(Elephant picture)Every time they had communion at church 7-year-old, Sarah was disappointed. You see in the middle of the service she thought she heard pastor would announce, “And now the ushers will bring forward the communion elephants.” She was expecting something like this, but all she ever saw was something like this. (Communion picture)
People have funny ideas about communion. During our Lenten journey this year, we will walk through the last 24 hours of Jesus’ life. Today we start by reading the events of Thursday afternoon and evening: the preparations for and eating of the Passover dinner, or Seder. This Passover provides the backdrop for the most famous meal in history: The Last Supper.
This is Leonardo daVinchi’s painting of the Last Supper. We see it frequently, including on that wall and on the carving on the front of our altar. As often as we see it, most of us don’t realize that it almost as wide as this sanctuary, and as tall as the top of the projection screen. 29 feet long by 15 feet tall.
The same is true of the Last Supper. The meanings, and lessons, and nuances of the Last Supper are wide and so high, that we cannot take it all in with one glance. So today, we will look at it from three different directions.
First we look at the Last Supper through the lens of Passover.
Who knows what Passover was? <<< >>>
And the Israelites were commanded to celebrate this formative story with their children and their children’s children. Essentially, it was a big children’s sermon to teach the story of the redemption o the Israelites from slavery.
Passover is, and was in Jesus’ day, a weeklong thanksgiving celebration. It started with selecting the lamb, a top quality male yearling without any blemishes. They stood in line for hours to have their lamb killed by the priests, who slit the throat and caught the blood. They threw the blood against the altar and sent the men away to roast the lamb.
In the mean time, the house was thoroughly cleaned of any crumbs that might be regular bread with yeast in it. Because they used only unleavened bread to commemorate the haste with which their ancestors left Egypt.
After the head of the house certified that the home was free from any leaven, the feast would begin after sunset and last several hours. In addition to the wonderful banquets foods, there were symbolic foods that reminded them of the plagues in Egypt, the tears of the people, the bitterness of slavery, and the mortar that went between the bricks.
This Passover Supper is remembered because in the middle of the meal (we believe it was at the time of the drinking of the third cup of wine, the cup of redemption) Jesus did something different. He took the bread and the wine and with the words, “This is my body,” and “this is my blood” transformed the Passover tradition from the old covenant written on stone to the new covenant written in our hearts. Just as the Passover lamb was sacrificed in the freeing of the slaves, Jesus would be sacrificed in freeing us from sin. One way of looking at this story of the Last Supper is from the perspective of the Passover tradition.
We can also look at the Last Supper through the lens of this being Jesus’ last meal on earth, which he shared with the 12 men who were closer to him than most families. You See the Passover was a fundamentally a family celebration. Typical of most families you would expect much laughing, talking, and joking…it should have been quite a party.
Reading between the lines, however, I think there was a dark cloud over the dinner.
Jesus had spent the last 4 days, essentially taunting the Jewish leaders. He overturned the moneychanger’s tables and had an ongoing war of words with the priests and Pharisees. The pressure was building and the leaders of the Jews were growing impatient. Everyone knew he had pushed the temple leaders about as far as they were going to go. Everyone knew that this could not end well. . The tension in that room had to be tremendous. The air must have been heavy, even though most did not know that Judas had already made plans to betray Jesus
Then Jesus drops 3 bombs on the party.
First, Jesus takes the towel and the basin, and kneels to wash each disciple’s feet. The master became the servant, the first became last, and the true nature of Christian discipleship was revealed as each disciple was humbled by the extraordinary humility of the teacher.
The second bomb was when they were about to drink the third ritual cup of wine, Jesus took the bread and the cup and started talking about his broken body and his blood being poured out.
They all understood that Jesus was announcing again that he was going to die, and that they should eat the bread and drink the cup as a memorial to him after he is gone. It would be a way of remembering him.
The third bomb was Jesus’ announcement that one of them would betray him. “The one with whom I dip the bread is the one who has betrayed me.”
John was to his right. Judas was to his left. Think about that for a minute… the betrayer was not on the other end of the table, you know out of sight out of mind. The two most honored places at the table were to the right and left of the host. Where did I say Judas was sitting? He was in the second most honored position at the table. I don’t think that was an accident.
The air in the upper room was heavy. It was not the great family feast that their preceding two or three Passovers had been. It was the last meal of condemned man with his closest friends including one betrayer.
The Last Supper was a Passover meal. The Last supper was the last meal of a condemned man with his friends. The Last supper was also a preview of the heavenly banquet.
Remember, Jesus is God. In the Greek and Roman culture with which they were surrounded the worshippers went to the sacred temples of the God’s and ate of the meat of the sacrifice and drank the blood of the sacrifice in order to be filled with the power of the God.
This is my body… take it
This is my blood… drink it.
And by accepting Jesus into our self, we are mysteriously made one with him.
Jesus finishes by saying, “I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until I drink it new in the kingdom of God.” This is a preview of the heavenly banquet.
It is a feast of faith. It is a
banquet of grace. It is the
supper of salvation.
This is a participation in the promised heavenly banquet-- to which we who are saved, and filled with Christ are the honored guests.
It is the banquet to which we are invited because we have made the body of Christ part of our being... and… we have made being part of the body of Christ who we are.
Communion as a Passover supper different from any before or any since.
Communion as an uncomfortable last meal of a condemned man with 11 of his most cherished friends… and his betrayer is a guest of honor.
Communion as a preview of the heavenly banquet in which we are filled and transformed by the power and the promise of the passion of our Lord.
There is a lot more to Holy Communion than most of us realize.
Communion is both the greatest banquet ever held, and the worst dinner party you can imagine.
Communion is simultaneously something we do and something that is done to us.
Communion is at one and the same time remembering and hoping.
Communion is intensely personal and essentially communal.
Open your hands
open your mouths.
Open your mind.
open your heart to receive whatever amazing gift God has for you this morning
Be ready for God to change you through this meal of tradition and transformation.
AMEN
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