April 5 -- Maundy Thursday

A couple weeks ago we heard the story of Jesus upsetting the tables in the temple. But tonight also, perhaps even more so, Jesus upsets tables:

Jesus takes a centuries-old tradition and gives it completely new meaning. The Passover ritual is re-interpreted and Jesus becomes the new lamb. Our Old Testament lesson gave the very detailed instructions for how the Passover meal was to be kept, what each part of the meal was to mean. And for centuries and centuries the Jewish descendants gathered in homes with families and celebrated the Passover. And our Jewish brothers and sisters are still celebrating the festival! (This year it falls this Saturday night.) Still gathering and telling that ancient story over a meal, remembering the mighty acts of God and God’s liberating activity for the people of Israel from slavery and oppression in Egypt.

I was reading up on contemporary Passover celebrations today and two groups of people caught my attention: The old and the young. The elderly apparently get particularly excited in preparation for this great event—because they love to instruct the young on what it all means, what each article of food means, and the songs, the Hebrew words even a dance. And the young, much like young Christian children, you can imagine do a little bit of eye-rolling, as their parents get them all dressed up for the Passover event.

“Ughh, not agai-ain! We do this every year!” you can almost hear little Jewish boys and girls whine a little, as mother buttons up their starched shirts or tightens their belts, or untangles the knots in their hair as they get ready.

But children are an essential part of a Passover celebration. And the whole ritual actually meal begins with a question that comes from the youngest person in the room, who is able to talke: “Why is this night different from all other nights?”

Ancient, ancient rituals and customs. Think about what are the oldest rituals and customs in your own family… [pause] Any from 1200 BC? That’s 1200 years before Christ! So that means that for 1200 years+ already Jesus’ people had been celebrating the Passover meal in these ways.

I wonder if there were some disgruntled Jewish children on this night long ago…in Jerusalem homes the night Jesus broke the bread…“Ugh, not again!” And I wonder if there were some excited elderly family members, getting revved up for maybe their last Passover celebration, their last chance to pass this story along to their beloved children and grandchildren…

And then there’s Jesus and his entourage—not too old, not too young. They had just gotten to town a few days ago: a group of Galileans, like Northern Californians just arriving in San Diego on Sunday. A small group of men and women probably most of them in their 20’s and early 30’s, from all walks of life, the disciples: fishers, artisans, financiers, a few with big plans and a few with no direction at all, some who supported the current governing system and some who did not, some rich, some poor, some of them hopeful and some of them clueless. But they were all Jews, and they had come like everyone else…to celebrate the Passover.

I wonder who was the youngest in the room with Jesus, who asked the kick-off question that night. Little did they know how different this night was about to become. Things probably seemed to going pretty much as usual for a Passover meal – eating and telling the stories the same way they had all those years, all those 20 or 30 or 40 years growing up back in Galilee. Must have been nice and comforting after all they had been through, so far from home…

But then toward the end of the meal, Jesus takes the bread –the unleavened bread that they were used to someone taking and saying some words over—but Jesus goes and takes that flat bread and says something totally new. He says, “Take this bread. It is my body.”

Can you imagine their shock? They knew these words by heart, just like many of our children could recite the Lord’s Prayer. But Jesus just changed all the meaning. Can you imagine their reactions?

Perhaps some there was some fear, some looking over their shoulder hoping one of the Jewish authorities didn’t just hear that. Or perhaps it was a confirmation of what the disciples were already starting to feel as they had watched Jesus the last couple days in the temple: challenging the authorities, murmurings among the chief priests and scribes in the corner; Judas creeping around in the shadows. Perhaps this radical new thing Jesus was doing was confirmation of what the disciples were already afraid of: THAT EVERYTHING IS CHANGING. Now, even the ancient rituals and traditions of the Jews was being changed right before their eyes—the rituals to which they had always clung, even while in their lifetimes they had watched Rome seize their holy land, even while threats from various Jewish break-off groups had created instability for their party and persuasion. Even with all that insecurity, at least they had always the assurance of the Passover rituals to come home to, year after year. But now Jesus was changing even that, calling the unleavened bread his body!

And then he takes a cup of wine. He blesses it and says, “This is my blood. The blood of the new covenant.” The new covenant?! What’s going on here? Jesus goes on, “It is shed for you and for all people…for the forgiveness of sin.” Can you imagine? Jesus was opening up the covenant for more than just Jews!! Jesus was upsetting their table. There was still that promise of God’s liberation from oppression. They didn’t have to doubt that.

But this new covenant of which Jesus was now speaking had a more service-oriented edge to it. That was difference. He wasn’t just talking about escape from oppressive forces; no, this new covenant had a motif of compassion, an theme of self-sacrifice, a universal word of love and grace for everyone. And that was new to the disciples’ ears. Their understanding was being stretched…

Yes God frees us from oppression, and God calls us to keep reaching out to others who are oppressed: the hungry, the dying, the immigrant, the orphan, the widow, and all who are enslaved and alone. Yes was something Jesus had to say about oppression, BUT Jesus was now also showing mercy even to the oppressor, he talked of turning and love the oppressor! This was new! And wildly upsetting! Jesus’ heart was breaking and bleeding out, and his disciples are being asked to drink that blood of compassion and forgiveness.

And just in case their ears might be deceiving them, he preached to their the rest of their bodies too! He did something, unheard of: he got down on the floor! (No one ever got down on the floor, except for the servants.) But there he was, their great rabbi Jesus, down on his knees, and then he begins to wash their feet. (No one ever did that, except servants.)

And then he tells us to wash one another’s feet.

So we’re going to it again tonight. Not as a re-enactment of what happened long ago, not as a play or a performance, but as an actual embodying of what Jesus mandated on this Thursday, Mandate Thursday. “Wash one another’s feet.” For in this footwashing is forgiveness. In this footwashing is life and light despite darkness all around – In the f, f and f is the hope of the nations, the end of the wars, the salvation of the world, the life of all people. In these upsetting rituals – and frankly, uncomfortable rituals – Christ breaks up and breaks in and breaks us out of our brokenness. And we are made clean.

Last words and last actions tell us everything in the Gospel of John: And Jesus’ last words this night that we remember the Last Supper are these: “LOVE and FORGIVE ONE ANOTHER, serve one another…for I have loved and forgiven you, as I kneel at your feet.”