In Lent, we come to what the early Church Fathers called the “Tridium”, which comes from the Latin meaning “three days”. The Tridium is considered to be the three most sacred days of the Church year. It begins on Holy Thursday evening at Sundown. This is called “Holy Thursday” because it is the initiation of the Apostles to the Eucharist, or as is sometimes called “the Lord’s Supper”. Good Friday comes next, then on Saturday, the great Easter Vigil where historically, the new believers – the Catechists – were baptized and celebrated their first communion. Sunday is the celebration of the Resurrection on Easter.
The
early church celebrated on Sunday, even though for a while many of the Jewish
believers (the Apostles, Paul, etc…) continued to go to the Synagogue to share
the Gospel of Jesus, the Messiah. After
the Jews banned the Jewish Christians, Sunday developed in the commemoration of
the resurrection of Jesus on that first Easter morning. Easter became tied in the calendar to a date
near the celebration of Passover.
By the
fourth century pilgrimages to Jerusalem to celebrate what was called “the Great
Week” included Holy Thursday, Good Friday, the Easter Vigil, and Easter Sunday. This established a pattern that would continue
to exist, even though changes were made along the way and certain liturgies sometimes
fell out of place. Still, today, in the Church
these four services of the Holy Week – the Great Week – remain. Lastly, while
these four liturgies, or celebrations, seem to be separate, they are not. They represent one continuous celebration of
the passion, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.
All of the
Gospels recall the events on this Thursday evening when Jesus brought his
disciples, including Judas to an Upper Room…
“Now on
the first day of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Where
will you have us prepare for you to eat the Passover?” He said, “Go into the
city to a certain man and say to him, ‘The Teacher says, My time is at hand. I
will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.’”
And the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the
Passover. When it was evening, he reclined at the table with the twelve. And as
they were eating, he said, “Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.”
And they were very sorrowful and began to say to him one after another, “Is it
I, Lord?”
He answered, “He who has dipped his hand in the dish with me will betray me.
The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the
Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not
been born.” Judas, who would betray him, answered, “Is it I, Rabbi?” He said to
him, “You have said so” (Matthew 26:17-25)
This is
the first time Jesus reveals that one of them will betray him. The Gospels had recorded that he knew one was
a betrayer, but he shocked them by making it public. They all wondered in their words, “Is it I,
Lord?”. Jesus had a common washing
dish for which they had all participated, and Jesus reminds Judas in words that
only Judas could have known were meant for him - “woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is
betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.” Judas, I believe disingenuously, replied “is
it I, Rabbi”, and Jesus said, “You have said so”. It’s all so sobering to read. God has purposed and Jesus had carried out the
plan, yet Judas of his own free will had betrayed Jesus to the authorities, and
we are gripped by Jesus’ words of warning.
Now the
Passover meal – a Seder – continued. The
other Gospels are unclear, but John seems to say that Judas was still
there. John’s Gospel reminds us that
Jesus washed the feet of his disciples in the Upper Room and taught them about
what it meant to serve one another in love.
The text gives us the institution of the Eucharist – Holy Communion.
“Now as
they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it
to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.”
And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink
of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out
for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you I will not drink again of this
fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s
kingdom” (Matthew 26:26-29).
The
Seder meal was rich in symbols. Food included
lamb, bitter herbs, wine, and unleavened bread.
The book of Exodus records God’s command to the people of Israel to
celebrate with a meal, songs of thanksgiving, and herbs to remind them that God
was redeeming them from the bitterness of slavery. Now, Jesus instituted a “new covenant” meal
which included the unleavened bread – which was bread without yeast, and yeast
was a symbol of sin. This bread is not
just bread, not just a symbol, but something that implies Jesus’ ongoing
presence in the Church of his body – “Now as they were eating, Jesus took
bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take,
eat; this is my body” (Matthew 26:26). It
was not without precedence. Jesus had
stirred the Jewish crowd when preaching in John 6 when he proclaimed himself “the
bread of life”. Then he said…
“I am
the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This
is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not
die.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this
bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the
world is my flesh.”
The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his
flesh to eat?”
So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of
the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.
Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will
raise him up on the last day.
For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.
Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.
As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever
feeds on me, he also will live because of me.
This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers
ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever” (John 6:48-58).
In the
Upper Room, Jesus gives to the disciples the words of the Eucharist. Jesus’ real presence will continue to be with
His people in the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. He adds that the cup – a chalice – will be
filled with wine – already an element in the Passover, (Seder), celebration.
Yet, now the chalice will contain the “blood of the covenant”. What was symbolically pictured in the lamb’s
sacrifice and blood being painted over the door of each Jewish home, is now
focused on Jesus Christ as God’s sacrifice who “is poured out for many for the
forgiveness of sin.” The sacrificial
death of Jesus that lay ahead was to be a sacrifice for the sins of many – for the
whole world. The words echo the prophet
Isaiah:
“Yet it
was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul
makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his
days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his
knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted
righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the
spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered
with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for
the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:10-12).
This night
that instituted the Lord’s Supper is not just symbolic, it is filled with
sacramental and theological understanding of Christ’s death as the
Messiah. If we did not have this night’s
record, we would have to conclude that Jesus’ death was an unfortunate
tragedy. But, because of this record, we
understand Jesus purposed the Eucharistic words that we celebrate today. Jesus’ body is given to us so that we might
receive the fullness of His broken body for us.
Jesus’ blood is received so that we might know the fullness of Christ’s
expiating sacrifice for our Sin. The
Eucharist established in the Upper Room has continued for about 2100 years and
gives us a long line of celebrating what Christ’s sacrifice has done for us.
Before the
evening ends, Jesus will leave the Upper Room, taking his disciples to the
Garden of Gethsemani. Gethsemani means “olive
press”. Here Jesus begins to realize the
weight of the sins of the world. We remember
that Jesus had never sinned, so he did not experience the shame, guilt, and judgment
that Sin carried until now. This was the
“cup” that he had to drink.
“And
going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if
it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as
you will” (Matthew 26:39).
After
awakening his sleeping disciples, he tells them to look, “See, the hour is
at hand, and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners” (Matthew
26:45). Judas is leading a band of
Roman soldiers and temple guards, all carrying their torches up the hill
towards Gethsemani. Judas led them into
the garden, and up to Jesus. “And he
came up to Jesus at once and said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” And he kissed him. Jesus
said to him, “Friend, do what you came to do.” Then they came up and laid hands
on Jesus and seized him” (Matthew 26:49-50).
The evening
of Thursday was giving way to the dark hours of Friday morning, and Jesus’
suffering was begun…all for us!
Peace
Comments