I don’t know about you, but I haven’t always been able to think eschatologically. We’re led to believe that eschatology (the “end times”) has nothing to do with the present and it’s all a muddled debate about millennia and rapture and Apache helicopters. Tosh!

[D]on’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. (Romans 6:3-5)

Studying Matthew 14:13-21 (God feeds a lot of people[1. Titling this section The Feeding of the 5,000 gives away climax of the story too easily when Matthew puts off to the last minute to tell us that “The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children” (Mat 14:21).]) and reading Romans 6 very slowly and repeatedly yesterday led me to think about the eschatological dimension of the sacraments[2. I know some in Baptist circles aren’t comfortable referring to baptism and the Lord’s Supper as “sacraments.” I would ask, why not?] more so than I had done before. The eschatology of the Lord’s Supper has always been, for me at least, readily apparent, but I just hadn’t really thought of baptism in this way before.

But the goal of baptism is eschatological: that we be united with Christ in his resurrection, not just his death. Read Romans 6:3-5 again, if you need to.

Concerning the eschatological dimension of the Lord’s Supper, it’s interesting to note verbal parallels in Matthew between the account of the feeding of the 5,000 and the Last Supper discourse (e.g., blessing and breaking bread). Also there’s an interesting book by one Geoffrey Wainwright which I would love to check out. It’s called Eucharist and Eschatology. Publisher’s description:

Pulling together themes from 20th-century theology, this text discusses how, from scripture, tradition and practice, the Lord’s Supper is shown to epitomize the Christian vision of the final ends for the individual, the Church, human society and the entire cosmos. At the same time however, at the beginning of the 21st century, just as in the past, people are posing major questions about existence. The debate is contained within.

Intriguing. Is it not true that “whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Cor 11:26)?

You know, now that I think about it, the phrase “eschatological dimension” seems a bit…

Oh well!