A Meal With Jesus & his Friends

  Jesu, Jesu, fill us with your love,

show us how to serve

the neighbours we have from you.

1 Kneels at the feet of his friends,

silently washes their feet,

master who acts as a slave to them.  R

Last year during Lent we studied Holy Week using the book Entering the Passion of Jesus by Amy Jill Levine. It is a revealing book, not lengthy, but filled with insight and information about the Jewish Passover, the festival that brought Jesus and his followers to Jerusalem. 

The fifth chapter considers the Last Supper, Jesus' final meal with his disciples and likely others, perhaps women and children.  This is the sacramental meal Christians call the Last Supper, or Holy Communion, or the Eucharist, but it is rooted in the Jewish meal of deliverance from slavery in Egypt which was a communal meal.  

Many Christian congregations that once acknowledged only Good Friday during this week now hold Maundy Thursday services as well, a recognition of the importance of that meal. I mentioned last year that there is a book called The Holy Thursday Revolution by Beatrice Bruteau which posits that Christians need to reconsider the paradigm of this week, giving greater importance -- perhaps central importance -- to the two aspects of this day, the footwashing during the supper and the meal itself. 

While I still consider the crucifixion as the pivotal salvific event of this week, over time I've come to appreciate how important both footwashing and the meal are to our understanding of Christ's Passion. And that a Passover or Pesach meal would hold both celebration and solemnity.

This evening we'll be part of the Maundy Thursday meal gathering followed by worship at Trenton United Church. I'll recall the many services we held on this evening in different congregations with affection. In their own quiet way they were revolutionary. 

I appreciate these profound thoughts and this image from Diana Butler Bass 

Sabbath. A vision of the kingdom of God. The meal reminds us and continues the promise.

What if Maundy Thursday was that? The Last Supper of the Old World. The last meal under Rome, the last meal under any empire. And it is the First Feast of the Kingdom That Has Come. The first meal of the new age, the world of mutual service, reciprocity, equality, abundance, generosity, and unending thanksgiving. Pass the cup, keep it going, hand to hand, filled and refilled, time after time. This night is the final night of dominion, the end of slavery; and this night is the first night of communion, the beginning of true freedom: “I will no longer call you servants but friends.”