1. The Sacramental in Hebrew worship. — The term ' sacrament ' denotes an outward and visible sign of an invisible spiritual reality. By means of symbol, which is metaphor transformed into action or concreteness, truth is conveyed to the partici- pants in a sacrament much more readily than by tiie bare word. Language conveys truth, but symbol does what language cannot compass. The worship of the OT was full of the symbolic, for it is almost certain that the cultus was in its essence no arbitrary prescription of meaningless forms. The sacrificial system was held to be a means of grace, of Divine appointment, whereby the wor- sliipper could approach Jehovah. It must have been educative, so that the obedient and leal- hearted Israelite became in the actual observance more receptive of moral and spiritual truth. In that sense the sacrificial system of Israel was truly sacramental. But whether the average Hebrew recognized the sacramental character is doubtful, for .the great prophets constantly warn the people that the mere ritual performance of sacrifice is in- efficacious. Some, especially the earlier prophets, often seem to disparage offerings entirely, as though the only worship with which Jehovah is well pleased is the spiritual service of moral character and a contrite heart. And yet the prophets employ symbolic action again and again in the service of an ideal spirituality, so that in itself symbol has been a widespread and perfectly legitimate means of grace. The transcendental element in worship, however brightly or faintly the contemporary life of Israel may have been illumined by the spiritual truth of the prophets, had all but vanished from the official Judaism of our Lord's day. There was no open vision. No prophet or seer was abroad in the dull day of rationalism. Heroic faith had been displaced by a shrewd but commonplace conduct. The Law had come in alongside Temple service, and ritual was observed as an ordinance. The average Jew, having become a deist, could not feel sky, earth, and sea palpitate with the Divine Spirit, and so was impervious to sacramental conceptions _(VV. P. Paterson, ai't. 'Sacrifice' in Hastings' DB iv. 341 ; Bousset, Bd. des Judenthums, pp. 182- 184). It was to the 'poor of the land' who cher- ished the prophetic ideal that the parabolic, the sacramental, the symbolical in the teaching of Jesus would appeal.
2. The Method and Teaching of Jesus.— The Gospel narratives represent the Supper as a solemn final act in the life of the Messiah. But the Messiah of their delineation is a Person of startling originality. He penetrates through the crust of
unimaginative moralism to the living prophetic stream which in His day found its way to the sur- face only in tiny rivulets. On His own authority He claims, while purifying and enlarging the hopes of prophecy, to fulfil all that was truest in the reli- gion of Israel, having accepted in His Temptation the Divine ideal of a Kingdom unalloyed by any earthly aspirations. He discovers and applies to Himself the title 'Son of Man,' and in virtue of His position inaugurates changes in religion which constitute a breach with the past, for His doctrine concerning worship, foreshadowed by the prophets, antiquates bloody sacrifices and opaque ritual. To say that Jesus could not have instituted the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, because He looked for a speedy realization of the Kingdom, is to deny that He had the complete vision of the destiny of the Servant of the Lord whose function is assumed by the Son of Man, whereas it seems certain that He foretold a spiri- tual inheritance among the Gentiles in return for His faithful .service even unto death (Is 42if'- 52'"ft- 62iff-, Mk 111, Lk 4i«-2i, Mt 12'8, Mk 10«). Another unique prophetic ideal was the consummation of the Kingdom in the Day of the Lord. In respect to this also we must assume that Jesus was a creator of spiritual truth, for the consistency of the Synoptic portraiture of Jesus, and the purity of His own views as to His mission, demand that our interpretation of His outlook into the future of the Kingdom should not be limited by the current ideas of Jewish apocalypses, or by the literal symbolism of OT prophecy.
We infer from the Gospels, (1) that before the close of His ministry in Galilee Jesus had looked forward to His death as the goal of His service (Mk B'l) ; (2) that this death was to result in the redemption of the new Israel to which the pre- rogatives of the old would be transferred (Mk 10*^ 12'-'''^) ; {?,) that He expected an earthly future for His Kingdom outlasting the earthly Jerusalem, and involving its establishment among the Gentiles (Mk 430-3:^ 121-12 isw- i-itt-, Lk 13''^-55 212o-'-i4). No less evident, however, was the inability of the dis- ciples to understand that the road of service even unto death was the road to the crowning glory of the Kingdom. For Him thus steadily to set His face towards Jerusalem, was, they thought, a sheer and fatal fascination (Mk 10"2-34^ Lk 18->ift-)-
Nor is the institution of the sacrament of the Supper inconsistent with the method of Jesus. The day for symbolism was not i^ast, provided the symbolLsm was adequate ; and this Supreme Teacher surpasses all others in the use of parable and symbol. Every meal with His disciples becomes sacramental through its prayer of thanksgiving, a symbol of the spiritual truth that in Him God was giving to the world the food that was real indeed (Jn 651-^8). Nor would such a procedure be alto- gether strange to men who would remember that in the OT the connnon meal was the svmbol of a completed covenant (Gen 2(W ZY^^, Ex 24ii, 2 S S^o ; see Konig, ' Symbols, Symbolical Actions' in Hast- ings' DB, Ext. Vol., 171'^). In order to understand the significance of this institution, it must be borne in mind that the disciples had committed all their fortunes to Jesus. Their faith had been for them a heroic venture, and the death of the Messiah meant little less than His desertion of them. That night, death like a dark shadow hovering over them was forcing their loved one within its portal. They could not see that a glorious light was shin- ing on His back, that He was in reality an angel of blessing. They needed a pledge of love significant of the future and yet full of tender memories. This the Lord's Supper becomes to them. That it was a mark of supreme wisdom thus to perpetuate the significance of His death for the completion of