Maundy/Holy
Thursday 4/18/19 - 7 pm - Sidney UMC
Sermon Title: “A dinner that changed the world!”
Old Testament
Scripture: Exodus 12:1-14
New Testament
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
Gospel Lesson: John
13:1-17, 31b-35
My
friends, my brothers and sisters in Christ, welcome again on this our Maundy or
Holy Thursday, in this our Holy Week. This week began this past Sunday on Palm
or Passion Sunday, with Jesus’ triumphant entry into the holy city of Jerusalem.
As he entered, Palms waved, and Hosannas were shouted.
The
week has continued. On this day, we have what I like to call “a dinner that
changed the world!” How many of us here have ever been to a fancy dinner in our
life? Maybe it was a Thanksgiving Dinner for the books. Maybe it was a wedding
reception dinner. Maybe it was an anniversary, or a retirement dinner. Some
people have even met there wife or there husband at a dinner. Often times when
people want to celebrate something big, they go out to dinner. When a guy asks
a girl out on a date, sometimes he asks her out to dinner.
Sharing
food and breaking bread together is an important tradition and a sign of
hospitality in many cultures. As I said, maybe some of us have been to some
impressive dinners. So which dinner in the history of humanity was the greatest
dinner ever? Perhaps the wedding feast of king, where there was endless food,
music, and enjoyment? Maybe a large celebration dinner to end a war? Maybe it
was a dinner that celebrated another great achievement?
We
certainly can look throughout history and see many great shared meals and
dinners that have been significant and historical. I would argue however, that
the dinner that we remember on this night, is the most significant meal or
dinner that has ever been recorded in the history of the world. This is a tall
claim to make, considering some of the feasts that maybe we have seen or have
read about throughout history.
On
this night, of Maundy or Holy Thursday, Jesus sits around the table in the
Upper Room in Jerusalem, during the Jewish Passover, to share one last meal
with his disciples. Perhaps other like Mary Magdalene were there to, but we
know for certain that all twelve disciples were present.
This
Last Supper that we celebrate and remember tonight, was a Jewish Passover Seder
meal. Even though we gain the sacrament of Holy Communion on this night, Jesus
and his disciples had a full meal tonight. We don’t have many details about the
rest of the meal, but Jesus sat with his twelve disciples one last time, before
going to pray all night in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus early tomorrow
morning, while it is still dark, will then be arrested, tried, tortured, and
crucified, on what we have come to call “Good Friday”.
Tonight
though, Jesus spends time with his 12-disciples. They eat the Jewish Passover Seder
meal. At one point in the meal though, Jesus takes bread and wine and does
something new.
Let’s
look again at what our scripture reading from 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 says. It
says:
“For I received from the Lord what
I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed
took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This
is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way
he took the cup also, 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” (1 Cor. 11:23-26,
NRSV).
In this
scripture, we have an example of what happened on this Maundy or Holy Thursday.
On this night, Jesus gave us the sacrament, the gift, of Holy Communion or the
Lord’s Supper. For nearly two-thousand years, churches all over the world have
celebrated Holy Communion or the Lord’s Supper. Whether it is with bread and
juice or wafers and wine, we celebrate Holy Communion or the Lord’s Supper as
Christ commanded us to.
In our reading
for tonight from the Book of Exodus, we hear once again about God telling Moses
to tell Israelites to sacrifice a pure and spotless lamb (Ex. 12:1-14, NRSV).
Once doing so, they were then to spread the blood of the lamb on their
doorposts and lintels of their homes. This would ensure that there first born
humans and animals would not die that night (Ex. 12:1-14, NRSV). This miracle
of the blood of lamb saving the first born of the Israelites, as they prepared
to flee slavery in Egypt, became known as the holiday of the Passover. Death
passed them over, and they received God’s word, as well. This scripture also
said that God commanded them to eat the pure spotless lamb that they killed and
spread the blood of. Jesus tell us at his Passover dinner in the Upper Room on
this night, that the bread is his body, and the wine is his blood.
So the way
that God used pure and spotless lambs to save Israel for one night, Jesus will
shed his blood as the new covenant, as the new Lamb of God. Jesus then, is the
new Passover, as his sacrifice on the cross tomorrow will cover the doorposts
of our hearts and our souls for eternity, if we repent of our sin and put our
trust in him.
