To fully understand what Paul is saying here, we need to step back and revisit what the Passover is. The Passover centers on a meal, and everywhere the Passover is mentioned as a practice, the emphasis is on eating, even though the symbols mean much more.
It is necessary for us to make a distinction between the evening Jesus spent with the disciples, and what He instituted then, and then His fulfillment of the sin offering on the following afternoon. Those events were in close proximity, and His atoning sacrifice did take place on Passover afternoon. But the evening before, the predominant focus was not on the sins of the disciples, nor even their payment, though there was a mention of that.
If you compare the Passover instructions with the sin offering instructions, you will see that they could hardly be more different. Instead, the Passover greatly resembles a peace offering. A peace offering symbolizes the offeror, the priest, and God sharing a meal in peace and secure fellowship. It is an occasion of thankfulness, typically because of something God has done, and because the offeror is accepted by God. It includes a sense of well-being because the offeror, the priest, and God were on good terms. It is not an attempt to make peace, like we use the term today, but rather an offering of gratitude for abundance and good relationships.
In a peace offering, death is present, but the symbolism is not of sins being paid for. Instead, the symbolism is of a life that is given for the sake of what it would produce - that is, fellowship and thankfulness. A living being was sacrificed to provide the occasion in which people, priests, and God symbolically fellowship over a meal.
I mentioned the sense of well-being, and this is important to understand because of how it relates to the Passover. The word for peace in peace offering is very close to the Hebrew shalom, which is very difficult to translate because of how broad the term is and what it can include. It has been summarized as, the presence of all that is good, and the absence of all that is not. Peace indicates much more than the lack of conflict. It includes internal calmness, and an absence of fear, of anxiety, of tension. Peace is the opposite of restlessness, of discontentment, of striving for more. It is the feeling, as we say today, that all is right in the world. Of course, all is not right in the world, but it is that sense in the moment of calm acceptance as worries are set aside, and all feels right in our own world.
We can start tying this to the Passover. Jesus said, With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. He knew what lay ahead for Him, but for that occasion, He could set aside the anticipation of suffering, and enjoy the environment of peace that is possible when the relationship with God is on good terms, and because of all that flows from the Father. Jesus greatly desired that occasion, not for the sake of the physical food, but because of the fellowship, and because of what God provided.
Some commentators call the peace offering a communion sacrifice, which is the term Paul uses here regarding the bread and wine. We don't use that term much because of how it has been appropriated, but communion means, to be in close fellowship or participation with. It has the same root as the word community. This passage teaches that a sacrificial meal joins a person in fellowship with the object of that sacrifice, whether the true God or an idol - or, really, the demon behind the idol. In this regard, as a sacrificial meal, the Passover unites us with God. It also unites us with the others who are partaking of it, and we become one because we share and are filled with that one bread, which is Christ.
In addition to teaching about Passover, this passage also gives us the basic principle for dealing with questions that arise regarding participation in things like family holiday meals, office Christmas parties, or maybe … . . .
Remember I mentioned that some commentators call the peace offering a communion sacrifice, which is the term Paul uses here regarding the bread and the wine. We might shy away from the term because of how it has been appropriated, but it means, to be in close fellowship or participation with. This passage teaches that a sacrificial meal joins a person in fellowship with the object of that sacrifice, whether the true God or an idol (demon). The Passover unites us with God through a sacrificial meal. It also unites us with others, and we become one because we partake of that one bread, which is Christ.
