What is the lesson of the Last Supper? A meal that is also the first supper in a new life. All its elements were part of an ordinary Jewish Passover meal. And Jesus takes each one of them and makes it about him. This is all about Jesus; the bread, the wine, the washing of feet.
He is our food and drink. He is the sacrifice and covenant. He is the way we love one another. Every part of our liturgy is about him.
- 1 Corinthians 11:23–26 You Proclaim the Lord’s Death
- Matthew 26:26–29 This is My Body … this my Blood of the Covenant
A Reflection
Maundy Thursday, the last supper is a historic event, part of an extraordinary week, the climax to Jesus’ three years of earthly ministry. It is the first communion, and the background to every communion since then. But when we come to this day in 2020 we don’t merely remember that evening with Jesus among his disciples 2,000 years ago. Nor, when we participate in communion do we merely repeat what Jesus did with his disciples that night.
Jesus is amongst us now, and our communion is with him now, in 2020 in the midst of a viral pandemic. We need to know him now, as they did then. We need to hear him say to us,
- I am the way for you in this ‘now’,
- I am the truth that you can stand on now (a solid rock), and
- I am life for you to live in this ‘now’.
I am grateful for the confusion, misunderstanding, and failures that the gospels tell us were part of what those disciples experienced and lived through then. It reminds me that there is a place for us as we come to him now.
When David reflected on this reality, he recognised that the Lord is a shepherd to us through all our life. In him we will never lack as his faithful love pursues us every day. And we know that we can be confident that we will always be with him, not because of anything on our part, but because of him, the shepherd who has bought us with his own blood.
This shepherd will lead us, perhaps for much of our life, to green pastures and clear waters; things that will refresh and restore us. But he will always, at some time, bring us to the valley of shadows. The paths of righteousness lead this way (as scripture affirms, it is through many troubles that we must enter his kingdom). Here, it is not green pastures or clear water he gives us, but his own presence and his table.
In such times we need to know that he is with us, with rod and staff – so, whatever comes our way in this world, we know that he has overcome the world. Nothing can take us from his hands. And if we think we are not worthy, he says you did not choose me, I chose you.
But he gives more than security and confidence. He spreads a table in the midst of our troubles.
He spreads a table, just as he did for his disciples on that dark night of fear and loss. He says, eat and drink; this is my body, this is my blood. And he anoints our head with the oil of his Spirit. It is as if, in the sunlit days he leads us to places and things where we may feed and be refreshed, but in the dark shadow days he draws us to himself.
I know that he feeds us in himself on all days (sunlit or shadowed). But in the way that we experience it, it seems so much more precious in the days of shadow, that he draws us to himself all the more closely. And, there, what we feed on is more clearly his body and his blood – Jesus himself.
So, tonight, what I am seeking myself, and praying for you to know, is not that we somehow recapture what it was like that last night with his disciples, but that we have our own night with him, here and now. That Jesus, himself, might be to you:
- the presence that calms your fears;
- the sweetness that transforms your sorrows;
- the strength that upholds your weakness;
- the love that empowers your love … and so much more.
If this seems strange and fanciful, it is hard to explain or convey what I mean, but it is not fanciful – even if it might seem strange to our human hearts and minds.
- It is the abiding witness of scripture, from beginning to end – that we may know him, whom to know is eternal life (Jn17:13).
- And it is the abiding witness of the Spirit that he has given us, to take what is his and share it with us (Jn16:14).
If you have never taken time to feed on him, on all that he so gloriously IS, do so this night. He has promised that those whose seek him with all their heart, will find him – will find, not his forgivingness and salvation (though we will find those as well), but HIM.
So we may say, with another psalmist: (from Ps 73)
Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
For behold, those who are far from you shall perish; you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you. But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.