A LAST MEAL by Cheri Holdridge (with an assist by Kurt Young)

Thank you for being here tonight. I won’t scold anyone on Easter Sunday who skipped right from Palm Sunday to the joy of Easter morning. But I want to thank you for coming tonight. Not because I care about attendance numbers. I have long since quit worrying about such things. 

But I want to thank you because I want to encourage you to dig deep in your own walk with Jesus. If you come to worship on Holy Thursday it is because you are willing to face the WHOLE story of Jesus. You know that in order to get to a whole new life you have to go to the cross first. Before we can experience redemption, we have to go through some backstabbing, some big disappointment and abandonment. You are people who are not afraid to hear the whole story. Well, maybe you are a little afraid, but you showed up tonight. And for that, you have earned my respect.

I hope you will be able to join us tomorrow afternoon at 2 p.m. in downtown Maumee for the Way of the Cross. In that service we will read the scriptures that tell the story of the crucifixion of Jesus. If you can’t be there, I hope you will find another Good Friday service to attend, or that you will read the story in your own Bible, about the trial, the crucifixion and death of Jesus.  A friend of mine wrote yesterday that he can’t call it Good Friday, but Necessary Friday. 

Tonight, we remember that Jesus shared a meal with his closest friends. Can you think of favorite group of people and favorite place you like to gather for a meal? Maybe Thanksgiving Dinner comes to mind. Maybe it’s with your birth family or maybe with a group of chosen friends you call family. You have some favorite foods and people you have known for a long time. You tell old stories, perhaps someone is there who has known you since you were young. They tell embarrassing stories about you. 

There might be some conflicts. When families get together, lets’ tell the truth, there can be conflict. But the food tends to be the great equalizer. It tends to smooth things over. People are social creatures and for the most part we like to get together and share a good meal with people we care about, it can be good. 

When Jesus knew that his time on earth was drawing to an end, he wanted to have some of that family time with his chosen family, his disciples – some relaxing time like you get on a Thanksgiving weekend.  He wanted to connect. 

This was a Jewish Passover meal. It was one of the high holy days in the Jewish year. Passover would have been a big family time.  At Passover, the Jewish people remember that God freed them from slavery in Egypt. They have a big feast. Jesus shared a feast with his friends. It was much like a big Thanksgiving dinner or a family reunion. 

The point is, Jesus was a human being. He loved his friends and he loved being with his friends. He ate food and he loved human company. (Source: http://www.rickmorley.com/archives/1535?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=a-real-meal-a-reflection-on-maundy-thursday

Jesus being a human being also suffered in the same ways we suffer. That night one friend betrayed him. Judas left the meal to make a deal with the chief priests. He would identify Jesus and they would pay Judas well.

And then, Jesus predicted, rightly, that Peter would soon deny even knowing him. You see, as much as Jesus was enjoying this wonderful family meal, he knew what was coming. And he knew they could not bear the pressure. He knew they would crack, and their fear would get the best of them.

In an act of pastoral love, he gave them a gift. He gave them a ritual of love to hold onto. It would only be later than they would put it all together. They would look back and realize what he had done and realize the power of the moment. He took some bread, blessed it and broke it and said, “This is my body, broken for you.” They could not have known what he meant. But he told them to eat the bread. They were already full from a big meal, but they ate it, because the master had blessed the bread and they wanted to share in this blessed bread that he gave to them.

Then he took a cup of wine and he said, “This is my blood poured out for the forgiveness of your sins.” Who knows what they thought of that? He blessed the cup. Blood is the same color as wine. Maybe they knew his death was imminent. On some level they had to know he would not make it to old age. Just like those who surrounded Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. knew he would die not at a ripe old age, but way too young.  In any case, they understood forgiveness, and so they drank from the cup of forgiveness.

Then they sang and hymn and went to the Mount of Olives. Jesus asked them to wait for him while he prayed.  This was not really out of the ordinary.  You remember what happened, don’t you? They kept falling asleep. Of course, they did. They had eaten so much food, and drunk so much wine. Who could blame them! Jesus was so disappointed in them. He asked them to wait while he prayed and they could not even stay awake. If they had known what was about to happen, of course they would have stayed awake.

Then Judas came with the soldiers and they took Jesus away for his trial, if you can call it that. And before you know it, he was hanging on a cross.  It was a whirlwind.

They went from a lovely family meal, remembering their past as a groupd and celebrating freedom from slavery and just like that! Jesus is going to his death.

So, what do we take from this story? I take it that Jesus loved, loved his disciples. He loved them the way we love their chosen family and friends that we share a precious family meal with.  The ones you cross the room to find at the family reunion.  They were precious to him.

In that moment, he was not afraid to die. He shared a last meal with them. And he wanted them, and us, to continue to share this meal. He wanted something for them to hold on to in trying times to come.  He didn’t know us, but he wants to keep feeding us.

I have a hunch, that after the fact, his disciples looked back on that night with Jesus and they remembered the meal and they said to themselves: “You know, this is a meal we should continue. Jesus wanted us to repeat this meal. He was giving us something.  He wanted us to keep feeding one another in his name, so we would know that he is with us. He does not want us to feel lost and abandoned. He wants us to feel connected to him and fed by him, even though he is no longer here.”   Jesus didn’t want us to be discouraged but on fire despite his leaving.   They had to think we should keep doing this over and over again, years and years to come.

Jesus knew the power of the family meal. And he got that message through to his disciples. So even though they messed it up that night. Have you ever messed up a family meal? They recovered the tradition.   Eventually, they recovered it and they got it right. 

And we continue it now, and have continued it for more than 2000 years. We know the power of sitting down and eating together. It’s hard to stay mad at someone over a yummy plate of pasta or bread hot from the oven that you can smell with the butter dripping off of it (apologies for anyone on a no carb diet). There is laughter when a family sits down to a meal. There are tears of joy.

And so they created this ritual of Holy Communion and Holy Thanksgiving. We repeat this Sacred Meal, and we gather in Jesus’ name, because we are connected to that night, to that meal. 

Jesus may have left the earth, but he gave us this meal as a gift to sustain us. Jesus is with us. Jesus is in the bread and in the cup.  Thanks be to God, the last meal was not the last meal.  Amen.