Episodes
Wednesday Apr 16, 2014
Holy Thursday Meditation
Wednesday Apr 16, 2014
Wednesday Apr 16, 2014
Rev. Dean Snyder
It seems clear that Jesus’ disciples misunderstood right through his entire life … right through his crucifixion Friday. Like the crowds who cheered him on Palm Sunday, they thought Jesus’ mission was to over throw the Roman oppressors and the religious collaborators who ran the temple.
In the beginning of Luke chapter 22, the religious leaders were already looking for a way to get Jesus arrested and executed, but Jesus was too popular to be taken publically. They were afraid that if he were arrested in public there would be a riot.
So they bribed Jesus’ disciple Judas to let them know when and where he would be away from the crowds so he could be arrested secretly and quietly.
The disciples were apparently all set for a fight. They were carrying swords. Later in Luke when Jesus is arrested they pull out their swords. The disciples are so bad at sword fighting that all they actually manages to do is to cut off one of the soldier’s right ear. Jesus has to heal the soldier and tell the disciples to stop it.
Jesus seemed to have intentionally worked to avoid arrest until after the Passover Seder. At the beginning of the Seder, he says to his disciples: “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.”
I’ve really, really wanted to celebrate Passover with you before what is going to happen to me happens.
I’ve known persons who were dying who managed to put off their deaths until Dec. 26 because they wanted one more Christmas with their families. I’ve known persons who died the day after their birthday because they wanted to celebrate one more birthday with those they loved.
Like them, Jesus may have wanted to celebrate one more Passover with his disciples before he died, but I personally don’t think that was his motivation.
I suspect if Jesus wanted to spend one last Passover with anyone it would have been Mary and Martha and Lazarus or Mary Magdalene, not his disciples … not his dense and clueless disciples.
I suspect Jesus wanted to have a Passover Seder with his disciples not for his own sake but to give them something to remember that might help them understand what had happened when, instead of becoming king of Israel, he was crucified.
Jesus wanted his disciples to have something to remember that would help them after the strange events of the days ahead.
So Jesus breaks some Passover bread and says to them: This is my body broken for you, Eat this in remembrance of me. And he takes a Passover cup of wine and says This cup is the New Covenant in my blood.
He tells them that this is the last Passover Seder he will eat until Passover is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God.
Jesus’ mission was not, as the disciples thought, to overthrow the Roman oppressors. His mission was to end all oppression.
His mission was not to overturn the high priests of the temple who used religion to legitimize injustice. His mission was to end all injustice.
To me the most amazing thing is that Jesus’ entrusts his mission to this clueless group of disciples who had been with him for three years and who still did not get it one bit.
He wants to give them a something to remember in the confidence that one day they would understand enough to lead a moment that would transform the world.
The most amazing thing is that Jesus entrusts his mission to me … and to you. Clueless as we are me and you.
After the Passover meal, the very next paragraph in this chapter from Luke, Luke 22:24 says: “A dispute also arose among them as to which one of them was to be regarded as the greatest.”
Jesus is going to his crucifixion and his guys are debating status.
Jesus is going to his crucifixion tomorrow and what are we debating here in Washington, DC … on Capitol Hill … here at Foundry?
So Jesus gives his disciples something to remember … Jesus gives us something to remember… a body broken for all humanity … blood shed as the promise of a new covenant… a new way for us to live together.
We really aren’t any smarter or more competent or better than the first disciples.
But, like them, Jesus has given us something to remember. And if we eat this bread and drink this cup in remembrance of him the possibility is that it will shape our lives and help us to become less like us and more like Christ.
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