Meaning of SACRIFICIAL BANQUET

In many pagan religions, worshipers participate in the sacrifices offered to their gods; either in honor of them, or with the character of participation with them, or, as in the cult of Osiris, it was believed that the divinity itself was eaten.

In this cult, a piece of cake was consecrated by the priest, and was believed to become the body of Osiris. Also in pre-Columbian Mexico there was a similar cult, in which worshipers participated in an image of flour, claiming that it was the body of their god.

The priests of the various pagan religions participated at the table of their gods. The apostle Paul alludes to this when he says: “But I tell you that what the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God; and I do not want you to become participants with demons.

You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord, nor of the table of demons” (1 Cor. 10:20-21).

In Judaism, there were sacrificial banquets ordained by God. One of them was of a religious-family nature, Easter. Another was that of the firstfruits, and in others only the priests could participate, such as in the sacrifices of the burnt offering (Lev. 6:8-17), of guilt (Luke 7:1-10). There were others of different character.

In Christianity, all of this has been abolished. What remains is a memorial, non-sacrificial meal, lacking any effective value in terms of applying any type of merit corresponding to an idea of sacrifice.

It is the believer's loving response to the Lord's call to remember His death for us until He comes (1 Cor. 11:23-26), in communion with Him. It is not a repetition of Christ's sacrifice on the cross ( cp. Heb. 7:27; 9:23-28; 10:10-18).

It is not a repetition, but a proclamation and a remembrance. In fact, the position that maintains a transubstantiation of material food in the body of the god is found in ancient paganism in many forms, and, as with so many other pagan practices, gradually came to be accepted by large sectors of an increasingly separated from the teaching and exhortation of the apostles in the Scriptures.