Maundy Thursday Sermon

There have been several requests for the Maundy Thursday sermon. I'm grateful that it spoke to so many. I must give credit to a book by Dr. Brant Pitre, Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist: Unlocking the Secrets of the Last Supper published in 2011 by Doubleday. I plan to do an Adult Education Forum on it in the fall as this sermon only scratches the surface.

The sermon from Maundy Thursday, April 17, 2014:

Tonight we celebrate the Passover meal known as the Last Supper. We remember the night when Jesus instituted the Priesthood and gifted us with the Eucharist. We are invited into the Upper Room to, not only remember, but to participate in that sacred moment with Jesus and his disciples.

But our understanding and knowledge of the culture and the time is limited. For that reason, we are limited in our ability to fully engage in the moment with the fullness of our spiritual, emotional and physical selves. There are things that Jesus says which are understood by the disciples and the first-century Jews differently than the way we hear and understand them 2,000 years later. What they heard was shocking, but understandable considering who they understood Jesus to be.

My deepest prayer is that tonight, I can share with you some things that provide a deeper understanding of what happened that night - an understanding that leads to a shocking emotional discovery which challenges you to experience the Eucharist in a radically new way - not just tonight, but for the rest of your lives!

In 2014, we believe in some way that Jesus is the Messiah, that through His glorious death and resurrection we are promised salvation, that the sins we inherited from Adam and Eve as well as the sins we commit both individually and communally are forgiven. But go to the Upper Room and forget that you know what is happening, what will happen and why it's happening.

Go to the Upper Room as a disciple - afraid, curious, worried, and filled with a certain expectation. What is that expectation? As a first-century Jew, you have been expecting a Messiah. As a follower of Jesus, you think that the expected Messiah is now sitting at the table with you in Jerusalem during Passover. And you know that Passover is significant because you grew up with it each year. You've heard the stories since your childhood about how 1,500 years ago your ancestors were slaves in Egypt. To set them free, God ensured their safety through a sacrificial meal: The Passover. You know that they were to sacrifice an unblemished male lamb - 1 year old, which is in its prime - a perfect lamb, undefiled in any way and that in sacrificing it, not a bone could be broken. The blood of the animal was to be spread on the doorposts and lintels, soaking into the wood, indicating a house where the Passover was held so that the Angel of Death would "pass over" the house. Through the blood of the lamb, soaked into the wood, the inhabitants were delivered from death. The blood of the lamb had power to save your ancestors from death.

As a first-century Jew in the Upper Room, you also know that the Passover sacrifice was not completed with the death of the lamb, but with the command to eat its flesh. And you know that Passover was not a one-time act 1,500 years prior, but was an annual event known as a "remembrance." This "remembrance" had been kept alive for 1,500 years and allows you and your descendants to not just remember the Exodus, but to participate in it in "real time."

You know that the Passover had evolved from something that happened one night in all the homes of God's chosen people in Egypt - not only saving them from death - but freeing them from slavery and captivity to become this "remembrance" in Jerusalem each year at the temple.

You grew up going to Jerusalem every year with your family and witnessed the sacrifice of 256,500 lambs for 2.7 million people. You know first-hand how much blood that produces. You know the smell of the lambs being roasted. You've seen how the lambs are skewered with rods, in the shape of a cross. The 256,500 crucified lambs are everywhere!

In that Upper Room, you know that Passover night was often referred to as a "night of watching" because during the first Passover, families kept prayerful watch to make sure the Angel of Death passed over them and because in your own time, there is a watching for the coming of the Messiah.

And you now find yourself in an Upper Room with your friends, Jesus assuming the role of the father of the house. Conversation abounds as Jesus gets up and washes Peter's feet first, then Judas, then others, and even you! Jesus whispers warnings of betrayal - suddenly the air gets tense as eyes dart around with suspicion, fear and accusation. Things settle down as Jesus begins the meal. This is no ordinary meal, it's a Passover meal. You've already noticed that it's like no other Passover meal you've ever experienced.

Since you were a child, you've known the ritual and routine of Passover:
- The pouring out of the blood of the "perfect" lamb into a sacred vessel.
- That the vessel of blood was given to a priest in the temple who splashed it onto the altar, representing the one blood of God's one family and done for the forgiveness of sins.
- You've seen the lambs skewered on a cross.
- You know that the death of the lamb doesn't complete the Passover sacrifice, but eating the lamb does.
- And you know that at the eating of the lamb, there are four cups of wine that must be consumed in a certain order for a certain reason accompanied by certain prayers.

These steps were known as the "seder" or "order." Everyone would know the order of things to come that night, even your non-Jewish, Greek-speaking friends who called the Passover by its Greek name "Pascha" or "Paschal." What happens around you in the Upper Room that night would one day be referred to, not as the "Passover Mystery", but the "Paschal Mystery."

As part of the Jewish Passover custom, you and your friends, including Jesus, have been fasting since 3:00 p.m. - the hour of the evening sacrifice. Exactly 24 hours before the most gruesome death you've ever seen. But we've not come to that yet. You're still in the Upper Room, perhaps hearing a stomach growl from hunger.

Jesus sits at the head of the table, just as you've seen your dad do every year of your life at Passover. With him, you recline at the table fully aware that such posture symbolized freedom, the freedom won for you in the Exodus following the first Passover.

The first of the four cups of wine is prepared as Jesus mixes the wine with a little water for the "cup of sanctification." You know this as the "Kiddush" cup. Jesus says the typical Jewish blessing: "Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who creates the fruit of the vine."

After the blessing, the food is brought out, but not yet eaten:
1.) Unleavened Bread - Symbolizing the haste with which your ancestors left Egypt, not giving the bread time to rise.
2.) Dish of Bitter Herbs - Symbolizing the bitterness of 40 years in the desert.
3.) Bowl of Sauce - known as Haroseth.
4.) Roasted Lamb - Set on the table, the lamb is referred to as the "guph" or "body" of the lamb.

The food is laid out, but the second cup, known as the "Haggadah" cup - or the cup of proclamation - is mixed, but not drunk. Your dad, and now, Jesus, proclaims all that God had done for them in freeing Israel from the bondage of slavery in Egypt. He also reminds you of the meaning of the different foods in front of you. This was the heart of the meal. Everyone burst into song, praising God by singing Psalms 113 - 114.

After you finish singing, the meal would be eaten after a blessing over the unleavened bread: "Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation, who brings forth bread from the earth." But Jesus adds to this traditional blessing and says: "Take. Eat. This is my body. Do this in remembrance of me."

The food is passed around and amid the noise of a busy dining room, you overhear Jesus say something about betrayal. From your vantage point, you can tell by his face that Peter is defensive as Jesus nods to him and holds up three fingers, saying something about a cock crowing before sunrise. You strain to hear exactly what is being said, but Judas blocks your view as he stretches across the table to dip the unleavened bread into the Haroseth sauce. The room goes silent as those next to Jesus look with horror - not at some breach of etiquette by Judas, but because of some revelation you couldn't hear over the noise. They're all staring at an otherwise oblivious Judas whose money sack falls out of his lap and lands loudly on the floor in the midst of the sudden silence.

After the meal, you know the third cup of wine comes and is blessed. This is the "Berakah" cup. Instead of the usual prayer, you hear Jesus say something different and strange. He tells all of you that this cup is the New Covenant in his blood which will be shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.

As a devout Jew, you're fully expecting now the fourth and final cup of wine which concludes the Passover meal. This is the "Hallel" cup - the cup of praise. But, instead of the fourth cup, Jesus says that he will not drink the fruit of the vine until the day he drinks it with you new in the Kingdom of his Father. Suddenly, Jesus and everyone else sings some hymns, gets up and goes out - walking towards the Mt. of Olives. You're confused. Without drinking the fourth cup, Passover is not complete!

You and your friends follow Jesus, murmuring among yourselves, trying to make sense of everything you've seen and heard. Jesus goes into a garden, known as Gethsemane. He falls to the ground and cries out just loud enough for you to hear: "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me." Later, you hear Jesus pray again, saying, "My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done." One more time, a third time, you hear Jesus pray about drinking from the cup. You wonder: "Does he mean the fourth cup that was skipped at the meal, the one that would end the Passover?"

It all starts to make sense to you - Jesus said that the third cup was his blood - just like the blood of the lamb at Passover. Jesus said to eat the bread that was his body - just as eating the "guph" or "body" of the lamb was part of the Passover tradition. Jesus even said to eat and drink these things in memory of him using the word "remembrance" which is more than a memorial, but a full participation in the first Passover 1,500 years earlier.

It suddenly occurs to you that Jesus is the new Passover Lamb and your heart sinks as you realize that the Passover Lamb doesn't make it out alive.

You hear a ruckus and see Judas walking fast, leading a group of Chief Priests who are surrounded by soldiers. Jesus is arrested and taken away.

You follow as far as you can, but stop in your tracks and stare at a home along the way. Outside their door, you see a slaughtered lamb on a cross next to a wooden door frame stained with blood.

You wonder: "What does this all mean?"

You think: "We didn't have the fourth cup! We didn't finish the Passover Meal!"

Jesus is being pushed farther away from you, but he looks over his shoulder and makes eye contact for a brief moment. And though he doesn't say anything, you get the sense that he is saying, "All for you!"