Covid-19 and Eucharistic fellowship in Matthew 26.26-28 : a legitimation and maintenance of Christian identity

Abstract

The overall purpose of this article is to provide biblical evidence for the church’s effectiveness in legitimating and maintaining a Christian identity, a matter which has recently been silenced by African government efforts on lockdown measures on the church during the emergence of Coronavirus in Africa. The objective of this study is to use social sciences alongside literary criticism to analyse Matthew 26:26-28 to explain the importance of the Eucharist and by large of the church in legitimating and maintaining a Christian identity as a response to narratives that seem to subordinate the basis for Christian identity. Critical analysis of the Roman banquet and Jewish Passover as reflected in Petronius’ Satyricon and Mishnah’ Pesachim 10, respectively, collectively present the social setting in the Roman Empire as the backdrop that prompted Matthew to employ the Eucharist (Lord’s Supper) to legitimate and maintain a Christian identity for his community. This study attempts to answer this question; why did some Christians contest the recent government lockdown measures on the church during the advent of Coronavirus in Africa? Consequently, we argue that when circumstance arise that tend to subordinate the basis of Christian identity to some authority, the disadvantaged Christians will normally appeal to Christian belief systems that encompass traditions, norms and values not only to contest that authority but also to legitimate and maintain a Christian identity.