Theology Of Ritual In Jewish And Early Christian Worship

Religious rituals are corporate symbolic actions in which people engage when they worship. The theological principle underlying ritual worship is that our principal access to the spiritual is through the outward and visible. Even the most spiritual ideas must be expressed in outward words or actions, which are almost necessarily symbolic. Love, for example, is expressed by symbolic words and actions, that is, by ritual acts. For Christians the supreme example of this outward and visible expression of spiritual reality is the incarnation of Christ, the Word made visible and tangible.

One of the most ancient ritual practices which we know of is the common meal held by a family or clan, not simply to assuage hunger, but to commune with the divine powers outwardly symbolized by the food which was eaten. Primitive theological reflection on this ritual suggested either that the divine powers were guests at the meal, or that the powers were the hosts. A third theory suggested that the divine powers resided in the food itself. In early Judaism, three types of sacrifice existed. In the first, the entire sacrificial meal was eaten by the worshipers, e.g., the Passover (pesach). Theologically, this meal was understood to signify the total dependence of the people on Yahweh and the divine provision of food and all their needs. In the most common type of sacrifice (zebach), a portion of the food was burned on the altar and a portion was eaten by the worshipers. This action was understood to be the sharing of a meal with Yahweh, theologically signifying the union and communion of God with the people. One sub-type of this sacrifice, the sacrifice of thanksgiving (zebach todah in Hebrew, or thusia eucharistica in Greek) clearly influenced early Christian understanding of the Eucharist. In the third type ('olah), the entire meal was burned on the altar. Theologically, this sacrifice was a gift to Yahweh, usually to give thanks for benefits received. The purification rites of Yom Kippur involved the purification of the temple, the priesthood, and the whole people with the blood of sacrificial animals poured out before the mercy seat in the inner sanctuary of the temple, the Holy of Holies. The blood, symbolizing life, was seen as washing away the impurities. Hebrews interprets the sacrifice of Christ and the participation of Christians in it in terms of the rites of Yom Kippur and the zebach todah. Lord's Supper Paul, in 1 Corinthians 11:26, proclaims a connection between participation in the Lord's Supper and the death of Christ. Ritually, this is the theology of the Jewish sacrifice. To eat the flesh of the sacrificial animal was to participate in the sacrifice and to commune with God. The bread of the Eucharist was theologically identified by Christ with his body, so for Christians to partake in the Eucharist is to be united with Christ in the power of his sacrifice. The command, "?Do this in the remembrance of me,?" in the synoptic Gospels reflects the Hebrew concept zikkaron (anamnesis in the Greek New Testament). It recalls the words of the Passover haggadah (the interpretative speech that began each Passover liturgy): "?In every generation let each [person] look on himself as if he came forth from Egypt .… It was not only our fathers the Holy One, blessed be he, redeemed, but us as well did he redeem along with them.?" This idea is significant in contemporary liturgical theology. We who partake of Holy Communion are participants in the mighty acts of God in Christ by which we are saved, performed once for all in the past but made present to us in their ritual anamnesis. Baptism The major Christian theological understandings of baptism are Pauline (Rom. 6:3–11) and Johannine (John 3:1–16), while the ritual practice has traditionally followed the synoptic accounts of the baptism of Jesus (Mark 1:9–11 and parallels). The Pauline and Johannine theologies are usually seen as complementary. Water in rituals is almost always purifying, destroying, and also life-giving. It symbolizes both the dissolution of what is and the renewal and rebirth of what shall be, as in the Flood and the passage through the Red Sea. To go down into the water is to die. To come up out of the water is to be born again, or to be raised from the dead. To go down into the water confessing the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, or that Jesus Christ is Lord, then, is to be buried with Christ in his death. To come up out of the water is to participate in his resurrection. An effect of this ritual death and rebirth is that the neophyte is theologically a new person. As Paul says, "?It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me?" (Gal. 2:20, nrsv). This newborn person in Christ is therefore free from sin. The other traditional ritual acts associated with baptism are the signing of the neophyte with the cross, anointing with chrism, and the laying on of hands. Theologically, the signing with the cross is a symbol of belonging to Christ. It is identified with the seal placed on the forehead of the saved in Revelation 7:3. The anointing with chrism speaks (1) of union with the anointed Messiah, (2) of participation in Jesus' anointing with the Holy Spirit at his baptism (Mark 1:10, Luke 4:18, Acts 10:38), and (3) of participation in the royal priesthood of the church (1 Pet. 2:9), following the example of the anointing of kings and priests in Israel. Although individual theologians may emphasize one meaning, all three are a part of the tradition. The laying on of hands is a multivalent ceremony, identified with ordination, healing, and blessing. Its use in baptism (or confirmation) probably combines its traditional religious use as a gesture of blessing and its use in classic Roman adoption ceremonies, where it accompanied the father's declaration that the one adopted was henceforth his child. It was identified in baptism with the voice of God the Father proclaiming, "?You are my Son, the Beloved?" (Mark 1:11, nrsv). In a similar way, other ritual actions are identified as outward signs of particular spiritual benefits in which the worshipers' use of the ritual action makes them partakers.