Jesus got together with his closest friends, his chosen family, and celebrated in the guest room, the upper room, the Passover. Just as all the Jews around him were doing, and as Jews do to this day.
Before everyone sat he took the role of a slave. He got down and used a cloth to clean their feet. Each one of them. Including Peter who would deny him and Judas who would betray him. He served them. It embarrassed them to have their rabbi and teacher now so lowly. When they protested, Jesus asked them,
(John 13: 12b- 16) “Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. “
And he concluded with, (John 13: 34-35) “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
The meal they sat at is a Sedar meal. It is a time to celebrate freedom and retell the story of how God liberated the Israelites from slavery in ancient Egypt. To remember the Exodus. Wine is shared, and bread, and other symbolic foods to remember and taste, smell, and touch this story. Traditionally you recline around the table, much as we read Jesus and the disciples reclined.
We read Jesus took the bread – perhaps the three pieces of matzo bread that are still put in the center of the table. This is the bread of affliction. Everyone around the table declare, “All who are hungry or needy, come and eat!” All strangers. All wanders. All the poor. All the hungry. Comes and eat. Come. The bread is broke and shared over the course of the meal.
But Jesus told people this bread of affliction is his body, and it is broken, and shared, among all. We are the body of Jesus the Christ now. Broken into parts, but part of the whole. Fed and nourished by Jesus.
We read that after Jesus and his chosen family ate, he took the cup. But which cup? His own cup of wine? The cup of blessing – the third cup poured?
Or did he take Elijah’s cup? In many households, the door is opened in case Elijah should return and a place is set for him. A cup of wine is set for him in anticipation that he will come to announce the coming of the Messiah. If Jesus took Elijah’s cup, was he saying he is the Messiah and this cup is to remember such?
If he took the cup of blessing, is he saying he is the blessing upon us, and we are to remember such?
Whichever one he took, Jesus called forth the covenant tradition of Israel, much like the covenant made between the Egyptian refugees and God on the Mountaintop. This covenant is sealed with Jesus’ own blood. It is a covenant of forgiveness. A new chapter in the relationship between God and God’s people. And this new chapter begins in Jesus.
Inside the cup is the fruit of the vine. Grapes. Wine or juice. Jesus told us he is the vine and we are the branches. We are the grapes and God is the gardener. We are the good fruit of the earth God is growing. Wine is celebration – rejoicing. It is libation poured out to the divine. Sweetness. Goodness.
Jesus asked us to take our meals, what is at hand, our daily bread and our daily drink, and use it to remember him.
For Easter we are going to have communion together. I ask you to go through your house and choose a plate. Choose a cup. Choose bread or crackers. Choose juice or pop. Bring them with you for the service. We’ll bless them. Bless the food. Eat and drink what is at hand, and remember our risen Lord, just as he asked on this evening – Maundy Thursday – when he sat with his disciples for the last time, over the Last Supper.
Pastor Whitney Bruno Sermons 