Maundy Thursday (2014)

This is a night of signs and symbols.

We heard of the first Passover.

Unleavened bread, indicating the urgency:

no time to leaven and let rise.

The blood of the lamb,

marking the people out as God’s own.

By Jesus time,

the Passover could only be celebrated within Jerusalem

it was a celebration of identity,

a celebration of being God’s chosen people, protected by him,

It was eaten reclining,

because that was how free people ate.

The elements,

the lamb, the unleavened bread, the wine, the bitter herbs,

were interpreted each year by the leader of the celebration.

The leader explains what they represent,

what they recall,

so that those assembled know themselves

to be God’s covenanted people.

The Passover finished with the singing of certain psalms,

psalms to greet the Messiah entering Jerusalem.

For the celebration was also in expectation of a new freedom,

in expectation that some year the Messiah would come

and lead the people to freedom at the end of the Passover.

This rich framework is provided by salvation history

to give the context for what Jesus does.

At the start of today’s gospel we heard that:

Jesus knew that the hour had come

for him to pass from this world to his Father

....now he showed how perfect his love was

These words are a preface to all that will come

this evening and tomorrow.

The signs of Maundy Thursday evening

point to Good Friday.

Jesus is to be the lamb

whose blood marks out a new people of God,

whose blood brings freedom from slavery.

On this evening,

Jesus, in front of his disciples,

accepts, consciously, actively, his suffering and death;

he speaks of his life blood being poured out,

separated from, his body,

for forgiveness and reconciliation.

He does this with signs that seize their attention.

‘Look’, he says: ‘this is my body’; ‘this is my blood’; ‘separated’.

This prefigures tomorrow – with clarity.

Jesus reinterprets the Passover elements

so that tomorrow can be understood rightly.

I feel sure the apostles grasped

what Jesus was saying about his perilous situation,

and his intention to enter into it consciously and fully –

offering himself.

The meaning is stark and accessible.

But what of ‘eat’, ‘drink’, do this as a memorial of me.

Over this, I am pretty sure the apostles had only the dimmest appreciation of what Jesus was getting at:

and, on this night, our familiarity should not stop us

from being taken aback by: ‘eat’; ‘drink’.

Just as,

at the first Passover,

the people were strengthened for their physical journey

by the meal they shared, and marked out as God’s own,

so we are strengthened for life’s journey

and marked out as God’s own by the blood of the Lamb,

when we eat and drink at the Lord’s command.

John’s gospel gives a different sign,

but one with the same main elements.

First there is Jesus’ conscious acceptance of what is to come:

Jesus knew that the Father had put everything into his hands,

and that he had come from God and was returning to God,

Then,

Jesus got up from table,

and lays down his outer garment,

to give undeserved service;

just as tomorrow he will lay down his life,

to give undeserved salvation.

We are to accept this gift of his service, his salvation:

If I do not wash you, you can have nothing in common with me

just as we are to ‘eat’ and ‘drink’.

When he finishes, he says,

I have given you an example

so that you may copy what I have done to you.

Which is ‘do this as a memorial of me’ in different words

We are offered the chance to participate,

in some mysterious, graced, way in Jesus’ work,

to become Him, to be incorporated into his selflessness.

The words do this as a memorial of me,

do not refer only to a liturgical act.

The purpose of the liturgical act is

that we ourselves are to be transformed into a living memorial,

a living memory of Jesus,

by participating in,

by joining him in,

his selflessness.

In a very particular way, the cup, the chalice, is the symbol of this.

When the brothers James and John want to flank Jesus in glory:

Jesus’ reply, to them, and hence to us, is:

‘can you drink the cup I must drink’ (Mk10:38, Mt20:22).

Later tonight, in the Garden of Gethsemane,

Jesus prays if it is possible let this cup pass me by. (Mt26:39)

So tonight,

as we come forward to receive from the chalice, the cup,

let us do so with hearts open

to participating fully in the pain that love brings –

willing to suffer in the service of others,

willing to become a living memorial,

not through our own power, but through Jesus’ gift of himself.