Maundy Thursday (Commandment Thursday)

The words which begin this ancient service tell us why we gather.

This is the night that Christ the Son of Man gathered with his disciples in the upper room.

It was early for a Passover meal, but eating together was common enough for them. No one went in expecting anything unusual, except for the usual unusual which took place whenever Jesus was around… a healing, a woman breaking in to pour oil on Jesus, a confrontation with the Pharisees…but that was to be expected.

They did not know this was going to be their last meal together.  They did not know Jesus was going to reinterpret the Passover and give it new meaning.

They did not know one of them would betray Jesus that night.  They did not know Jesus was going to pray in a way they had never heard before, with anguish and sorrow.

They did not know in just a few hours they would all abandon him and scatter in the darkness.

They did not know any of it, how could they have?  They went to the meal expecting prayer, singing, teaching and a meal. They went expecting church. What happened changed their lives and changed the world.

On this night Jesus gathered with his disciples in the upper room for a meal.

This is the night that Christ our Lord and Master took a towel and washed the disciples’ feet, calling us to love one another as he has loved us.

The one, who to this point they had called Rabbi, Lord, teacher and Master and bowed before in worshiped, this night took on the role of a humble servant. The one who condescended from glory with the Father to created flesh, now condescends again from Master to slave.

Is it any wonder Peter found it awkward?

Jesus was showing them and us, that if we want to be his follower, his student, if we want to be like him, then our posture must be that of a servant to all.  We are to serve the world he came to save.  That is our call, our vocation.

We serve by washing, feet, hands, faces, all that is soiled and needs soothing. 
We serve by healing wounds, physical, relational, cultural, emotional and spiritual. 
We serve by always, not just sometimes or often, but always, putting the needs of others before ourselves.  
We serve by setting things right, that is, by being righteous. 
We serve by listening to those who are in pain, to those who when they speak no one else listens, to those who have no voice.
We serve by saying, ‘I’m sorry’ and by saying, ‘I forgive you’ even before the other says they are sorry.
We serve by being the presence of Christ wherever we are and by seeing Christ in others wherever we go.
We serve keeping and protecting the whole of creation and changing our lives to make it so.

In other words we serve by loving.  Which is why on this night after he served them, he loved them to the end and he gave to us a new commandment.  Not a program for evangelism, or a system of catechism or a structure of leadership or an institutional hierarchy or a suggestion for church growth…but a command…this we must do if we want to be his disciple:

“Love one another has I have loved you”.

On this night we are told the highest calling in our faith is to love. 

This is the night that Christ our God gave us this holy feast, that we who eat this bread and drink this cup may here proclaim his perfect sacrifice.

Since they were little children they had celebrated Passover every year.  They knew the story, the bitterness of slavery, the plagues, the tears of salt, bitter herbs, sweet Chorreset and the unleavened bread, the blood of the lamb and the wine.  They knew the questions and answers, the psalms and the prayers by heart.  It was what they knew.

Until Jesus took the bread, the stolen bread, stripped and pierced and after saying the blessing, “Blessed are you O Lord our God, King of the universe, who brings forth bread from the earth”, he broke it and gave it to each of them saying, “Take, eat, this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me”.

This was not part of the story, this was not in the liturgy at all.  What did he mean by this?

Then after the meal was finished, he took the cup of wine, the cup of salvation, for now the saving lamb had been eaten, and he said the blessing, “Blessed are you, o Lord our God, King of the universe, who created the fruit of the vine”. Then he gave it them each saying, “Drink this, all of you; for this is my Blood of the New Covenant, Which is shed for you, and for the many, for the forgiveness of sins: whenever you drink it, do this in remembrance of me.”

This was not part of the story either, the blood of salvation was the blood of the lamb, that was THE covenant. What is this ‘new’ covenant in his blood?  What did he mean by saying this on this night?

This is the night that Christ the Lamb of God gave himself into the hands of those who would slay him.

This night after the strange Passover and after Judas left so suddenly, Jesus took them to a familiar place just outside the city wall, across the Kidron valley to the Mount of Olives.  This was the same place King David had learnt that one of his closest friends had betrayed him. And now on this night the Son of David is betrayed by a close friend.

After praying for a time, a deep and painful prayer and knowing that his closest friends wound soon abandon him in fear, and His Father would ask of Him one more thing, He saw a serpentine parade of slithering through the darkness… Behold my betrayer is at hand.

On this night Yeshua, the one who saves, Emmanuel God with us, the Son of God and Son of Man, the Lamb of God went quietly ass a Lamb to be sacrificed.

Amen.