that allows us to experience true rest—both now and forever. God didn’t just make the world in six days and then rest; He also made a way back to Himself through Christ so that we might find our ultimate rest in Him.
It was no accident that Jesus’s “last supper” with His disciples fell on the Passover. Reclining around the table with His twelve disciples, Jesus gave thanks to the Father, broke the bread, and gave it to His friends.
To this day, Passover is celebrated not only by Jews but by Messianic Jews and Christians alike because of the beautiful parallels between Jesus and the Passover lamb. Born in a barn and laid in a feeding trough surrounded by shepherds and their sheep, Jesus lived a sinless, unblemished life and was sacrificed as the final and forever Passover lamb.
Our Powerful God
What a powerful picture of Jesus, sitting at the table that Passover night, knowing that He, too, would soon be sacrificed.
Over 1,500 years before Christ went to the cross, God told His people how to celebrate the Passover. The night before He ushered the Israelites out of captivity in Egypt, He communicated through Moses that each family was to sacrifice a young lamb, then paint the animal’s blood over the lintels of their doors. That night, a spirit of death passed through Egypt, killing each firstborn child. But the homes with doorframes covered in the blood of the sacrificed lamb were passed over. Thus, the name Passover.
Over the table, Jesus told His friends that another sacrifice was about to take place. When He broke the bread, He explained that He would to be broken too; and when He poured the wine, He let them know that His lifeblood would soon be poured out that our sins might be passed over. Ingesting the words of Christ, His disciples weren’t yet able to digest the meaning of Christ until three days later when their teacher returned. Pulling up a chair, He explained it again.
Get Ready to Feast
Today it is my hope that you discover what is truly on the table—not just your Bible, but Christ Himself. The Bread of Life was broken for you; the wine that represents His covenant-binding blood was poured out for you. Christ isn’t merely at the table with us now, He’s on the table too.
Lamb of God, thank You for giving us so many prophetic and poetic pictures of You through the Old Testament feasts! You gave Your people, Israel, regulations for feasting because You wanted to feast with them regularly, and You want to fellowship with me regularly at the table as well. I’m catching the vision and getting hungry for You, the ultimate feast. In the name of the Passover lamb, Jesus, Amen.
In His Word
Read Leviticus 23.
Take a moment to reflect on the imagery and symbolism presented in Leviticus 23, particularly in light of the parallels drawn between the Old Testament feasts and the life and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Consider how these ancient rituals foreshadowed and prepared the way for the ultimate fulfillment found in Christ’s sacrifice and the communion we share with Him.
In Your Life
How can you feast on God’s Word today and as you prepare your heart for Easter?
We Recommend
We recommend the book The 40-Day Feast: Taste and See the Goodness of God’s Word by Wendy Speake. It helps you apply biblical truths to your daily life, understand complex Bible passages for yourself, and awaken a hunger for God’s Word in your life.
Let’s Connect
Wendy Speake is the author of The 40-Day Sugar Fast and The 40-Day Social Media Fast, as well as The 40-Day Fast Journal. Wendy hosts her online 40-Day Sugar Fast every January and her 40-Day Social Media Fast every Lent. She lives just outside of Dallas, Texas. Learn more at wendyspeake.com and you can also find Wendy on Instagram.