Recent studies of the history of Israel’s religion have demonstrated convincingly that the formative events of Israel’s faith were dramatically acted out in worship. In fact, some of the Old Testament narratives have reached their present form as a result of the historicizing of cultic dramatic re-presentation.
The Exodus Narrative
The Exodus narrative in Exodus 1–19 is a reclothed festal liturgy from which something of the ritual may be recovered. In Exodus 12:42, the “watch night” drama appears, a re-creating and a re-presenting of the drama in which the Hebrews anxiously awaited the intervention of Yahweh in Egypt, a repeated cultic drama that bridged the gap of space and time and reestablished the saving relationship for each generation with Yahweh. In close connection is Exodus 12, the instructions for the Passover feast, said to be observed as “a memorial to all generations.” The re-creation of the watch night, the blood on the doorposts and the lintel, the eating of unleavened bread and bitter herbs—these acts were re-created annually and physically in active worship. For Israel, no sterile symbolism is present, no more lifeless memory; by re-creating history through dramatic presentation, Israel re-presented her saving history, actualized her salvation, renewed her relationship to her God. Thus, historical recital has given way to historical re-creation.
Narratives of Joshua
The narratives of Joshua 2–6 are rehistoricized festal liturgies from the Gilgal cult. At Gilgal, through dramatic presentation, the crossing of the Jordan was re-created, and the march around the ruins of Jericho reenacted, not in mere historical memory, but in contemporary actualization. The close connection of dramatic re-presentation with liturgical re-presentation as noted earlier is clearly evidenced in these passages from Joshua. Thus, the Gilgal cult, annually or periodically, re-presented the conquest story, dramatizing its history and making it sacramental.
The Jerusalem Worship Community
The greatest example of re-presentation of dramatic form is the Jerusalem worship community. Much has been written about the royal ritual in Jerusalem, with its interlocked themes of David and Zion. Despite those who find minimal cultic influence, one has little basis for doubting that the royal psalms have their setting in a royal Zion festival during which those events surrounding the Davidic dynasty were dramatically enacted at Jerusalem. The Psalms speak of the “night watch” at Gihon, of the procession through the streets of Jerusalem which preceded the entrance of the ark into the temple, and finally of the reactualization of the Davidic king as Yahweh’s servant. The Psalms are primary testimony to historical re-presentation by dramatic actualization.
The Lord’s Supper As Sacred Drama
Precisely at this point Christian worship has departed from the pattern of the Israelite cult, with particular reference to the Lord’s Supper. If one will view the history of the Lord’s Supper one will find few periods when the real drama of the Lord’s Supper has been preserved. The theology of the Lord’s Supper has moved from the extreme of the Roman church, with its doctrine of transubstantiation, to the barren symbolism of nonliturgical congregations. Both positions are in error. If Old Testament worship is correctly viewed, then an idea of the actual re-creation of the body and blood of our Lord in the Mass is incorrect. The suffering and death of Jesus were once-for-all, nonrepeatable, unique events in history; in no sense can the event be literally and physically re-created in worship. But on the other hand, the elements of the Lord’s Supper transcend barren symbolism. In the celebration of the Lord’s Supper something happens, not with the elements themselves, but in a dramatic re-presentation of history. To borrow the pattern of the Deuteronomic preachers, “it was not with our fathers that the Lord made this covenant, but with us, with all of us who are alive here today” (Deut. 5:3). The Lord’s Supper is sacred art, a drama that manifests reality; it allows the worshiper to span the time and space gap of history and stand again with those who first experienced our Lord’s death. In the mystery of dramatic presentation, the worshiper reenters original history; it is not a festal myth, but an actualization. “This is my body, broken for you,” a brokenness that continues over and over again, a presentness of contemporary encounter. Thus, as one partakes of the elements, one becomes part of the original event, which was accomplished for our salvation.
The demand is to recover the true meaning of the Lord’s Supper in Christian worship, a meaning that is patterned from Israelite worship with its motif of dramatic re-presentation. If the study of Israelite worship is taken seriously, the Lord’s Supper must be rescued from its place as addendum in many congregations and restored to the central place of worship. The Lord’s Supper is the reenactment of the Christian Exodus event, the historical beginning, which continues to give the church life. Jesus said, “Do this in remembrance of me” (1 Cor. 11:24). Yet to remember is not an intellectual discipline; “to re-member” is to re-create, “to re-member” is to re-present, “to re-member” is to respond. In Deuteronomy 16:3, the Feast of the Passover is said to be observed, “so that all the days of your life you may remember the time of your departure from Egypt.” Here is the annual re-presentation of history. Thus, “Do this in remembrance of me” must mean, “so that you may participate in the sufferings and death of our Lord and respond to them.” For as Israel was redeemed from Egyptian bondage in the Exodus and annually actualized that redemption in the cult, the Christian church finds itself released from a similar bondage and must actualize that redemption by dramatic re-presentation. The Lord’s Supper is truly sacramental in that by participating in the drama of our redemption, God himself reestablishes, maintains, and renews his relationship with us and we respond in obedience.