The Afikomen

God’s Thoughts to Me

I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.

Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drinks my blood, you have no life in you (John 6:51-53, NIV).

The Feast, The Food, The Flesh and The Fruit

I have often wondered why so many of our Lord’s followers turned away from following Him after these difficult sayings they were not able to understand. To be honest, neither did I for a long time.

Looking at the ancient Greeks of Jesus’ time on earth, gave me a much clearer understanding of how they might have interpreted His words.

I am convinced they thought it was business as usual when they heard these gory words of blood, guts and flesh.

They were well aware of the Communion Ritual to honor the Greek god, Dionysus. He was the god of wine, one of the main deities and his birthday was celebrated on the 25th of December.

During this ritual his followers would crush the grapes, drink the scarlet life “blood” of Dionysus and get extremely drunk.

Just as well, for they also dismembered an animal, usually a bull, by tearing it apart with their hands and teeth (Luana Fabri/Messianic Fellowship).

They called this the “Omhagia” and were convinced that eating the flesh of the bull and drinking its blood, caused the life and power of their god to be absorbed into their bodies.

In the Jewish culture, sharing a meal is very important. With every meal bread and wine are served. The head of the family breaks a piece of bread before and after every meal, blessing the food and thanking God for His provision.

But then there was the Passover, another breaking of bread, where our Heavenly Father broke His Afikomen to feed His children with the sinless, unleavened Bread of Life.

At the early stages of Passover Seder they set aside a piece of the “matzo”, the unleavened bread, to be eaten after the last meal. This piece is called the “Afikomen”, and it means “that which come after”, or “dessert”.

Some families hide the Afikomen for the children to find and reward them with candy or money when they find it. This is their way of keeping Passover interesting for the children.

Now, I would much rather take part in the Jewish way of celebrating Passover than be part of Dionysus’ team celebrating their Communion Ritual.

And I can well imagine how these poor folk must have thought that Jesus was introducing another kind of bloody ritual similar to the one of Dionysus.

At least these guys used an animal, but this Man wanted them to use His body and blood as the sacrifice. Gross!!! This was lunacy!!

Yet, they were totally ignorant of the fact that they were on the brink of doing just that. His body was broken and His blood was spilled, slaughtered like an animal, when they nailed Him to the cross.

In the Upper Room it was the Afikomen our Lord Jesus took, broke and offered to His diciples.

After all our striving and coniving, our huffing and puffing to earn our Pappa’s love, approval and acceptance, He offers us His Afikomen, the last, hidden piece of the unleavened bread … the sweetest dessert … our Lord Jesus.

Death was not able to hold Him in its grip and when we listen carefully, we can hear His voice, gentle, still and small, inviting us to come to Him … to feast on His Afikomen … the delicious fruit of the Spirit of love … to live in His Loving Embrace.

Hugs and blessings xx

Mia

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