After this
dinner, and after giving us the sacrament of Holy Communion or the Lord’s
Supper, Jesus then moves into the washing of the feet. This is where our gospel
lesson for tonight once again picks up.
Once again to
review, in our Book of Exodus reading for tonight, the Israelites sacrificed pure
and spotless lambs, and there blood saved them for a night. Jesus then tells
his disciples that the new covenant with God is through his blood. Christ says
that his death and his shedding of blood that will happen tomorrow, and that it
will cover the sins of the world. Christ is the new Passover Lamb. Christ also tells
us to take the bread and drink the cup to remember him.
Our gospel
then says once again:
“Now before
the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from
this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he
loved them to the end. The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son
of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper Jesus, knowing that the
Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and
was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied
a towel around himself” (Jn. 13:1-4,
NRSV).
What happens next is why we have foot
or hand washing tonight. The gospel then says of Jesus:
“Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash
the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. He
came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus
answered, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”
Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I
wash you, you have no share with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my
feet only but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “One who has
bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And
you are clean, though not all of you.” For he knew who was to betray
him; for this reason he said, “Not all of you are clean” (Jn. 13:5-11, NRSV).
After the foot washing,
Jesus then says once again:
“After he
had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he
said to them, “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. If you know these things, you
are blessed if you do them” (Jn.
13:12-17, NRSV).
In
washing the disciple’s feet, Jesus shows the disciples and us that we are all
equal before him, before God. Not equal with him, but equal before him. Washing
feet is not a sacrament, or a requirement, but an example. Jesus tells us to
wash each other’s feet, but does not require it in the way he requires Holy
Communion or Holy Baptism.
Some
Christian traditions embrace the ritual, the rite, or the ordinance of foot
washing, and some do not. Since Jesus did it at the Last Supper on this night
though, I incorporate it, as to offer you the fullness of the story of the Last
Supper.
The
gift of Holy Communion and the washing of the feet, is in general where we get
the title “Holy Thursday.” So why do we so often call tonight “Maundy Thursday,”
and not “Holy Thursday”?
You will notice on your bulletins
for tonight, I call this day Maundy/Holy Thursday. The Holy part of Holy
Communion or the Lord’s Supper and the washing of feet has occurred, but last
comes the “Maundy”. The “Maundy” is a mandate, or something that Jesus asks us
to do. Jesus is mandating or giving us a “Maundy”. What is this Mandate? Once
again, our gospel lesson ends for tonight with the giving if “Maundy”, the mandate.
This is what it says:
“Now the Son of Man has
been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in
him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at
once. Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for
me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you
cannot come.’ 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” (Jn. 13:31b-35, NRSV).
This new
commandment, this mandate, this “Maundy”, is to love each other. On this
Maundy/Holy Thursday then, we are again given the sacrament of the gift of Holy
Communion, which Christians the world over have been celebrating and partaking
of for nearly 2,000 years. We are giving rite, ritual, or ordinance of the
washing of the feet, which some Christian traditions embrace and some don’t. We
are lastly given this commandment, this mandate, this “Maundy”, to love each
other.
Of all of the
dinners that ever occurred in history, I would argue that this “dinner that
changed the world,” is the most significant. I think this because, we have the
final encounter of Jesus with his disciples, the gift of Holy Communion or the
Lord’s Supper, the example of foot washing, and the mandate or “Maundy” to love
each other. This is big stuff!
So famous and
well known is this Last Supper in fact, that artists like Leonardo Da Vinci
painted a depiction of this dinner. Some churches even actually reenact this
dinner on this night, or have a Passover Seder to just make the story even more
real. We are doing all that we are doing to tonight, as we are reenacting,
remembering, and calling upon God to fill us, as we tell and partake of the
story of “A dinner that changed the world!”
This story that we are telling, this story that we are
hearing, this story that we are acting out and partaking of, is one that
Christians have been celebrating every year for nearly 2,000 years. For tonight
is night where we have “a dinner that changed the world!” Happy Maundy/Holy
Thursday. Amen.
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