Maundy Thursday – 29 March 2018 - Year B

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

The text for our meditation lies within our three readings for tonight but focuses more on 1 Corinthians 11: 23 – 26.

“For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”   In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”  For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.”

The Old Testament reading from the 12^th Chapter of the Book of Exodus tells us of the very first Passover night, the night before the day the children of Israel walked though blood-stained doorways into freedom and life.  That was the memorial (paschal) night, the night of the remembrance meal - the hard, unleavened bread, the bitter herbs, the lamb roasted to dry toughness.  The Lamb’s blood painted on the doorposts.  It is the night of judgment and death as God seeks out the blood.  Under the blood of the lamb, His people are safe.  Death passes over.  Without the blood there is death.  It is neither safe nor beneficial to deal with God apart from the blood of the Lamb.

It is a night of remembrance. The Lord commands; “This day shall be for you a day of remembrance, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, you shall observe it as a law forever.”  In this meal, they remembered the Lord and His saving work; and the Lord remembered them, His Israel.  They ate in solidarity with Israel, past and present.  It was a holy communion of a holy community. ‘They’ were the descendants of Adam, a lost and fallen people, this was part of God’s plan to bring them back into communion with Him; a plan for them – a plan also for us.

Here now on the 29^th March 2018, It is again the night of that fateful day on which the Son of God incarnate in our human flesh laid down His life to save the world.  In the rhythm of the day as it appears in the Bible, evening marks the beginning of the day.  Darkness into light.  Evening into morning.  This is the evening Jesus was handed over; the morning would bring his death for the life of the world.

Jesus is in an upper room at a table with His disciples, His Twelve, His Israel.  They are celebrating the Passover, the Old Testament sacrament by which they were joined to Israel on the night they walked through a blood-stained doorway into freedom from slavery.  “This day shall be for you a day of remembrance, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, you shall observe it as an ordinance forever.”
At this table, Jesus gives to His disciples in two ways.  First, He gives them a pattern to follow, an example of sacrificial service, of holding others in higher regard than self.  He takes off his tunic, takes up a towel and a basin of water, and washes the dusty, dirty feet of His disciples.  The Lord and Creator of all, bends down to do the work of the lowliest of servants.  The Master becomes the slave.  He came not to be served, but to serve, and to lay down His life as a ransom for the many.

At first, Peter would have none of it.  Pride gets in the way of our being given to.  It is so terribly hard to be given to.  We say it whenever we receive an unexpected gift:  “You shouldn’t have.”  We mean it.  But Jesus, ever patient, persists.  Peter must learn the way of humbly receiving as well.  Before you can give of yourself in service, you must receive the divine service of the Suffering Servant.

In washing their feet, Jesus gave them an example to follow, “that you should do as I have done to you.”  This is what it means to live under Him in His kingdom and to serve Him.  He is the King who bows before His subjects and washes their feet.  In the face of that, is there any task beneath our dignity?  “A servant is not greater than His master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him.”  What would Jesus do?  He would wash dirty, dusty feet.

If clean feet were all Jesus gave out that night in the upper room, then He would not have given anything new.  Examples are nice, and examples from the Lord are even better.  Who can argue with a Jesus example?  But apart from His death and life, apart from our union with Him as branches to the vine, we can do nothing.  The spirit may indeed be willing to wash feet, but the flesh is not only weak, it is dead.

And so Jesus gives to His Twelve in yet another way.  Not the way of example but the way of sacrifice and gift.  He takes the bread that opens the Passover meal, the hard, unleavened bread of affliction, He gives thanks, and He breaks it into pieces, handing a piece to each of His disciples.  To receive the piece of bread is to be admitted to the meal.  You belong at this table.  He says words never before heard in a Passover liturgy:  “This is my body, which is given for you.”  His words tell us what we could not know for ourselves.  This bread is Jesus’ body – the very body that will later that day be given into death on the cross.  Here bread finds the highest and holiest use - to be the vehicle to deliver Jesus’ body, the Bread of Life, living Bread come down from heaven as manna to feed His Israel.  His Israel, His church, would live off the Bread of His death until He appears again in glory.

He takes the cup of wine after supper, the blessing cup.  He lifts His cup, gives thanks, and gives each of His disciples to drink from it.  Again, Jesus says words never before uttered in a Passover:  “This is the new covenant in my blood.”  Covenants were sealed with sacrificial blood sprinkled on the people.  This covenant blood is given to drink.  Here too, wine finds its ultimate purpose, binding those who drink of Jesus’ cup in a covenant of His blood.  In the Old Testament, blood stood for life.  “The life of the creature is in the blood.”  This blood of the new covenant is a blood that was poured out for us, in our place, for the forgiveness of our sins.

Washing feet was the example.  That was something the disciples could do - but giving His body to eat and His blood to drink; that was something only Jesus could do.  He unites them and us with Him in His death and life.  He is the vine; they are the branches.  His body and blood, His death and life flowing into them make them fruitful foot washers.  Apart from Him, they can do nothing.  Nor can we.

Jesus’ gracious invitation to us also is to come to His table on this night which commemorates the night on which He our Lord and Saviour was betrayed into death for us.  The same Meal He gave to His Twelve, He now gives to us.  Humbly we receive the bread He prepared for us and eat it.  It is His body, our manna to sustain us in our wilderness journey until we rise to walk in Promised Land.  Humbly we receive the cup He prepared for us and drink from it.  It is His covenant blood, poured out for the many, poured out for us.  This is wine from Calvary’s vineyard to gladden our sin-saddened heart.  What greater gift can Jesus give, than to give us the fruits of His sacrifice, His own Body and Blood?

He gives His all to us so that He might save the all of us.  Nothing stands outside His forgiveness.  Nothing can separate us from His self-sacrificing love.  No greater love is there than that this self-giving love that lays down its life for another.  In His Supper, at His table, He lays before us the gifts of His cross and says, “These are for you.”

Friends, from this holy Meal arise refreshed, renewed, restored.  Humbly we let Jesus’ Body and Blood have its way within us, enlivening us in faith toward Him and in fervent love toward one another.  Love that bends down in service of the neighbour - both friend and stranger.  Love that seeks to serve Christ in the least, the lost, the lowly.  Love that washes dirty, dusty feet. Amen.

The love and peace of our great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen