Whether you are a reader or a movie critic, you have likely discovered the impact of foreshadowing in storytelling. From Shakespeare to Monty Python, foreshadowing is an intentional clue for what is coming. This is appreciated to build suspense and connect clues given by a writer to drive a point home. While expected in literature we often fail to see the usefulness of foreshadowing in reading Scripture.
For example, Genesis 3 gives a promise and foreshadowing to Christ’s work in the ultimate defeat of the serpent. Similarly, Exodus 12 provides detailed commemoration of the Passover feast. While initially preparatory for the physical Exodus, a holiday was mandated for annual observance for generations so that the people of God could look forward to the ultimate deliverance from God through the Messiah.
It seems that as generations passed when we turn the page to the New Testament, the Jewish love for tradition had overshadowed the intentional foreshadowing of Christ. At the Last Supper, Jesus sat with His disciples and had to break their retrospective lens to see that the annual feast they’d celebrated their entire life was not just about the Exodus from Egypt. Instead, it was a picture of God’s ultimate promise of deliverance from death to life through the Messiah promised in Genesis 3.
Every time the church gathers to celebrate Communion we are again given the opportunity to not get lost in the simple tradition of honoring a sacrament of the church, but instead are called to remember what God has done through Christ. His body and blood were sacrificed for us so that we could be brought from death to life. This is a reason to celebrate. This is motivation to teach our children. This is a reason to celebrate the Old Testament to see the thread to the new covenant. May we together walk in the confidence of a never-changing God as we taste the bread and wine of His table.